Time Machine is an automated back-up utility that ships with all recent versions of the MAC OS.
Whether you use Time Machine or some other utility – such as Carbon Copy Cloner – making regular backups of essential files is critical. However, unlike Final Cut Pro 7 or any version of Adobe Premiere, libraries in Final Cut Pro X use a different storage structure for media which often confuses editors who are concerned about backing up their projects.
This is because libraries are not a single file, they are a collection of files – called a “bundle” – that masquerades as a single file. Inside this bundle are databases, media files, folders… a whole flock of files that are invisible to the end user under normal circumstances.
Recently, Brian emailed me a question asking: “If I want to use Time Machine to backup my files, will it see files in a Final Cut Library and back them up? And, if so, if I change my edit, but not my media, will it back up everything again because the library changed, or only those files inside the library that changed?”
This is a great question because, if a library contains hundreds of gigabytes of media files, you don’t want to back up the media files which haven’t changed in order to backup up a 2 MB database which did.
So, I researched the answer on Apple’s website and here’s what I learned: “Time Machine updates individual files, so it should only backup files that have changed inside the library, not the entire library bundle.”
In other words, Time Machine is smart enough to look inside the bundle and only back up the files that are changed since the last backup.
26 Responses to Can We Back-Up Final Cut Pro X Libraries With Time Machine?
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J Brown says:
January 24, 2021 at 1:31 pm
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Larry says:
January 24, 2021 at 1:45 pm
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Chris says:
December 25, 2022 at 6:53 am
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Larry says:
December 25, 2022 at 7:19 am
← Older CommentsGlad I found this, I was looking for a solution to back up my video files. I was wondering If my time machine drive could be the second drive in a daisy chain (first drive hooked up to my computer, second time machine hooked up to my first drive)? I’m assuming they would just need the same connection types. Thank you.
J:
When you open the Time Machine panel in System Preferences, you can specify which hard disk – or shared volume – to use for Time Machine.
As long as you can see it on your desktop, you can use it for backups.
Larry
Has anyone verified this? I am backing up now, and because of the way Time Machine metrics work, after 45 seconds of backing up it says 60% done with the update after backing up 2GB. But now 10 minutes later it’s at 61% done after backing up 65GB, which means that time machine’s percentage metric probably has to do more with file count than GB copied. This is a poor metric. GB left to copy would be a better metric, considering how computers work (data transfer rates determine backup time more than file count). It also means it’s now probably chugging on my recent FCP edits, since I have done little else with my Mac. In FCP, my media is generally not stored in the library, which means most of library package file references are aliases. But the library is still 1/2TB in size, I’m guessing due to render files? Anyways, it’s taking forever to back up after 2 days of edits in which very little new footage was added. So I’m wondering about the assertion above that Time Machine is only backing up the changed files within the FCP library.
Chris:
These are good questions. I was told by Apple that Time Machine only backs up files that changed. However, with an FCP project, render files are changing all the time, along with the underlying FPC database.
Keep in mind that data transfer rate changes with file size. Large files transfer faster than lots of small files. Most render and database files are small, not large.
Still, it would be worth a call to Apple to see if there’s anything that could speed up your Time Machine backups.
Larry