Best backup techniques for FCP X

[Cyrus Dowlatshahi]

Hi Matthew,

I, too, am looking for an easy backup solution.

I’m making a feature-length documentary, shooting on the 5d, I’m going to have a LOT of footage over the next 12 months.

While I transcode the h264 to ProRes for editing, I am backing up only this:

– the 5d’s CF cards (i.e. the h264 media, which can be anywhere from 10GB to 50GB per shoot day)
– the FCP X Events and Projects folders (i.e. my work).

Unfortunately it’s not as straight-forward as it used to be. All the sequences, edits, markers, notes, and logging info used to be contained within one, relatively small FCP 7 project file. The render files were stored separately and could be easily discarded and recreated.

With FCP X the logging info/keywords/metadata for my media is stored in the Events folders. My edits are stored in Project folders. Both of these are my “work” and thus need backing up. Worse, some render files (transcoded media) are stored in the Events folder while others (render files created when color corrections are applied) are stored in the Projects folder.

I do not want to back up these render files, and so at the end of each day, backing up my work requires sifting through folders manually…. not the simple drag and drop operation that I would prefer.

[Steve Connor]

I was hoping someone would come up with an automated third party solution for this

“My Name is Steve and I’m an FCPX user”

[Craig Seeman]

All this is why I can’t help but think there’s going to be a “brain” (server?) solution to all this. There will have to be some sort of database/metadata manager utility that will tie projects to events such that media can be taken offline and reconstituted. Either Apple will develop this or, as they release “the hooks” to control this, third parties will develop competitive solutions ranging from desktop to facility based.

Currently you can copy a project with only used media to a new Event. Of course this means keeping the media online. I do think you can bring back an Event by reimporting the media but I haven’t tried this yet. Note the Modify Event References feature. One can reconnect with an Event, just not individual clips. It is Events that go Online/Offline.

[Cyrus Dowlatshahi]

You definitely have to be careful when moving/copying Events, since the disks your media and Events reside are relevant to the reconnect function (i.e. ‘Modify Event References’). I hate that we have to use this workaround to move Events/media between computers:

https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/fcp_x_managing_disk_image_martin.html

For the time being, I am simply trying to backup my media and the work that I do, while taking the adequate precautions against hard drive failure.

[Matthew Celia]

The best option I see now is either using Steve Martin’s Disk image method and manually copying at the end of every day (maybe an Automator action can do this) or setting Time Machine to backup the events and projects folder. It’s just annoying to have to keep yet another copy of the 1.5TB of media I already have.

I have tried to “reconnect” by reimporting media into event references but it does not work, or is not reliable enough (meaning I could not get it to work) to be a satisfying option. Not to mention, losing your event would also mean losing the hours of key wording and logging one has done. It seems that changing event references is only good for taking a copy of the media on the road, working with it a bit and then bringing it back off the travel drive and onto my main edit drive. I can tell the project file (which I move) to now reference the event off the edit drive instead of the travel drive so I can get back my maximum performance. Still means I need to take a travel drive equal in size to my edit drive, which gets costly. If any one has a detailed step by step way to take only proxy files, let me know. This is one area where I wish FCPX would let me know a bit more about what is going on under the hood.

I, too, am editing a feature length doc using FCP X (I know, I know – but it really is great for this kind of work) and guess the best solution is to pick up a cheap USB HD to use as a backup. I’ve had great luck with the phenomenally cheap Western Digital Element drives.

—————-
FCP Guru
http://www.fcpguru.com

[Cyrus Dowlatshahi]

As far as the proxy workflow, I found this thread (that contains a link to a second thread)…. but have not tested it myself:

https://www.larryjordan.biz/app_bin/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=509&sid=0a98b69df7dcc363784b90bc5732b80b

For now I am using Steve Martin’s technique. However, I really do not like operating this way..

[Craig Seeman]

I just tried an interesting experiment.

I have an Event in which the Original Media folder has aliases to ProRes files stored elsewhere on the same hard drive. I copied the referenced file to a different hard drive and deleted the media (not the alias) from the hard drive where it had been previously located.

FCPX opened and the file was available. It did not go offline. I noticed a new alias was automatically created in the Event Original Media folder as it apparently the alias found the media now existing on another hard drive.

Notice this post by Noah Kadner as well.
https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/335/15523

Given both my test with alias and Noah’s with replacing offline media, it would see that as long as the original file can be put back into the event or the alias can find it elsewhere, it should be easy to reconstitute a project. Of course I don’t know how reliable this method is but if the above is true and you back up your media in such a way that it can be brought back, you should be able to take Events/Projects Offline and bring them back Online.

[Cyrus Dowlatshahi]

“It works… but you’d think there was a better way” is a quote from that same thread.

I would add:

“It’s working now, but I don’t know why.”

Bugs. Hate em.

[Tangier Clarke]

What I’d like to know is some way to see how much a project and it’s media takes up so I can employ Steve’s archive to disk image method. Essentially a feature like media manager that’ll tell me the size in MB or GB.

Tangier