Backup

[Bill Davis]

I’d seen the Backup document, but had no idea how it worked.

This makes huge sense.

I agree that force corrupting your project to go back 15 minutes, is an iffy idea – but the fact that X is always storing a copy of your un-corrupted project so that if things DO go wrong somehow, the auto-recovery system will step in is very cool.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Shawn Bockoven]

10.03 did not save us and we never got the prompt to open the backup file. FCPX 10.03 would just crash on startup. I had to guess and check, manually removing one project at a time until I found the corrupt project. This was all happening while one of our more important clients was watching … very embarrassing.

[Andy Field]

This is about as useful as not having it at all. This is not progress

1 – a back up or auto save should be on a hard drive that doesn’t contain your project or media – so if that drive crashes – you can recover the project from another drive

2 – having something at saves just 15 minutes ago and erases all other versions — runs the risk of saving a copy of the same corrupted project file and replacing it every 15 minutes.

You won’t know if the file is corrupted until you quit and try to reload and voila – sorry file is corrupted…and hey, so is the only backup copy of the project you’ve spent days weeks months working on because it only saved one copy 15 minutes ago.

The MacBreak guys are great – but when they bemoan “all those auto save files piling up in legacy final cut” Those auto saves saved our bacon more times than I can recount over the years. They are tiny project files easily deleted when the projects are done.

Come on apple – make the autosave incremental and let us put it on another drive so we can control it and be able to look back as far as we want if we have to salvage a project

Andy Field
FieldVision Productions
N. Bethesda, Maryland 20852

[Chris Harlan]

[Andy Field] “all those auto save files piling up in legacy final cut” Those auto saves saved our bacon more times than I can recount over the years.”

Me too. I have been and continue to be extremely grateful for my FCP backup folders. The idea of not having that kind of resource terrifies me. I mean, it feels CRAZY not to have it.

[Jim Giberti]

It is crazy not to have it, and the 15 minute, hidden autosave is unfathomably misconceived.

TimeMachine is the only reliable autosave you have.

Why?

[Jason Porthouse]

When I had issues with a project and event I was cutting in X (caused by a 3rd party messing with something) the backup files saved the day. I couldn’t even open X, the file was that corrupted. BUT, every day at end of play I’d simply copy the backup file into a backups folder – mirroring the structure of the FCP Projects folder. I’d do this with the event too, if substantial changes had been made. I was able easily to pull out the last good backup of both files, rename as ‘CurrentVersion…’ and replace the corrupted files. X opened up fine, no issues, and we were good to go.

I would prefer an incremental autosave, keeping say the last day’s worth of files – and maybe some control over where they saved, or at least the option to nominate 2 save locations. That way a pen drive or external location could be nominated for backup – heck, even iCloud. But having said all that, for a little time spent at the end of each day (I’d always back up FCP7 projects manually at the end of the day to 2 separate locations) the backups I had worked, and got me out of the mire.

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Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes.

*the artist formally known as Jaymags*

[Kevin Patrick]

[Andy Field] “having something at saves just 15 minutes ago and erases all other versions”

Just to clarify, there is only one backup file? It constantly gets over written every 15 minutes? That’s what I found. I checked out a project and I only found 1 backup file for all the projects (sequences).

Why? Why go to the trouble of having a backup feature, but only one backup? As you say, what if you wind up with a backup of your corrupted project?

[Tony West]

[Jason Porthouse] “I’d simply copy the backup file into a backups folder”

This looks like a good habit Jason.

[Jason Porthouse]

[tony west] “This looks like a good habit Jason.”

You need to be organised, as all files have the same name. For Events, I create a backups folder with sub-folders for each project, and a date stamped folder within for each backup. For Projects, I simply drag the Project folder in to my backup, then delete the render folder from the backup to save disk space. Once I’ve done that initially, I’ll just replace the CurrentVersion file and backup folder (providing they’r known good) and that pretty much guarantees a working version is backed up. I do all that at Finder level, without X running. Once you’ve gotten your head around X’s file management structure it’s fairly straightforward, and certainly no more onerous than backing up in legacy. If you do then have to replace the project file, I just drag the corrupt (assuming it is) original to the desktop and replace with the CurrentVersion backup – or, if using X’s own backup file (which is datestamped) I dupe it and rename as ‘CurrentVersion’, then replace. Worked fine for me.

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Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes.

*the artist formally known as Jaymags*

[Jim Giberti]

[Jason Porthouse] “I’d simply copy the backup file into a backups folder – mirroring the structure of the FCP Projects folder. I’d do this with the event too, if substantial changes had been made. I was able easily to pull out the last good backup of both files, rename as ‘CurrentVersion…’ and replace the corrupted files. X opened up fine, no issues, and we were good to go.
“

In other words you had to figure out a back door way to do what Apple should have as part of it’s essential code.

The other thing, of course, is regular (or in your case daily) duplication of the project saved to another drive.

It all works, but in the 21st century, to be suddenly dealing with things that were resolved a loooong time ago – by the same company that seems to have now forgotten about proper backups – it’s kinda kooky.