trouble deleting files in FCP X 10.2.1

hello,

i am using the FCPX 10.2.1

I am editing a series of short videos which comprise of events and projects.
The raw video files are sourced from an sd card.
The editing of the files are done through the macintosh hard drive.

To delete a project and relevant event file, I right click on the item and choose move to trash. Strangely enough instead of freeing up space on my hard drive it is actually eating up space on my hard drive. Very strange and i am now down to having 3GB of hard drive space left.

I can't find the files in the trash.

I noticed under library properties there is an item called Backups and they are going to the "final cut backups" folder. Is there any chance that the deleted files are going into here and should i be deleting the files from here?

Does anyone know where the deleted files are going and how can i delete them permanently so i can free up space on my hard drive.

Would appreciate anyone's help if possible. Thank you.

The deleted files should move to your Trash immediately, or at least after you close the relevant Library or quit FCPX.

I have had to choose 'Move to trash" twice in some instances, if the file doesn't disappear from the Event, but then it works fine.

Your deleted files should show up in the trash upon moving them there, however you won't be able to empty the trash until FCPX is closed (you'll typically get the error message that the files are in use by Final Cut Pro).

Some suggestions for a better editing experience :
Don't use your system drive to store and edit your media and libraries. The system drive is occupied with running the application and managing the OS. Your libraries (which contain your media for editing) are best placed on a fast external drive.

Also, every drive (external, internal and system) should never be filled beyond about 85%. The 15% free space left on a drive serves to allow the drive to manage it's housekeeping. If you don't provide it, your computer will begin to slow down and rapidly deteriorate in performance.

As for backup locations, by default FCPX stores backups of projects in the system drive's Movies/Final Cut Backups folder. You can choose not to save backups or save them to another location by selecting the library in the library pane and then selecting to modify storage locations in the inspector. This is also where you can choose to store the media and cache files. If you want backups and your system drive is getting full, you can save them to an external drive location (although the backups don't take up a lot of room).

If you delete a clip from an Event in the Browser, but it still exists in a Timeline, it will remain in the Timeline, and a physical copy is still in your Library. Soft/hard UNIX links and such. So you have to delete all instances of a clip in a specific Library, before it is actually moved to the Trash. So it can be normal to delete a clip or Event, and not have those clips show up in the trash (since they're being used in another instance in that Library.
www.bbalser.com/video/FCPXguruFiles/LinksWebFile.mp4

Libraries should be on a secondary drive, as previously mentioned.

FCPX built-in backup system only backs up the database, not media, and takes up very little space at all.

Hello,

thank you for your helpful replies. i found out deleting generated library files was the answer to my question.

but i have another one for you since your talking about backups.

a) how do you activate a backup?
b) how do you save backups externally?

If you mean the built-in database backup, that's done automatically, and goes into a Final Cut Pro Backup folder, inside your movies folder. Happens every 15 minutes while you're making any changes to anything inside of that specific Library.

If you mean the whole Library, media, everything (not just the database file), then you can use Timemachine (I personally am not a fan, but many folks love it), or Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper or some other third party backup application. Then set it on a schedule to backup daily and/or nightly to an external drive that is separate from the drive your work copies of Libraries and media are on.

thank you for the reply