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FCPX issue: issue merging events (duplicate media with same name)
So I’m having the issue that a lot of people seem to be having based on my Google searches. I have a lengthy list of events as well as a lengthy list of projects all for one client. I’d like to merge all of the events so I can organize my hard drives a bit better. The issue is that these events were created over a period of 2 years so I’m not surprised at all that there is some duplicate media. I did 2 sweeps through my events looking for clips that appeared to be duplicated and deleted them but I’m still getting the warning that the events can’t be merged because there is duplicate media with the same name.
I have quite a few events so this is like finding a needle in a haystack. Is there an easier way around this? Apple was great about searching for missing events when media goes offline. I’m not sure why they didn’t apply this same thing when trying to weed out duplicate media.
Thanks
Shane Trowbridge
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18 Replies
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Other than a few duplicate files, how is merging events going to help you organize your drives better? Seems like having one big event is the exact opposite of organized. That’s like me saying I’d like to get organized and take all my FCP 7 projects and bins and just combine them into one big bin with a buch of sequences. Certainly doesn’t help FCPX performance all being online like that.
But doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be a way.
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Merging of Events, while it sounds like an awesome idea, I find in practice, to be lacking a bit of control.
It’s understandable as there’s a lot that goes in to merging of Events. There is too much duplication, and not enough actual merging.
Have you tried making a new “super” event and simply dragging everything in to it?
Once that’s complete, be sure to “Organize” the Event to bring in any rogue media files.
This will create one Event with everything in it, including all media. You will also have to “Modify Event References” on the subsequent projects to the new Event.
There are caveats to this. Keyword collections seem to come over, Smart Collections, however, do not. Compound clips can also be tricky, if you have any of those.
It will require a fair amount of storage as the media might get duplicated in to the new super Event.
Perhaps tell us a bit more about what exactly it is you need to do, and why a single Event will help you stay organized.
Jeremy
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Bret you make a good point. Since this has been an ongoing project I was a little sloppy in keeping my event titles consistent with numbering and titling. It’s tripped me up a few times since I often use the different events for different projects. Though I was a bit sloppy with creating the events I was very accurate with my keywording. So I thought I would go ahead and merge the events and streamline things a bit. Plus it’s just visually easier to look at one merged event within the finder instead of a huge long list of them.
Shane
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Jeremy I like your idea of a super event. To answer your question since this has been an ongoing project I was a little sloppy in keeping my event titles consistent with numbering and titling. It’s tripped me up a few times since I often use the different events for different projects. Though I was a bit sloppy with creating the events I was very accurate with my keywording. So I thought I would go ahead and merge the events and streamline things a bit. Plus it’s just visually easier to look at one merged event within the finder instead of a huge long list of them.
I’ve not relied on smart collections for anything so I’m not worried about that. As long as I don’t lose my keywording I’m cool.
How do I go about creating the super event and “dragging” the media over. Am I just dragging all of the transcoded clips into the folder or do I have to drag all of the other event folders and info over too. How do I do that correctly?
Shane
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This will be a bit of a trial as I am not sure exactly how you have things setup.
Do you have plenty of storage handy? How much space do your Events take up, and how much space is free?
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I have all of my media on an external hard drive.
The events I want to merge contain 253GB of media. I have 2TB of available space left on the drive to work with.And everything is backed up on a secondary drive in case everything gets jacked up ; )
Shane
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[Shane Trowbridge] “And everything is backed up on a secondary drive in case everything gets jacked up ; )”
Perfect.
Then I would make a new Event on the drive you want everything to now reside.
Then select a current Event (click on the top level of it so that everything is available, that is to say, don’t have a keyword selected), select all, which will select all the clips in that Event, and then drag them to the newly created Event.
Tell me what happens.
Jeremy
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It appears to have worked!
I moved over clips from a few of the events and they all kept their keywording. It still won’t let you move over duplicate clips (or different clips that happen to have the same name) but it’s a heck of a lot easier to find the needle on the hay stack using your technique.
Thanks for your help!
Shane
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Sure.
Once that is complete, I would use the “Organize” command and then once it finishes copying anything it needs to copy, quit FCPX.
On your hard drive, make a new folder and name it “Final Cut Events OFFLINE” or HIDDEN or whatever.
Move the Events folders that you don’t want anymore in to that OFFLINE folder.
Launch FCPX.
What happens?
If your Projects are offline, you should point them at the new ‘Super Event’ by selecting them one by one in the Project Browser. In the inspector there should be a button called “Modify Event References”. Click it and drag the new Super Event at the top of list and click OK.
Let me know how it goes.
Jeremy
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I’m not sure I understand what the organize command does. I don’t want to do anything with that until I better understand what it does. Can you explain?
Shane
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