Library limit of approx. 3,000 clips?

In several posts within the last approx. year, Larry Jordan has described a soft limit of around 3,000 clips in a single library before performance seriously degrades. Examples:

larryjordan.com/articles/fcp-x-divide-large-libraries/
larryjordan.com/articles/fcp-x-consolidate-media-and-libraries/

I have a 2.2 terabyte project with 5,667 clips, comprising 117 hours of mixed 1080p and 4k material -- all in a single event of a single library. Performance seems adequate, although the initial scroll through the huge event browser is sluggish until thumbnails are generated. After that performance seems OK. This is on top-spec 2015 iMac 27, with media on an 8TB Pegasus R4 in RAID-5.

Is there any basis for splitting content across multiple libraries to obtain better performance?

I suppose you meant one library, not one project.
The point for me is: do you *want* to work which such a big library?
Are all those 5000+ clips part of the same production?
Or are they part of 50 different productions?
Either way, there are, IMHO, better ways to handle this much content.

Case 1: one big production --- obviously you need one library, but instead of having a huge one, make media external.

Case 2: many different productions --- consider having one library per production. Smoother operation, smaller libraries, group associated content.

lichinho wrote: I suppose you meant one library, not one project....
Case 1: one big production --- obviously you need one library, but instead of having a huge one, make media external...

Yes one project in one library. However the alleged performance problem is not size of the project but number of clips in a single library. I have not seen a major performance problem from this, so I was curious if there was any basis for the recommendation to avoid libraries with over 3,000 clips.

Hi Joe,

Again, I don't know where Larry got that information. It certainly isn't correct. I have several Libraries with over 5000 clips and I see no issues whatsoever opening them or working inside them (2015 5K iMac and 2013 MacPro). All media are always extarnel, never inside the Library. I think Larry just wanted to play safe because not every system will be able to handle that amount of clips inside one single Library. But AFAIK there is no real limit.

- Ronny

I have had stop-motion videos and time-lapses with large amounts of photos slow the opening of fcpx, libraries, and projects way down, however editing, effects, and rendering speed were not effected.

Now I always use Motion or Compressor to convert image sequences to a pro-res video, however, if I needed to edit a large project I would just realize that it was going to take a little longer to open. It also appears to be a disk dependent thing so faster hard drives will minimize the problem.

That "3000 clips limit" is quoted, many times without mentioning Mr Jordan but using identical words!, on many sites.
… but I can not google any 'test', proof, shared experience - ok, I'm no google expert. Testing is probably not that easy, 'cause I think it depends very much on hardware-set up and nature of 'clips'.

Having a look on fcp.co, you soon stumble upon this wonderful insight report about the making of FOCUS
www.fcp.co/final-cut-pro/articles/1622-h...l-cut-pro-x-part-two

… and to quote from there:

… Jan "We had one big Library and in that Library were Events for each scene. …

Someone should ask S. Mestman/M.Matzdorff, how many 'clips' a Hollywood production has, but I dare to say, as an enthusiastic watcher of making-ofs, that soon skyrockets thru #3000 .... (??) not?

Which reminds me to purchase Mr Matzdorffs book ....

I had never heard of the 3000 clip limit so over the last year I twice worked on a series of shows that was organised around two Libraries: 1 for all recurring material with about 340 clips and the other with enough material for 30 shows with around 7000 clips, half of those being audio. External media of course but it all ran fairly smoothly on a late 2012 MacPro.

Those Jordan articles are over a year old, too.

Larry's doing a media management webinar right now and is reiterating the 3000 clip limit.

Quick test,

Opened a library with 3800 files, (mix of video, audio, and mostly stills) it takes about a minute to open, (1:15 to open the library and load a project) and the browser and timeline are a bit laggy at first, but once the thumbnails are loaded everything works great with absolutely no issues whatsoever.

Using El Captain 10.11.2 and FCPX 10.2.2

The Library has recently been moved to a faster hard drive with more free space, and that seems to have made a big difference because I remember it taking somewhere around 5-10 minutes on the old smaller and slower bus powered HD. (not exactly sure because I never timed it)

I work frequently with Libraries that have +5000 clips. Been doing this for years now and never had an issue with this. I think Larry is due for an update (-:

- Ronny

Larry's technical information hasn't always been that accurate or up to date. But, he has a specific beginners audience, and he tells them what they need to hear to be safe.