Re: Multiple Capture Scratch & Render Folders

One issue I've faced more and more lately is that I'm ending up with multiple Capture Scratch and Render folders on the same drive. For example, I not only have the normal Capture Scratch folder on my drive containing project media, but there's another capture Scratch folder within 'that' folder containing other project media folders. Sometimes media from the same project ends up in identically labeled folders but stored in two different CS folders on the same drive. Same goes for multiple copies of Audio Render and Render File folders. Sort of like a small fish being gulped up by a bigger fish and so on and so on.

Additionally, I've ended up with yet 'another' folder on the same drive called FCP Documents which also contains various Capture scratch folders.

I recently cleaned out the whole system and made certain that the extra folders were trashed. The captured media was transferred into one main Capture Scratch folder and re-linked, only to have FCP create the additional folders on its own the next time I digitized. The new Capture folder is ALWAYS inside the already existing folder, so I have no idea why FCP generates this extra CS folder to house the folder from a new project.

And last week I started up the system only to find that some files were not only unlinked, but were gone altogether. Now that's a problem that's happened on and off since I bought the system. I had a Mac tech come in and he gave the system a clean bill of health, but as soon as I digitized new media, a new Capture Scratch folder was created and placed inside the currently existing one. Again

I do have to say that FCP rarely loses track of the footage, but these multiple folders that are being created just shouldn't exist and anything outside the norm can't be good in the long run.


BTW, I'm running FCP 6.0.3 on a four year old G5 / 2.5G dual / 4G of RAM

My RAID drives are about half full and were just checked out. While I usually do work on more than one project per day, I haven't had more than one open at a time. Disk Utility shows that everything's fine and that no repairs are needed.

Like I said, the multiple folders don't seem to be affecting FCP, but they keep multiplying. I'm mostly hoping that this doesn't lead to bigger problems down the line.

What concerns me is how this is happening despite the fact that I just had a qualified tech clean everything up as well as my dumping every MB of media no longer needed.

Hi Mark,

There could be something wrong with your Sratch Disc settings workflow.

When you set your RAID as the Scratch Disk for a project (project A), FCP creates a number of folders on your RAID. If you choose to store Video and Audio Capture, Video Renders and Audio renders of project A on the same Scratch Disk, FCP will create 3 folders on your RAID: Capture Scratch, Video Render Files and Audio Render Files.

Within each of these 3 folders you will find one folder for project A, each folder holding only the Capture Scratch, Video Render and Audio Render files of that specific project.

As long as you don't change the Sratch Disk settings to another drive you can create any new projects without any problems. Say you start a project B, then FCP will just create one new folder for project B within each of the existing Capture Scratch, Video render Files and Audio render Files folders on your RAID.

But what if between project A and project B you have changed the Scratch Disk settings to another drive,e.g. for some other project where you didn't have the RAID available ?

Then you must reset the Scratch Disk to your RAID, but - and here is the important thing - when you set the Scratch Disk you must select the RAID as your Scratch Disk and NOT the Capture Scratch folder on your RAID. Because if you select an existing Capture Scratch folder as your Scratch Disk, FCP will create the new Capture Scratch, Video Render Files and Audio render Files folders for your new project WITHIN the Capture Scratch folder of your previous project. And I think this is what is happening to you.

Best wishes,

Ronny