New to FCP. Confused on workflow

Im a bit confused, is there a reason My FCP events folder shouldn't be on my boot drive if I;m storing all of my footage on a media drive? With premiere it was suggested to keep it on the boot drive.

I like to edit at home on my 4TB externals. Sometimes I edit on the road with a portable, so I'd like to be able to reconnect to my travel drive. Wouldn't storing the events drive on the media drive make this more difficult? If it's on my boot drive then I simply reconnect. Although, my 2nd time reconnecting took 2 hours for 12 clips?

Also, I've read that there are some problems using Compound Clips. Whats the consensus? I've made a few CC out of Multicam clips. I love the feature, but am scared of causing problems. Thanks for any tips! I'm loving the power of FCPX!

For smaller works you can have stuff in your boot drive but when the workload geta bigger, this tends to cause problems. I guess it's just too much shuffling from here to there for the HD. Same with compound clips - they are a great feature and FCPX can handle them well until you have too many, especially CCs inside CCs inside CCs... Decreases performance, you know. If you use them wisely they are a great tool, though.
Enjoy your learning! And keep in mind: if copying events/projects to another drive you should better do it inside FCPX instead of using the finder!

To avoid having to reconnect, simply hide the unused event whose media is on the desk drive while you're traveling. Do this manually or use Event Manager X.

Yes but ill need to reconnect the footage of the event i'm working on from my home media drive to my portable drive correct?

The advantage to having the events on my laptop is that I can just leave and reconnect without having to copy the event file. If I store the event on the home media drive, how would I take my work on the road?

No. If the event on the system drive us hidden FCP won't open it. When you connect to your home drive and put the system event back in its proper location the application while simply open and recognize the media where it's supposed to be.

What's the point of taking the event on the road without having the media? It's useless to you.

Im taking the media on a portable drive and pointing to that drive from the FCP Events folder on my boot drive of my laptop. When I get home I just point it back to the home drive. With premiere this worked fine, ut I've only done it once with FCPX. Is there a workflow problem with this approach?

So you have the event on the system drive and the copies of the media on two separate drives, one for travel and one for home system. This is a recipe for disaster. Something is going to slip somewhere, and you won't be able to reconnect, most likely as you say in a compound clip.

Where are your projects? On your system drive? They shouldn't be. They should be on your media drive as they carry the high res, high data rate render files.

Why not just put the event with the media in it on one drive that you connect to your computer whether you're at home or on the road?

There are two things to consider when you do this:

1. Every time you add new media files to your project while editing from one media drive you will also have to add the same media to your other media drive. This goes for any NLE, of course.

2. If you work on a large project the Project and Event folders on your MBP boot drive may fill up quite fast (e.g. with Render files) and your system may start to slow down. That's why in normal circumstances it is better to keep media and project files outside of the boot drive. This also goes for any other LE.

So if you won't add any new media to your Event, and if you only work with smaller projects, your workflow should be fine. Just work this way one project at a time, and when a project is finished move your Project and Event folders to a backup drive to keep your boot drive lean and clean. You can do this within FCPX with the Move Project command.

But like Tom says: it isn't a fail-safe workflow.

Just to add, the event won't automatically link to the media on a different drive. I think you have to relink manually in FCP to point it to the right media because the file path changes each time you change drive.

Thanks for the help guys! I changed the file structure on one drive before relinking in fcpx. Although everything in the drive was the same, it had a hard time linking. So I'm thinking the suggested way may be a better option.

If I put the events and projects on the media drive, what's the suggested workflow for moving them to a different drive? If I have the media files inside the events folder in two drives, can I simply move the event and project file over to the other drive in finder?

I'm actually testing this whole workflow right now on a real life project. Will get back to you in 10 minutes.

Sorry for the late reply, something unexpected came up.

Okay, I have done some extensive testing on a real project.

Like Tom said the easiest workflow would indeed be to put your FCPX Projects and Events on one external drive and take that drive on the road if you want to continue your work elsewhere

But if this is impossible for you you can also use two different drives without any issues. I have tested different workflows. Some with media copied into the Event folder and others without, some with duplicating Projects and Events from within FCPX and others by doing it in the Finder.

Only one solution seems to offer an easy and fail-safe workflow for what you want to do if you want your Events and Projects to correctly transfer and relink from one drive onto the other including compound clips and any new media you add. It's quite a detailed explanation, but in reality the process takes only a minute. Here's what you do:

1. Setup

Create a "Media" folder on your desktop drive and put all the media you will use for your project inside that folder. Copy that folder over to your portable drive. Now you have your project media inside a "Media" folder on both your drives.

Launch FCPX and create a new Event (let's call it "X") on your desktop drive. Press CMD+I to import media from the Media folder into your Event. In the Media Import window UN-check the "Copy files to Final Cut Events folder" option and start importing. As you are only creating symlinks in your Event this will go very fast.

Create a new Project "X" and start editing. You can create compound clips, add titles, add music files from your audio browser... anything you wish.


2. Transfer your Project and Event files onto the portable drive.

Make sure FCPX is quit and both your desktop and your portable drive are connected to your system.

Open the Final Cut Events folder on your desktop drive and drag the "X" folder into the Final Cut Events folder of your portable drive. If the portable drive does not have a Final Cut Events folder yet create one first. As you are only copying symlinks this process will be very fast.

Open the Open the Final Cut Projects folder on your desktop drive and drag the "X" folder into the Final Cut Projects folder of your portable drive. If the portable drive does not have a Final Cut Projects folder yet create one first.

Note: if you have done some rendering inside your desktop Project and you don't want to copy over the render files delete the render files from your "X" Project folder before copying it over.


3. Work on the project on your portable drive

Disconnect your desktop drive and launch FCPX. Your "X" Event and Project on the portable drive will open, showing offline files. Select the "X" Event and choose File > Relink Event Files. The Relink window will open. In the Relink window press Locate All and in the Finder window that opens select the "Media" folder on your portable drive. Then press Relink Files to relink your Event.

Now all your files, including any compound clips and anything you have added from the music or stills browsers in FCPX will be restored in your Project. You can continue working on the Project adding more clips, CCs, titles, music etc...


4. Transfer the project back onto your desktop drive.

Make sure FCPX is quit and both your desktop and your portable drive are connected to your system.

Open the Final Cut Events folder on your portable drive and drag the "X" folder into the Final Cut Events folder of your desktop drive. A warning will appear saying such a folder already exists. Press Replace All and the "X" Event folder will be replaced by the new one from your portable drive. As the Event only contains symlinks this will be very fast.

Oen the Open the Final Cut Projects folder on your portable drive and drag the "X" folder into the Final Cut Projects folder of your desktop drive. A warning will appear saying such a folder already exists. Press Replace All and the "X" Project folder will be replaced by the new one from your portable drive.

Disconnect the portable drive, open FCPX, relink the Event and everything should work as expected.


Final note:

If you add media from the FCPX music or stills browser when working on your project on any of your drives these media will be copied over to the Event folder on that drive. When you copy the Event folder over to the other drive these media will also be copied over and they will relink automatically.

If you want to add new media when working on your project on any of your drives first make sure to first add the new media to the "Media" folder on the drive and then import the media without copying them over to your Event folder. When you transfer your project over to the other drive make sure to also copy the new media into the "Media" folder of that drive before relinking.

I have done a couple of transfers back and forth between the two drives, adding compound clips and new media on each drive, and every transfer went very fast without any relinking issues. Of course it is imperative that you don't change the file structure of your drives once you start this workflow, or relinking will become difficult. That's the case with any NLE. If you have any more questions about this workflow post back here.

I have a USB3 2.5" external drive that fits in a pocket. It's a WD Black Caviar or whatever it was called. It measures about 120mb/s. When using proxy media I could work with 16 angles simultaneously in multicam with no problem.
This is the drive I keep my recent projects on. Then move them to a bigger 3.5" USB3 drive when done. If I'm on the go I just bring the drive.

As long as the Final Cut Pro Events and Projects folders are in the root of an external drive, FCPX will find and load them at start-up.

Thanks for taking the time to write this all out Ronny! This forum is great!