FCPX 10.1.2 and Storage Locations settings

Hi everybody,

I updated to FCPX 10.1.2 on my iMac mid 2011 (i7, 24 Gb of RAM, 2TB hard drive plus Promise Pegasus R4 connected via thunderbolt port).

I already read that some people are having performance issues with this update, everything seems slower to me too.
It's probably a storage locations settings, because I noticed that the software needs to do some backups once in a while (every 15 minutes if I read correctly) and the system it's not fluid anymore to me. This happens to old and new events.

Let's check the storage settings:



Three settings for Media, Cache and Backups.
Which settings are recommended?

Until now I stored the Media on the Promise Pegasus. Everything was really fast. What about cache and backups? I tried to set the last one on my internal hard drive, just to see if there was any improvement (even if it's not rational to do that), but FCPX is still slow.

Don't get me wrong, the software works quite well. The only problem I have is that before the update it was perfect. Everything was fluid, I didn't have to render 90% of the times, working with the timeline was very fast.

I have two questions for you because I really hope to solve the issue and help other users.

First of all, considering my system, which settings do you suggest for media, cache and backups locations?
Second question: if you could set a system by your own, what would you do? Using four different internal drives?

For example:

1. SSD for OS X and FCPX
2. Hard drive for Media
3. Hard drive or SSD for cache
4. Hard drive or SSD for backups

The last one is a technical question and I would like to know the answer because I need to understand how the system works. Sometimes the Hackintosh seems the only solution (i don't know if I can talk about it in this forum).
After writing a lot and keeping you busy I really hope it's a storage settings issue.

Thank you for your help.

First a general thought regarding performance:

- Make sure you are running 10.1.2 on the latest OS.
- Make sure you regularly clean your boot drive (Onyx is a free utility that does this quite well)
- Or even better: do a fresh install of your OS and your applications on a clean system drive for best performance.
- After every update: do a Repair Permissions on your boot drive and refresh your FCP X preferences.
- Make sure all your third-party plugins are updated to the latest versions.


Your first question:

There really is no recommended setting, everything depends on the kind of projects you are working on.

Most important: where do you store your Libraries?

If your Libraries are on the Thunderbolt drive you and you don't need to share Projects with other editors you can safely keep everything inside the Library container.

If your Libraries are on your system drive it is best to keep as much as possible out of them.
- You certainly don't want any media used by FCP X on your system drive.
- Cache files are also best stored externally (luckily now this is possible since the latest update).
- Library Backups should obviously be stored on a different drive than your Libraries.

Your second question:

Unless you are setting up a single flight-case editing system to take on the road there is absolutely no benefit in having a system with 4 internal drives, that's something from the Dark Ages

You have a lovely setup built around a decent iMac. If you want to invest in a new system you can update the iMac or get a new MacPro and expand these systems around Thunderbolt which gives you nearly unlimited extension options for the future. Keeping everything inside one box you are just limiting yourself.

- Ronny

Hi Ronny!
I always find your replies very helpful and I am really happy that you were able to answer my questions.

General thought regarding performance

I'll try Onyx.
I always do a fresh install of an OS: first I try it on a small partition, then format everything then install the new OS. I think I'll have to do it every year since Apple is releasing a new Mac OS every 12 months
Do you suggest to format for every update? I mean, it's better to do a fresh install of OS X 10.9.4 if I have 10.9.3?
I am able to repair permissions (using disk utility, right?) but I am not able to refresh my FCPX preferences. I'll check Google or wait for your reply
I don't use third party plugins (just a title generator by the great Alex4D)

First question

I always store my libraries on my Promise Pegasus and I don't need to share them with other editors.
Cache and Library backups on external drives as well? You mean on a drive that isn't the Promise Pegasus? I can only use an USB 2.0 external drive, for now. Maybe it's not enough. In this case SSDs are better than HDs?
You also mean that I should have 2 different external drives for both cache and Library backups? Is it the best solution?

Second question

I miss a system where I can choose my parts, update it and set the computer the way I need. I love the Apple design and I am sure it helps me work with more inspiration, but I am really sad that I can't update my iMac with a new graphic card or insert an SSD easily.

I can understand your point of view, I hope to solve my issues following your precious advice

I mean, it's better to do a fresh install of OS X 10.9.4 if I have 10.9.3?

No, that's not required. If you have a good running 10.9.2 just install 10.9.3 over it. Clean installs are only advised for major updates.

I am able to repair permissions (using disk utility, right?) but I am not able to refresh my FCPX preferences.

Yes, repair permissions is done in Disk Utility.
Since 10.9.2 you can refresh the FCP X preferences very easily: quit FCP X and re-launch it while pressing and holding the OPTION(ALT) + the CMD keys. FCP X will start with fresh preferences.

Cache and Library backups on external drives as well?

As you store your Libraries on the Pegasus you can store your Cache files inside the Library.
In this same scenario Backups can be stored on your system drive. You don't actively use the Backups until you really need them, so there is no harm in storing them on the system drive.

In this case SSDs are better than HDs?

SSD drives are perfect for OS and applications. Not so good for video files and certainly not advised for storing FCP X Libraries. FCP X constantly writes to the Library database and SSD have a limit write cycle. If you constantly re-write to an SSD it will lose performance.

I miss a system where I can choose my parts, update it and set the computer the way I need.

I can understand this, but that may not always be the best way to go. Macs are made with components that have been carefully selected to work with each other. Apple software is also specifically written to better work with these specific components. You can assemble a custom system using the latest and greatest parts that could very well have worse performance than an integrated system with less performant individual parts. Add to this that Apple computers have a high resell value. You can sell an older system at a good price and get a newer system that costs less and works better than upgrading individual parts in the old system. I think that's a good philosophy. We usually replace our computers every two or three years and we always get a very good price for them. This allows us to always have the latest hardware that works better with the latest software updates without losing much money in the deal.

- Ronny

Hi Ronny!

Thank you for taking the time to answer me and giving me your point of view, which I respect and consider better than mine, now. I really appreciate your help.

Have a nice day : )

Hi Andy,

You are very welcome. Have a nice day!

- Ronny

Sorry for jumping in to this treadh Ronny.
I have two externals 3 TB LaCie Thunderbolt (single disk) and LaCie 256 GB SSD Thunderbolt. I keep all my clips on the former. A single Library that I am working withI have on the SSD. I keep all my media inside that Library. When finished I remove the library to the 3 TB disk and erase the SSD disk, then ad another Library to the SSD. I find FCPX very fast with this setup. Is there a better option, Pegasus is to much for me. An the 3 TB drive gives me worse performance. (Late 2013 Mac Pro)

Makki

Hey Finnur,

As I said at the start of this thread there is no single "best" workflow for everyone. I think you have a decent workflow here: you keep everything away from your system drive and you use your SSD for editing, but once a production is done you move Library and media to your backup drive and you start all over.

You will obviously get better performance from the SSD than from the single TB drive, so in this case you are right to choose for performance. As you always transfer your productions to the single disk drive when you are done your SSD is not likely to fill up, which is good. Although SSDs have a limited write capacity your SSD will easily last a few years even if you write 5 GB to it each day.

- Ronny

Thank you so much Ronny. I feel very comfortable now. I am new to all those externals since using Mac Pro 1,1. As a dedicatded hobbyist I think this is sufficient for me.

Besttu þakkir
Finnur

Hey Ronny,

I've been storing/accessing FCPX Libraries on the internal 1TB SSD on my Macbook Pro. It's been so fast it spoiled me. But I see from your post that this is not a good idea.

I see two portable 1TB drives at the Apple.com store: G-Tech G-drive for 199 and Lacie Porsche Design for half the cost.

Is the G-Tech double the price because its more suitable for video editing? (transfer rate etc)

Will either of these match the performance I have been enjoying by using the internal SSD?

Hey merc,

I have no experience with any of these drives, so maybe someone else can chime in to give you better information about the two drives you mention.

Will either if these match the performance of your internal SSD? Probably not. As I keep saying it all depends on the kind of projects you are working on. If you keep your SSD system drive lean - meaning you regularly move your older FCP X Libraries and media onto an external backup drive - and if your productions don't involve huge Libraries with many project versions FCP X will not stress the drive too much and you will be able to continue editing happily from that drive.

Just be aware that if you only have your system drive for editing and you have no external backups of your media and your Libraries you will, without any single doubt, lose all your work one day.

- Ronny

Thanks Ronny!

I have relatively small, infrequent projects and I definitely back these up regularly to external drives.

I feel better

Hi Andy,
I would definitely start by fixing permissions and preferences and see if that makes the difference. As Ronny says, Onyx and re-launching FCPX10.1.2 with Option/Command key held down. This has helped folks.

Back-up libraries are very small database files, not working media files. The back-up libraries files just keep track of changes you make so you can recover your Events/projects if you corrupt your working library database file. This means you can store it wherever you want including on the cloud if you want. This also means that it is not a back-up in the traditional sense in that you need to back-up all your other files to separate drives (at least 2X IMHO). As Ronny says, place Library Back Up files on a different drive than where your libraries are stored. If you use inside the Movies folder on System Drive and then you routinely back that up (2X) you good except maybe fire or flood.

I don't see any issues with your set up especially for a single editor.

Ronny,
I both agree and disagree with you concerning ssd drives. While ssds do have some issues with the number of writes (endurance); for a lot of us, we will never reach the limits. YMMV for major production house! Some of the newer drives like the Samsung 850Pro the endurance is quite robust according to an article in Anandtech. According to that article…"Samsung said that they have a 128GB 850 Pro in their internal testing with over eight petabytes (that is 8,000TB) of writes and the drive still keeps going…" Finally all drives fail, so the speed may provide added benefits that justify the risk/expense. The throughput/ transfer speeds for ssds are vastly better than hdds especially single drives over USB3. I wish Apple would enable trim by default for any ssd drives. Without the trim, you can face some real degradation. No offense meant of course.

Hope this helps, Greg

Hey Greg,

I absolutely agree with this. I don't have any objections against storing media and Libraries on an external SSD drive if the only other option is using single HDDs. I do think external TB RAID systems are a far better option for media storage than SSD because they are better at handling long continuous video streams and they offer a much better storage size vs storage price.

As long as OSX does not allow TRIM by default for all SSD dives (now they only allow it for Apple-certified SSD drives) I will have to keep warning people about the risk of deterioration of SSD drives in general. Not everyone buys Apple SSDs and not everyone wants to mess in the Terminal to enable TRIM.

I am convinced that SSDs will eventually replace HDDs, but it will take some more time before they can be used as reliable and cost-effective storage replacements with large media pools.

- Ronny

Geez Ronny you must have the fastest typing response skills of anyone on this forum.
From the time I began to answer Andy's question to the time I submitted the post, you had already responded to 3 or 4 others. Don't you ever sleep? This forum and others I see you in are very fortunate to have your great advice and experience.

I sometimes get involved in the technical details and like to follow the trends. Just posted on Anandtech is a followup but still in progress review of the new Samsung 850Pro including some estimates of endurance.
Initial review here…
www.anandtech.com/show/8216/samsung-ssd-...w-enter-the-3d-era/5
Worth a read, good explanation of "3D" V-NAND.
Work in progress report looking at endurance…
www.anandtech.com/show/8239/update-on-sa...nce-vnand-die-size/2

Spinning platters still have some life and it is definitely hard to argue re price comparison. Just saw 4TB 7200rpm drives @ $120.00 USD. You still need to house them and link several into RAID to get the transfer speeds of ssds.
My first Mac was a SE20 the first week it came out. Can you imagine ever filling up a whole 20MB of hard drive space? Paid through the nose for that major upgrade. Couldn't afford a MacII. Man did it seem fast.

I think SATA will eventually become less of a player as PCIe based memory takes the lead. ThunderBolt (3;) allowing external hosting of PCIe cards with fantastic throughput/expansion.

All of these are just good ol' rock & roll times.
Best, Greg

FCPX is doing really well, now. I updated Mavericks from 10.9.3 to 10.9.4, repaired my permissions and refreshed FCPX preferences. I'm saving Backup Libraries to my main drive.

Still having some slow editing while working on the GoPro Hero 3+ clips, maybe because they have a big resolution (2.7K), but I can work with them way more easily now.

Thank you so much for your effort : )

About the backups, I keep the entire projects on the Promise Pegasus, so the data is quite secure. Plus I save the most important shots to two external hard drives (two 4 TB hard drives by Western Digital), so I have two copies of the same file.

Andy,
Glad things are working better for you. It's often the little things that cause frustration and glitches.
You could "optimize" the GoPro footage to ProRes or even proxy and that should speed it up especially when applying effects. The more footage you have the more you'll want to convert the codec.
Hope this helps, Greg

Q about Final Cut Backups location.

I used to store the little FC Backups libraries in a folder on my Original Media disk, which is scheduled to back up with CCC every day (to 2 x locations).

Today I peeked inside and found that FCPX has reverted to saving these files into a folder called Final Cut Backups, in the Movies folder on the system drive. The change seems to have happened (without me knowing about it) around the end of April 14.

I appreciate I can change the location of these backups on an individual Library basis, but there doesn't seem to be a preference to change the location globally for FCP? For the time being I'm cloning the Final Cut Backups folder daily with CCC, but I don't really want these files on my system drive at all.

Am I missing a simple solution?

Hi ffg
FCPX default location for Library Backups is in the boot(system) drive> user>movie>Final Cut Backups folder. You can change this in the Library Inspector pane using the Modify Settings button which opens a pop-up window allowing you to set locations for Media, Cache and Library Backup. Click on Backup location and then navigate to location you want to store the Backups, click choose and good to go. This should stay persistent.
If you have this location on an external drive and you launch FCPX without it being available then create a new library, FCPX 10.1.2 will create folders in default location(s) which is what may have happened in the past, or this may have happened during an update to FCPX. You can also change the location for each Library created if you want.
Library Backups is a small database file that gets updated every 15 minutes and keeping it on a drive other than your media drive is not a bad idea, but put them wherever you want. I leave them in the system drive default location and then back up my drive at the end of the day.
Hope this helps, Greg

Thanks Greg, that's more or less what I thought. I have over 100 short programmes each with its own Library, and was using a separate drive on the MacPro to store the backups. I didn't really want to go through all the projects changing them individually, but it appears this is the only way to get FCP to backup to other than the default (Movies) location. No great big deal, I'll just back up the backups for safety.