Too many projects in one library

[Jeremy Garchow]

27? That seems really low.

A current library has 113 Projects in it, and it’s not even that crazy busy of a library, and yes, that Event takes some time to load sometimes, but that’s the way it’s always been. And once it’s loaded and opened, it doesn’t take as long to load the next time. It’s the way it is in Pr too, and FCP7, the more sequences the longer it takes to load.

I don’t have a hard number, but 27 seems like it shouldn’t cause too much harm unless there’s something else going on with analyzation or slow plugins.

[Oliver Peters]

[Jeremy Garchow] “I don’t have a hard number, but 27 seems like it shouldn’t cause too much harm unless there’s something else going on with analyzation or slow plugins.”

I would image it’s a combination of number and length, i.e. total amount of links. 27 commercial Projects would obviously be less than 27 feature-length Projects.

The OP also mentions that the Library is on the Desktop. I wonder if performance would be better if the Library were in the Movies or Documents folder rather than on the Desktop. In my experience macOS has issues with having a ton of files on the Desktop. Since a Library is a container with a ton of files within and not a binary file, that could be a factor, too.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Oliver Peters] “I would image it’s a combination of number and length, i.e. total amount of links. 27 commercial Projects would obviously be less than 27 feature-length Projects.”

Of course. I edit more than commercials. ????

Events with lots of Projects (and longer projects) do take a bit to load, but nothing prohibitive. And, once it’s loaded it’s usually loaded (unless you restart FCPX).

Not sure on the desktop vs folder. I only run quick test libraries from the desktop. It would be a very easy test to simply move the library to a folder.

Also, cache location does make a difference in speed. I try and keep caches on the internal SSD.

[Claude Lyneis]

The more items on the desktop, the slower the system finishes booting up. This is very noticeable if you don’t have some version of an SSD for the internal drive. The system has to treat the desktop differently. So it just a guess, but putting the library on the desktop would not be the best idea.

[Bret Williams]

Putting the library on your system drive seems like a bad idea in general.

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https://BretFX.com FCP X Plugins & Templates for Editors & Motion Graphics Artists

[Jeremy Garchow]

All my libraries and cache are on my system drive.

They run at nearly 1TB/sec, any system overhead is a blip.

[Bret Williams]

To each their own of course. Speed isn’t my worry. Backup would be. And space. I’m not sure aid want to rely on Time Machine for a restore in a system drive crash. And my internal is only 500gigs. But even a 2TB internal is going to fill up quickly. I’m frequently dealing with 500-800gig projects (not including render caches).

I keep all libraries / media on my raid 5. By default the libraries get backed up to the system drive. By default all the caches stay on the raid. And no need to pay Apple tax on large internal system drive.

That said, I kinda wish I had a larger internal on the laptop for the occasional road edit. But I’d rather have a SSD raid 5. Looking at the one from OWC so I can have a more portable raid with the same insane speed as the MBPro internal, but with raid 5 protection.

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https://BretFX.com FCP X Plugins & Templates for Editors & Motion Graphics Artists

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Bret Williams] “To each their own of course. “

But of course!

[Bret Williams] “I’m frequently dealing with 500-800gig projects (not including render caches). “

I keep my media on separate storage (all media in libraries are external, and not managed).

I have constant backups going, and the FCPX backup folder is automagically uploaded to the cloud.

Space is a consideration, but since I rarely render, it’s manageable. Libraries are usually pretty small, and the cache can grow, but it’s easy to delete unneeded render media out of it.

My backup folders do NOT include my cache folder and I keep all caches external to the library, and all going to one “FCPX_Cache” folder on my SSD system drives for easy browsing, trashing, and selective deleting.

[Bret Williams]

That’s exactly all the work I avoid by simply putting the library on the raid 5. Copy media to raid from card. Then create library on raid. Automatically backed up on raid plus a separate drive (system) for the library. No worry about where the caches are or where the media is. Which means no accidental files on the system drive. I can also consolidate projects instantly because the media is on the same drive, creating a consolidated, no-relinking library to hand off or archive. Everything is also in one single folder on the raid.

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https://BretFX.com FCP X Plugins & Templates for Editors & Motion Graphics Artists

[Mark Suszko]

Am I doing it wrong? I make a new library for every new job that comes in, and keep all related media and projects together with it. It just seemed more intuitive to me that way, but I’m willing to be schooled.