Do I need optimized media?

I've run out of room on a hard drive and need to free up some space. I need my proxies to continue editing. Can I get rid of optimized media? Or is that what makes things look best upon export? If I have optimized, do you think I need to hold onto the original media?

Another thing is that I have a lot of footage on the drive that isn't being used. But the project is so big. with so many different projects in it, that I don't want to delete something I'm using. Is there a way to know what's not being used in the timeline and remove it from my hard drive?

Anything else I'm not aware of that can free up space?

Thanks everyone.

tstiefler wrote: I've run out of room on a hard drive and need to free up some space. I need my proxies to continue editing. Can I get rid of optimized media? Or is that what makes things look best upon export? If I have optimized, do you think I need to hold onto the original media?...

You generally don't need optimized media if you have proxies. Optimized media makes no difference in export quality. I always keep my original media files.

Besides deleting optimized media, you can free up more space by disabling background rendering and deleting all cache files. Then as needed select the timeline clips with CMD+A and do a one-time render with CTRL+R.

To further streamline safe deleting of unneeded files, get Final Cut Library Manager: www.arcticwhiteness.com/finalcutlibrarymanager/

If you want to save just the clips used in your project, create a new library, then set the storage properties as you want in the library inspector, then in your current library create a "transfer event" (blank event), then copy (do not move) your project to that transfer event, then copy that transfer event to the new library, then consolidate media. That brings over just the project and associated clips. Delete any optimized media before doing this. During the copy dialog, answer "yes" to the copy optimized and proxy media checkboxes -- whether you have those or not. This is to avoid an FCPX media management bug during cross-library copies.

To scan your Mac for space consumption use the free tool OmniDiskSweeper. It is safe and has no ads. It makes no changes, just shows a sorted list of folders by size in column format: www.omnigroup.com/more

Another common source of space consumption is duplicate files. There are many de-duplication utilities but the one I use is Gemini 2: apps.apple.com/us/app/gemini-2-the-dupli...r/id1090488118?mt=12