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Activity Forums Apple Final Cut Pro Workflow issue: duplicate clips

  • Workflow issue: duplicate clips

    Posted by Jiri Fiala on June 8, 2026 at 8:01 pm

    I have one rather annoying workflow issue. When dragging clips between Libraries in FCPX, it creates duplicates of the clips that are already in the destination. h

    It’s a multi-day shoot (like 30 days) of a 16-episode series (multicam, dual system audio). Thousands of clips.

    I’m not getting all media at once, it’s in batches. I use one library with multiple events (one shooting day=one event). then I use keywords to tag clips by episode, and then create a library-level Smart keyword to gather all clips for a specific episode.

    Then I create a new Library where the events are Episodes, not Shoot days. I drag all clips from Smart keyword containing clips for, say, episode 12, into the new Library->Episode 12 event.

    Problem is, as I’m getting the footage gradually, many clips are already there! Unless I’m super dilligent (which is impossible), this creates duplicate clips in the target events, Some have ” 1″ appended to clip name but some don’t.

    An ability to have Keywords shown in the Browser List view would fix it, but that doesn’t exist. I’m sure some combination of keywords and smart keywords can get me there, but I’m at a loss.

    Any tips or ideas? Thanks!

    Ben Balser
    replied 3 weeks, 1 day ago
    3 Members · 2 Replies
  • 2 Replies
  • Devrim Akteke

    June 9, 2026 at 9:18 am

    Hi, I tried to replicate your issue and see what is going on. There is a short video for the process. I hope I understood correctly and executed what you were trying to do. I didn’t see the problem you faced, so please let’s talk about it to clear the issue.

  • Ben Balser

    July 3, 2026 at 11:37 pm

    I don’t understand clearly what you’re doing and where you’re seeing duplicate. Some screen shots or a video would help.

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