Relink for proxy-only workflow case?

With the widespread use of 4k it's increasingly necessary to use proxy. Ripple Training's 10.3 Media Management tutorial describes a proxy-only workflow which is further advantageous -- it allows distributing only the proxy files and "lean library" to downstream editors, who can then transfer back their edits via a library. Ratings & keywords can be transferred via XML on an event level. With proper planning, several remote editors can be rating, keywording and editing within the same library and later combine their work.

The procedure consists of setting library storage locations to another drive/folder then creating proxies, then (once only) sending those proxy files to the downstream editors on a portable drive. The lean library (or transfer library) and XMLs can be emailed back and forth.

The problem comes if a different volume name is required. E.g, you generate the proxies on a local drive array then copy them to a portable drive (having a different volume name) for overnight mailing. On the remote machine the option is (a) rename the volume to match the original, or (b) relink. Unfortunately relink doesn't seem to work reliably for the proxy case, whether attempted on the remote proxy-only machine or the local machine with original media + proxies. It either hangs or invalidates the proxies.

Has anyone used this workflow and encountered this or other problems? After using this more heavily I'm getting the impression the proxy management and relink systems need some improvement.

It does indeed.
We need an option to copy/move only the proxy media to other drive, and relinking to proxies, too.

For example, right now I'm on a big project (180 hours of footage) and running out of space on the main RAID drive. Moving those proxies (around 1.5 TB) to a spare drive would let me free up space and give me the chance to use a smaller more portable drive to do all the editing and reconnect only when I need to export. I wish I thought about this from the start, but this project was one of those that start small and *magically* they explode and now is a 10 TB monster with more media coming soon.

canelson wrote: ....We need an option to copy/move only the proxy media to other drive...

For moving proxies out of the library, there is an undocumented method which can be used, and it seems to work (see below). I vaguely recollect having some problems, maybe related to relink failing after doing this. However if the drive volume name doesn't change and you don't ever relink, it seems to work.

www.fcp.co/final-cut-pro/tutorials/1828-...ant-by-using-aliases

Feedback page for a proxy only Library copy.