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Purging obsolete render files
I’ve read the manual and searched the COW archives and still need a little guidance here. I’d like to get rid of all the obsolete render files for a particular project. By “obsolete” I mean superceded by more recent renders. I’m still in the middle of the project; this is to streamline my backup. How do I do this? Does Render Manager indicate which files are obsolete? Would the easiest way to do this be to set my Undo pref to 0 and then save the project? Would doing that purge the obsolete files from my scratch disk?
Thanks. –Fred -
10 Replies
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The easiest way is to go into your scratch disk using Finder. Erase ALL render files for that project. When you come back to Final Cut it will tell you they’re missing. Say ok and then re-render your entire project.
Do this right before you leave for the night. By the next morning you’ll be all set with just the current render files and nothing more.
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GO to Tools > Render Manager and you can then choose which render files to delete.
Jeremy
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Hey Jeremy — I just went into Render Manager and all I see there under the sequence I’m concerned with is one entry that is called “Video.” I assume that’s all the render files for that sequence. But I don’t want to delete them all, just the ones that have been superceded. –Fred
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Thanks for the suggestion. But ‘m reluctant to do that because if anything goes wrong with the rerender I’m left with no render files at all. Plus I’d like to purge obsolete files every time I do a backup which is at least once a day, so purging is not just a one-shot deal. I’m working in uncompressed, so the render files are pretty big. How about the idea of setting the undo pref to 0? Won’t Final Cut then just purge all unnecessary render files automatically?–Fred
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Open the render manager, then open the files from your previous sequences, and delete those.
If you have only one sequence, then delete that and rerender. It’s the only way to be sure.
Jeremy
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FCP deletes unused render files everytime they are either beyond the undo total, or you quit the app, which also purges the udo cache.
But here’s the thing, even if just one frame is still used in some sequence, then that render file is going to be kept. Even if it’s 2 hours long.
I’m with everyone else. Simply delete your render files. Either via render manager, or the sure fire way, the finder. Rerender.
Why does this worry you?
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Thanks for the good tip. It worries me to delete render files because I’m working in uncompressed and renders can take a couple of hours. Plus if a drive went down in the middle of a re-render after I’d deleted all my render files, I’d be missing a key element of the project. It seems counterintuitive to delete all my files when what I’m really wanting to do is back them up. The other problem with uncompressed is that it’s almost impossible to see an effect until it’s rendered. So I have a lot of interim render files. Then, at the end of a long day, what I really want to do is back up only the files that I still need. Although I understand your logic, I just don’t want to delete those files that took me so long to acquire.
Maybe my workflow is the issue.
I really do appreciate your help.
–Fred
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When I’m editing a longer project with many revised sections I usually just leave all the past render files in place right up to the point that the picture is locked. At that time I go to render manager, delete ALL of the render files and re-render everything new. It’s pretty safe. I’ve been doing it that way for years and never had a single problem. It will often improve your playback upon output as well since in most cases your drives will be less fragmented since all of the new render files are recorded to your discs in the correct order. (assuming you have that much continuous, free space on them) At any rate there should be less fragmentation on playback. The discs don’t have to work as hard especially when using 10 bit UC.
And I usually take the opportunity to perform an audio mix down at the same time. This will also help in playback.
It’s all easy, reliable and it works. Don’t worry. Just back up your project file…always a good idea anyway.
Tom -
Yeah, I still don’t understand what he’s worried about losing. Even if the system crashed. A drive could crash at any time. And if the system crashes during render, just rerender.
And I’m pretty sure FCP cleans up unused render files on quit. But I could be wrong. Easy enough to test. Maybe tonight.
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Thanks for this. It makes a lot of sense. –Fred
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