Which Event and Project Folders can I delete after exporting to save space

Hello All,

I am trying to optimize my disk space usage and I was curious which folders in a given Final Cut Event and Final Cut Project can you outright delete after you are "done" with them (by this I mean getting rid of everything except what you would need to "reconstitute" the project as it original was in its finished form.

It looks to me like in a given Final Cut Event you can delete the Transcoded Media Folder, the Render Files folder, and in the Final Cut Event you can delete the Render Files folder (which is probably what the delete all project render files does in the menu). Is this correct? If so I could cut down like 90% of my space which would be fantastic; thanks!

As long as you kept your original media your fine to delete what you mention and recreate them later if you want.

But take careful note on how the original media has been treated. If the files were imported and "Copy files to Final Cut events folder" wasn't checked you will have alias files in the "Original media" folder and the actual files they link to elsewhere on a drive.

If so you need to keep both.

I forgot to add, I've assumed when you wrote...

"It looks to me like in a given Final Cut Event you can delete the Transcoded Media Folder, the Render Files folder, and in the Final Cut Event you can delete the Render Files folder (which is probably what the delete all project render files does in the menu)."

...the second time you mention the Final Cut Event you mean project. This is what delete project render files does right enough. Did you notice that if you select an event the menu option changes to "Delete Event Render Files"? This of course does the same in the event render files folder.

Okay thanks for the information; very helpful. So; if I want to maximize my performance while I am editing a current project, I would want to create optimized media, and then when I am done and the project is exported, I can delete that optimized media; knowing that I can regenerate it if i need to later, correct?

That's right, and it will let you keep your storage space of archived projects/events to a minimum.

Excellent; this is great news; thanks!

No problem, but make sure your 100% certain about what's going on with your original media before deleting any optimised media.

I always checked "copy my my media" to FCP on import so I think I'm all good. The only thing I have left to investigate is the "shared media" folders that I see in a few of my directories.

Do you mean "Shared Items"? I'm not 100% that you'll always be ok to delete everything here. If you use the share menu to export to YouTube this is where the export gets saved, if that is the case you can delete it or keep it as an archive depending on what you prefer.

But I don't know what all sharing methods do with this folder, i.e. I've never shared to the media browser. Perhaps if you do, then delete here and expect something to appear in an app such as garageband you may have wanted to keep it. That's if it is where it saves it anyway.

It could worth spending a bit of time looking into what goes on here, I think I will when I get the time.

Another folder that can get created worth noticing is the "Analysis Files" folder in the event. It contains any optical flow, colour match, stabilisation etc. files. If not sometimes essential there could be some stuff in there that's just more convenient to keep than to delete.

Yes I do; and I think you are right because I notice that this directory only has a .mov file in it for the one project that I actually did a direct share to youtube for (I now just export manually and upload later); thus I do think it is safe to delete this - it appears just to be an archive of my silent "export" before the built in youTube upload.

Also, I've been reading articles like this:
www.macprovideo.com/hub/final-cut/fcp-x-...with-optimized-media

which seem to suggest that if you have a fast setup the best thing should be to just not create optimized media at all (unless you notice editing lags); as when you finally do your export, the project gets converted to ProRes 422 anyway (so not having your clips converted to this prior doesn't affect finished project).

Does that sound correct? Thanks again!

"thus I do think it is safe to delete this - it appears just to be an archive of my silent "export" before the built in youTube upload. "

That's what it is, it is safe to delete it for sure if you don't want to keep it.

Over the last year I've had back and forward workflow changes in relation to original media.

First I should say that I don't have a particularly fast mac, but with a good workflow in FCPX it does run very smooth. Mid 2011 2.5GHz i5, 12GB RAM, HD 6650 512 MB graphics, WD 2TB MyBook Studio II Firewire 800 Raid 0, OSX 10.8.1

If editing with original files that use highly compressed codecs such as AVCHD I've been finding the restrictions to kick in very early and that the difference when working with optimised media makes a massive difference. There are many effects/transitions that are fine with the original media, a number that need the ProRes and a number that need rendering either way.

But thats a bit irrelevant, the main thing is how it edits. If I'm editing in a primary storyline I can work away with highly compressed original media no problem, if I stick the odd connected clip on there it's ok, but if I get get a bit heavy on them or have a couple stacked on top of each other simple playback gets affected and I really need to be working with optimised media.

Next upgrade I'll be going i7, I think that should probably be enough to make the basic editing phase workable with original media.

I come from an Avid background where I like to get my edit streamlined. I like to have everything possible in the primary storyline ready for trimming and only stuff that really needs to be connected, is connected.

I have a workflow I've been toying with that I'd like to be using. If/when FCPX introduces the ability to optimise the material used in a timeline only, preferably with handles, I'll edit with original media then optimise what I've used ready for effects/colour work.

I'm liking the sound of working like that, but currently I am, and might as well be, optimising from the start.

Hi -

I wrote the article at macProVideo.com about optimized media, and yes, I would recommend not transcoding unless you're having issues. By all means, run your own tests, but I saw hardly any gain from transcoding from DSLR H.264 footage on my Mac Pro 2009.

Just then I played 4 simultaneous 1080p movies (on top of one another, set to varying opacities) with no problem. Adding Gaussian Blur to each made it slow, but reducing to Better Performance instead of High Quality returned it to full speed.

Good to hear NocoDave's experiences with his slower Mac, though. AVCHD may indeed cause more problems than DSLR footage, and if you stack many layers on top of each other that could cause problems as well. I'd also recommend transcoding multicam clips, but there's a separate preference setting for that already.

Probably the nearest thing to "optimize used media" would be to select each clip in a tricky part of the timeline, press Shift-F to find the clip in Events, then right click the now-highlighted clip and Transcode it. Repeat as needed.

Just to add, I haven't actually done any specific testing. It's just my observations on working and that I tend to be working with 1080 50p, 1080 25p, 1080 24p or these frame rates mixed.

Also that the reason my workflow has been changing in relation to original media is that out of convenience I was working with it on quick simple projects and I got a bit of surprise.

I just replicated Iain's 4 connected clip, various opacity, gaussian blur tests to see how that went on my machine.

I used 4x30 second 1080 50p clips, and obviously no rendering.

With playback set at better performance I can playback without skipping frames. But with the gaussian blur enabled for all, at default settings, I can play back 2. the primary storyline and 1 connected clip.

Doing the same tests with the media optimised, just like Iain, I'm getting similar results to using the original media, there's not a great deal of difference.

This is surprising as on the last half dozen or so projects I've been working on I've been experimenting with the original media. I've been working away until frames start skipping then I'm just optimising everything to get it out the road and instantly the skipped frames go and I can continue working for the duration of the basic editing and normally well into any effects/colour work before needing to render anything. Often all the way through too.

I'm currently working on something that is just about finished. It's not effect heavy. It's a 12 minute, mixed frame rate, 3 camera shoot. But I've not been working in the angle editor. Due to the nature of this I was skipping frames quite early and reached the point where I created the optimised media a while back, still in the editing stages. Since then I've got right through all effects/graphics/colour work without the need to render anything.

When it's done I'll delete the optimised media and see how it plays back with the original media.

Thanks for checking — there are plenty of variables in the mix and it's good to know you're also getting (mostly) good performance with native media. For some people, the bottleneck will be the CPU/GPU, and for others their storage. Transcoding makes processing easier, but making the files bigger doesn't help with transfer speed issues.

Just wondering — do you have Background Render turned on? While it normally doesn't hurt, if it's on it's going to give great performance as soon as the timeline renders, potentially messing up your tests. On my Mac I leave it turned off, as there's good performance without rendering and I'm likely to add an adjustment layer at the end and force a re-render anyway.

One other thing is the separate preference to optimize multicam media. If you're mostly working with multicam clips, they may well transcode even if other clips don't.

Looking forward to any future tests you do. Looks like it's working well for you at the moment, though.

I think working with original media is very promising, it's perhaps just not quite there for me yet. It's funny you mention CPU/GPU, when I was doing that test I was wondering if it was more down to CPU or GPU. Next iMac I'll be going beefier on both anyway.

I don't have background rendering on ever and while this was a 3 camera shoot I never used the angle editor, I just edited in a normal timeline starting off with original un-rendered media before reaching the point of optimising.

As with everyone I'm sure I'll go thunderbolt one day, but I've also experimented with disabling the dropped frame warning while keeping the dropping frames due to disk performance warning on. Even with firewire 800 raid 0 only reasonably intense effects drop frames due to disk performance without rendering. But I've not experimented with effects on original media yet. Thanks for your article and posts here, due to these and my comparative tests I will start to do so.

I'm curious about how this current projects playback will compare with ProRes v's AVCHD. Most clips have been overwritten to the primary storyline now, but there are still sections that should offer some sort of comparison.