FCP not working because my disk is full

HHow is the WD formatted? Did you move the library to the WD? How much free space is on the system drive?

The hard drive should be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

Select the drive in the Finder and press Command-I. You should see something like this:

If the drive is not formatted as Mac OS Extended, use Disk Utility to reformat it. ***This will erase everything in the drive***.

Close FCP X, and drag your library to the external drive using the Finder to copy it. Once the copy completes you may erase the original to reclaim space on your system drive.

Double-click the copied library in the Finder and it will open in FCP X.

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Beth-FilmLOVE wrote:

It is formatted like that but I couldn't move my library over,

Why is that? All you'd have to do is drag in the Finder from one place to another. What exactly happened?

Beth-FilmLOVE wrote:

It is formatted like that but I couldn't move my library over, the only thing in my library is my project that I am working on, in order to free space I deleted all of my library because I have all my footage in photos but even after that my computer is still saying my start up disk is full and FCP doesn't work well.... do I need to move all of my footage that I have in my photos over to WD my passport?

First of all, it is not a good idea to start deleting things without thinking it through.

Second of all, how did you go about deleting things from your library? If you delete a clip from an event, it is only moved to the trash, and even that is only if it is not being used in some project. You still need to empty the trash, like you would when deleting something in the Finder.

It sounds like you have your video files stored in the Photos application's library and when you imported them into FCP you chose the Leave in Place option tn the import dialog. If that isn't what you did please ignore the remainder of this reply.

If you haven't emptied the Trash, drag it (or use the Put Back command) to its original location. Open FCP and create a new library in the WD drive. Then se select the original library and drag the project to the new library. You will now have the project on two drives – both linked to your Photos library. With the new library selected, go to the Inspector and click the Consolidate button. This will bring copies of the actual media into the library.

Test the project in the new library to make sure it's working. If it is,open Photos and delete the movie. Then close Photos.

Re-opent the WD library in FCP and again test that the project is working.

Re-open Photos and from the File menu choose Show Recently Deleted. If you now delete the clips they will now be completely removed from your hard drive and additional storage space will be freed up..

It's actually preferable to avoid using Photos (or iPhoto) libraries for video.

Russ

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Yes. That's the generally recommended practice.

Russ

Beth-FilmLOVE wrote:

Thank you okay one last question I promise

if I move my videos over to WD and delete the videos in iPhotos will my computer stop notifying me that the start up disk is full? Like was it the videos that was taking up all my space?

Yes it will help greatly.

Also FCP X can generate Optimised files that can be larger in size than the originals.

Once you move the Library to the external drive and delete the one on your system drive (after making sure all works correctly) you should get some space back.

Al

The usual rule of thumb is to keep at least 15% of the start up disk free. That would be a good target to aim for in moving your video to an another drive. (In re-reading this thread I see that your WD drive is also getting full, so I suggest you do some calculations on how much aggregate space your movie files will take up before copying. It's inevitable that you will have to buy additional storage capacity if you intend to work on new video projects.

Once you completely delete the videos in Photos, hopefully you will have freed up enough space to enable you to at least complete the current project However, please remember to verify that your projects work correctly when using the externally located media before you delete anything. Also, deleting files from Photos (or iPhoto) is a two step process. (Which photo app are you using? Earlier, I gave info that assumed you were using Photos.)

Russ

http://www.imore.com/how-delete-images-and-videos-photos-os-x#delete