Storing Libraries on external HD?

I have stored all my libraries on an external Hard drive and just noticed all the footage imported sits on the top level rather than inside the individual libraries!

Is this right??

Where do you have the media set to be saved? If you want it in the library use the consolidate function to copy it into the library.

Hi Tom

Good question, is there a setting somewhere or a preference i can check?

PS Think I found the settings: see image

That's it. With that selected the media will go to the root level of the drive. If you want the media in a folder, select Choose and make a new folder or point to an existing one. Or if you want managed media, just select copy files to library.

Hi Tom, thanks again

When you say 'managed media' do I use 'finder' to copy and paste or is there a function within FCPX?

i have 5 libraries for 5 clients, each library has multiple projects etc so do I create one folder to hold all the footage for that 'Library' or should each project have a different folder?

Think I am getting myself confused now sorry lol

Managed media means media that's inside the library bundle itself. External media means media that's outside the library bundle store in a folder.

If you want to put the media in a specific location do it inside FCP using File>Consolidate Library or whatever it says. That function will allow you to either consolidate all the media by copying it into the library bundle, or can also be used to copy it to a specific location, like a separate folder for each library.

Probably best to have a separate library for each production and keep all a client's libraries bundled together in a folder. Hopefully the whole drive is being backed up regularly.

I don't know maybe not. Depends on how large the productions are. You don't what the libraries to grow too large.

Great thanks for your help Tom

I have used the 'consolidate' command and it has copied all the media into that library.. it has left a copy of the media in the original place, shall i just delete that media now?

Yes after verifying the media is in the library by using the reveal in Finder function.

You can consolidate out of the library at any time should the library get too large. Toucan also consolidate specific events to put the media on that event in a separate location.

Excellent

Thanks Tom for your time and help