Re: External hard drive large video file still taking storage after deleted

While I was editing, I didn't notice that my hard drive was getting full, I imagine by Render Files. My Libraries are on the same hard drive as my video footage.
So I deleted some large video footage and trashed them, also emptied the trash. The finder does not show them any more, but the space is still taken.
And the corresponding event still shows the clips. So they are still there?
How can I delete them now for real? Do I have a major problem now with that external hard drive?
Thanks for helping.

Edit : Something is going on here. My Libraries is showing in "Get info", that it is more than 500GB big! That is impossible because this morning there was only around 35 GB empty space. Something went wrong when I was not paying attention to the short disk space...

Edit 2: Also the single events are showing that they are 35GB or 97GB big. I am afraid that there is a major writing error going on, even in a disk inventory programm, the Library is 570GB big?!

Does it make any sense to open a prior Library from the backup? Right now I am afraid to do something wrong...

Edit 3: Forgot to say: Before that whole issue started, I tried to move the files from one hard drive to another with Consolidate, but it didn't work, nothing happened, after selecting to consolidate. Then I moved them with the finder.

Edit 4: "Problem resolved" (not yet). I needed to trash the event in FCPX. Now the Finder shows the right ammount of empty space. But Get info still shows that my Library is nearly 500GB big, which is not true. And still every event is big. Why?

Edit 5: Now I have a gigantic rendering going on. Don't understand why? A huge amount of clips and compound clips need to be rendered again (orange line)

Edit 6: Seems to be a black day. When I open an earlier Library version from the back up, all the files are missing.... wow!

Edit 7: I understood, why the Library is showing nearly 500GB of size. I did not copy my files when I imported them originally, I selected "leave files in place". But now, in the Original media folder of every event, only the files that I have used, are showing up as if I had copied them. The others are showing up still as clips with only the files structure. Something strange happened. What can I do now to make them as before?

Edit 8: The fact that they show up as complete clips sounds like all the files of my Library were consolidated. But I never did that. I only selected one event (the one event that I wanted to be removed) and consolidated it. But now all original files of the Library are consolidated. Is it possible to "deconsolidate". As I said, I tried to open an earlier version of the Library, but all the files are missing. When I tried to relink, same thing happened as earlier. The relink menu is not able to relink all. It does some of the files, others not, without any rule. So I don't know how to proceed. It is becoming a nightmare.

Edit 9: Still a huge rendering job going on. All the stuff that was rendered long time ago. Why rerendering?

When a drive is near full the weirdest things can start happening. When a drive used by FCP X gets full the safest action is to delete any Render Files. This will make drive space available without having to move or delete anything. Projects can always be re-rendered when you have restored the drive space, so deleting Render Files is not a problem. Moving files on a full drive can lead to problems.

You never, ever should move files in Finder if they are used by FCP X or any other NLE. That's a recipe for disaster. Moving or deleting media used by FCP X should always be done from within the application.

When you delete files or Events you always must empty the trash, otherwise the drive space will not become available.

Same as you can Consolidate all your media into your Library you also can Consolidate all your media to an external drive. Just select the Library in FCP X and in the Inspector Library Properties click the Modify Settings button. This will open the Storage Location window. In that window select Media > Choose and select the drive to which you want to move all the media for your Library. Ten press OK and FCP X will move all the media to the selected drive. Doing this FCP X will preserve all connections to the moved media and you won't have to relink anything. Just make sure before you Consolidate your media that the destination drive has ore than enough space to store the media.

Best wishes,

Ronny

Thanks Ronny for your explanations.

As we discussed this before, initially I didn't move the files through the finder.

The problems I have now are:

1) that the Library is nearly 500GB big, because the clips I used are in the Library as "full" clips, liked copied in there. How can I redo it as it was?

2) that in the storyline FCPX is rendering a lot, all the stuff that was rendered before, why? When I deactivate rendering, it is not "flowing" anymore.

3) When I open an earlier version of the Library, all the files are missing. The relink menu does not work properly. How can I relink them?

Sorry, but I am really worried now.

You can move your media outside of the Library with the Consolidate command, as I have explained above. First set the destination for your media in the Library Properties window, the press Consolidate and wait until all the media have been moved to the new destination. You can either move the media to a folder on the same drive, or to a different drive. This will make your Library much smaller.

You never should have Background Rendering turned on, it slows down your system and it creates unwanted re-rendering. When you have Consolidated all your media out of your Library, delete all your render files and manually re-render your timeline. Leave Background Rendering turned OFF all time.

Why do you need to open an earlier version of the Library? If all your media are inside your Library you never need to relink. If you move your media out of your Library using Consolidate you won't have to relink anything either.

Best wishes,

Ronny

Thanks so much Ronny, I will try to do so, hopefully it works.

In the end, following your advices, everything worked out perfectly.
The consolidate option is really something useful. And the size of the backup Library bundle is reasonable. But I have one doubt: I have another hard drive which is an exact mirror of the one I am editing with. I also changed the name of it to the original one. In case of a worst scenario crash in the original one, I would connect the backup hard drive to a backup Library, which does not include the original clips. So what would happen then? Would the backup Library move again the clips from the backup hard drive? And what I am more concerned about (because I tried it several times already), is, all the files will be missing and the relink option does not work properly. When you choose the main folder with all the folders and the clips inside, it will never end to "look for matching files". FCPX crashes (actually I have more then 4000 clips). When you choose then a smaller folder, with much less clips, it will relink some of them, but others not. That is a nightmare. Best regards.

Hi Trig,

When your media has been physically imported into the Library (= managed media), deleting a clip from the browser will also put the associated media from the Library to the trash.

When your media has not been physically imported into the Library (= external media), deleting a clip from the browser will not trash the associated media from the external folder in which the media is stored.

Best wishes,

Ronny

I want to copy an event including the media from hard drive #1 (is becoming too full) to hard drive #2 with the consolidate command. The window that opens says: It will copy it to a library, which has exactly the same name as on hard drive #1. I don't get that. What does that mean? On hard drive #1 I have a library XYZ with some events and with some medias and on hard drive #2 I have another library XYZ with other events and other medias?

Edit: So when it comes to backup library, which one will be backed up?

Just to let you know: I originally was not copying the media into the libraries. I was working with "leaving in place". I only did that after you recommended it (above). So some stuff is consolidated in the library on hard drive #1 and some stuff is not. On hard drive #2 there is only the footage/medias, but without any library so far, nothing consolidated.

I think it would be better if you re-organize your Library so you have a clean Library on drive #1 pointing to external media on drive #2, which will give you enough space on drive #1 to work with that Library until all your edits for that Library are done.

This is what I would do:

Launch FCP X.

- Select the Library XYZ and in the Inspector click Modify Settings. The storage locations window will open.
- Click on Media and select Choose... A Finder window will open.
- In the Finder window select your hard drive #2 and click the New Folder button.
- Enter a name for the new folder, name it "XYZ MEDIA" (XYZ being the name of your Library).
- Then click Create to create the folder, click Choose to close the Finder window and click OK to close the storage locations window.

Now when you look at the Inspector, under Media, you will see the "XYZ MEDIA" folder as your Media storage location.
Press the Consolidate button to move all the media from inside the Library on drive #2 to the "XYZ MEDIA" folder on drive #2.

What does this do?

It will move all the original media out of the Library on drive #1 and into the "XYZ MEDIA" folder on drive #2. The media in the Library will be replaced by symlinks, which will make your Library on drive #1 much smaller. The only files that will remain in your Library are your Cache files (Render files, thumbnail images, waveform files...).

Now you will say: but I already have a folder with all the original media/footage on drive 2 and now I will have the same media inside the "XYZ MEDIA" folder. So I will have all my media twice on drive #2.

Yes you will have two folders with the same media on drive #2. But this won't take up any extra drive space because of some FCP X magic called "hard links". Just do it and you will see how this works.

Best wishes,

Ronny

Oh my god, Ronny, thanks so much for your extended hints. I will try to digest what you wrote and see if I will manage to do it without creating a huge mess. Bit afraid so :))

The whole procedure is really harmless. As long as you use the media management tools inside FCP X you cannot do anything wrong.

Best wishes,

Ronny

OK, Ronny, I think I got it more or less. 2 doubts:

- when you say: "Press the Consolidate button to move all the media from inside the Library on drive #2 to the "XYZ MEDIA" folder on drive #2. "

did you mean ".... from inside the Library on drive #1..." ? Cause my Library is on drive #1 so far.

- when you say: "Now you will say: but I already have a folder with all the original media/footage on drive 2 and now I will have the same media inside the "XYZ MEDIA" folder. So I will have all my media twice on drive #2."

I don't understand that. Because so far I have only moved the media out of my Library on drive #1 to the XYZ Media Folder. Or are you saying that I have to move also all the media from drive #2 into the XYZ Folder on drive #2 ?

I want to copy an event including the media from hard drive #1 (is becoming too full) to hard drive #2 with the consolidate command. The window that opens says: It will copy it to a library, which has exactly the same name as on hard drive #1. I don't get that. What does that mean? On hard drive #1 I have a library XYZ with some events and with some medias and on hard drive #2 I have another library XYZ with other events and other medias?

Just to let you know: I originally was not copying the media into the libraries. I was working with "leaving in place". I only did that after you recommended it (above). So some stuff is consolidated in the library on hard drive #1 and some stuff is not. On hard drive #2 there is only the footage/medias, but without any library so far, nothing consolidated.

When I consolidated some of the medias into my library, the size of the library went up. Much bigger.
But the total size on the hard drive didn't. So seems it does not really "copy" the stuff physically?

When you are importing is that the same? Since I was always importing with "leave in place" I never paid attention. Does it really copy the media? Means you need twice stoarge space?

- I meant: "... from inside the Library on drive #1", my bad.

- You have consolidated your Library media to the XYZ MEDIA folder on drive #2, you don't have to do anything else.

Now that you have consolidated your media to drive #2 your Library should be much leaner and you should have sufficient space on drive #1, is that correct?

Best wishes,

Ronny

Hi Ronny, so I tried out the whole plan with 2 different events. Several things happened now, that make me stop this procedure, because some mess is happening.

As you remember I am in the middle of an editing process of a documentary. I had several folders with media from different shooting locations at the beginning on 2 hard drives. I was using the "leave in place" option to import. All this went along with no problem at all, having created events which corresponded exactly to the media folders. So then my hard drive 1 was too full. The one with some media and the Library on it. My bad. As I transferred some media folders to another hard drive through the finder, I had problems with the relinking command. FCPX was not able to relink so many clips.

So you recommended to use the consolidate option. Means on drive 1, I have the library, with some consolidated ("copied") media and other medias which are not copied physically into the library but exist there as "hard link" (correct name?).

Coming back what we are doing now, I took one event of each version, one "event A" consolidated and one "event B" not consolidated. This is what happend:

In both cases:

- medias are copied into the new "media folder" without any reference/name to which event they belong. Inside this folder there are only folders named after the very original importing date. A mess!!! Where is what???

- if the very original media folder on drive 1 was lets say 100GB big, what arrived on drive 2 was may be 85 GB big. Why??? A mess. Then I discovered that FCPX only consolidated to drive 2 the clips I didn't use in my film. All the other clips stayed in drive 1 inside the Library. Why? A mess.

- some single clips from other events (events which I did not choose to be consolidated at all!) were transferred into new media folders of drive 2, so FCPX consolidated more medias than I wanted. Which ones are consolidated and which ones not??? A mess.

Ronny, I give it up. I will try to go back to the "leave in place" method. That never abandoned me in other film projects I did. Hopefully I can redo everything like it was before.

And one last thing: The relink command sometimes fails, I tried it so many times. When there are too many clips it creates chaos. But a much easier method,100% reliable, is when I have missing files I just go back to the event or keyword collection and choose import, means I reimport the media. And that puts it without any failure back to normal state.

Uffff, suffering a bit, but patience will help.
Cheers
Lucian

Hi Lucian,

When you consolidate, FCP X puts all the media of your Library in separate folders related to the recording data. That is unimportant because you never need to go inside these folders, everything is managed by the FCP X database.

No offense, but the mess is something you have created because you decided to consolidate some events and some not, instead of consolidating the entire Library as I suggested. When you consolidate the complete Library everything will be in one place. This makes media management and relinking (if you ever need to do this) very easy. You only need to select the Media folder and FCP X will instantly find any clips inside this folder because everything is in one place.

Best wishes,

Ronny

Yes Ronny, next film project I will go your way from the beginning, copying directly into the library, hope that will work. For now I reestablished my old way, "leave in place". Reimporting where I had consolidated, worked perfectly. Can continue working now. Thanks a lot for your patience. Lucian

Lucian,

Working with "Leave in place" is excellent, I do this for every production. You just have to make sure that the drives you are working with are large enough to support the growing project. You only need to consolidate when you need to move media from one drive onto another. So the workflow you have is good, just make sure that you have sufficient drive space.

Best wishes,

Ronny

Hi Ronny, I received a message from you, but there was nothing in there from you, but a copy of my first message... sorry, am I missing something?

Now I got it, thanks a lot :))