Managing Backups of FCPX Events

[Tom Wolsky]

Use Carbon Copy Cloner as a drive backup. Pro Version for event backup. You can reimport from the event if the media crashes. Not sure how well this worlds with synced media.

All the best,

Tom

“Final Cut Pro X for iMovie and Final Cut Express Users” from Focal Press
“Complete Training for FCPX” from Class on Demand
Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP7,” “Basic Training for FCS” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”

[Loren Risker]

I don’t have an elegant solution, but I’ve found this method very reliable.

Close FCPX and go to the finder. Copy your event folder to your second drive. I skip copying transcoded media and high quality render files to save space.

That’s a great backup. FCPX won’t let you open both at once, so make sure to store the backup anywhere but in your FCP events folder.

If you don’t add any media and just do organizing, you can just copy the new CurrentVersion.fcpevent to your backup folder. I prefer to keep all CurrentVersion.fcpevent, so I just name the old one something like 071212CurrentVersion.fcpevent, store it in the backups folder, and move the newest CurrentVersion.fcpevent. That file should be small enough to email yourself or store in the cloud somewhere. Please keep in mind that if you have 2 .fcpevent files in the root of your event folder, then FCPX will open up whichever one it wants regardless of name. So make sure to only have one .fcpevent in the root, and the rest in backups.

When you open your backup, if you’ve added media only the clips you added will be offline. Then it should be easy enough to drop in the appropriate ones to fill it out.

So after a edit session where you’ve added media, close FCPX. Move your original copy out of the events folder. Move your backup in the events folder. Open up FCPX, drag the missing clips in, wait for the copy, and your backup is now up to date.

If someone has a smoother solution, please let us know.
Hope this helps!

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OutOfFocus.TV – Music videos, docs, entertainment.

[Michael Hofeldt]

Thanks a lot. This is basically what i’m doing now with ChronoSync, but it is able to tell what’s missing from the Target location and just copy those files that have changed.

It seems the Original Media and .fcpevent are the critical pieces and optionally one can manage the transcoded/proxy media as well. I’ve been doing a right-click on the .fcpevent and choosing Compress, then date-stamping the name of the zip archive.

I had also considered labeling the media files in finder with one of the colors after copying it to backup. that way, any new (not backed up yet) media imported would be easily identifiable in finder.

I appreciate the insight on moving things in and out of the root folder as needed as I have had some conflicts before with backups. thanks for clarifying.

In the end, I guess it’s a few extra steps, none terribly cumbersome, and well worth the peace of mind.

Thanks!

[Andres Haldemyr]

I think I like your solution. I kind of intuitively understand what you mean, but don’t really get it.

1. I understand when you copying the whole event folder to another hard drive you would not copy the transcoded media, because you should have backed them up somewhere else, in case the “transcoded media files hard drive” goes wrong, you have them backed up somewhere else and can immediately reconnect them to the running event.

2. But if you don’t copy the “high quality render files”, in case something goes wrong, you would miss these ones in the latest version?

3. I love the idea to email the CurrentVersionFCPevent to myself. Is that enough to have the full “editing instructions” backed up? Could you explain that again please, I don’t understand it really.

4. What about the project folder? No backups?

[Loren Risker]

1. It’s not necessary to copy or backup the render files folder or the transcoded media folder. Those can both be recreated as long as you have all the original media. The only downside is if you need to recreate them, it’ll cost you processing time so they won’t be available immediately.

What I do is copy just the fcpevent file and the original media folder, bring that home, and start a new transcode on my home computer immediately. By the time I’m ready to work the transcoded media and render files will be back, and I saved myself needing a larger hard drive to bring the backup home. If hard drive space and copy time aren’t an issue for you, you may find it’s easier to copy the transcoded media and render files so you don’t have to wait.

2. The high quality render files will come back after you render, so for me this isn’t an issue. If the render job took hours, it might then be an issue and worth the trouble copying.

Bottom line is, all you NEED is the fcpevent file and the original media in a folder with the same names as the original.

3. The fcpevent file contains all the organizing, keywording, syncing, compound clips, folder, everything you’ve done in the event. As long as you have all the original media, this file is all you need to transfer work you’ve done on your event. So after the initial backup is done, no need to carry an external hard drive. The original media is on both computers, and the fcpevent file is all you need to update changes.

4. Same goes for the project folder. All you need out of it is the fcpproject folder. Any edits you make or changes go in here. The render files can be recreated. Again, if you have a long render, you might find it beneficial to transfer the render files. But it isn’t needed if you can wait for the render.

Let me know if you need any more clarification. Backing up FCPX sounds a lot more complicated then it really is. Nearly everything useful is stored in either the fcpevent or fcpproject file.

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OutOfFocus.TV – Original series, music videos, and entertainment for your couch.

[Andres Haldemyr]

Thank you so much for the quick answer and detailed description, I will try it out tomorrow immediately and see what happens, but I think I got it now. Cheers

[Andres Haldemyr]

Thank you so much for the detailed description, I will try it out tomorrow immediately.

Edit: I tried it out and it worked perfectly. I could recover a small test event and project with this backup solution easily.

But I think I will use Clip Wrap to transcode, after having renamed the clips quickly with “name changer” making sure they are all different (New Name plus current number).
This way I have all my footage transcoded on the “working hard drive” and an exact copy on the “backup hard drive”. And when I copy the CurrentVersion.fcpevent plus the Original Media Folder they will be both very small (good for emailing). The Original Media Folder only will contain a very small “connection info” (72KB) for every clip but not the whole media file.

May be at the end of the editing process I could reconnect the whole film to the Original Camera Files. They have the same name but a different ending. In my case .mov and .mts
Transcoding has always a minimal quality loss – if this doesn’t matter, just leave it in ProRes.

What do you think about this procedure?
Cheers

[Loren Risker]

I’m not sure I fully understand what you’re doing with Clip Wrap, but if it works for you then great!

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OutOfFocus.TV – Original series, music videos, and entertainment for your couch.

[Andres Haldemyr]

Instead of transcoding in FCPX I use Clip Wrap or 5DtoRGB whatever you prefer and transcode all my footage before I start. This way the “Original Media” folder is very small and you can send it per email together with the Current Versionfcpevent file and even if you add files you are always up to date. My second hard drive is an exact copy of all the transcoded media, if something goes wrong I can continue immediately using CurrentVersionfcpevent, Original Files and the Second Hard Drive. Anyway thanks for your great hints, that is a brilliant easy backup solution for the way I work.