How to Copy a Final Cut Pro Project or Library to an External Drive

Whether you are freeing up space on your Mac, taking a project to another computer or archiving a finished job, getting a Final Cut Pro project onto an external drive comes down to one idea: projects live inside libraries, so you copy or move the library (or a new library containing just that project). This guide covers each way to do it in Final Cut Pro 12, how to make sure your media comes along, and how to fix the errors people run into. Steps follow Apple's Final Cut Pro User Guide.

How Final Cut Pro stores projects and media

A library is a single file (a package) that holds your events and projects and tracks all your media, editing decisions and metadata. The first library is created in your Movies folder. Events are folders inside a library that hold clips and projects, and a project is your edit. Projects and clips only point to media files, so what you need to copy depends on where the media is (see What are libraries?):

• Managed media is stored inside the library. Copy the library and the media comes with it.
• External media lives elsewhere (for example, files imported with “Leave files in place”) and is only linked to the library. You have to copy it too, or consolidate it into the library.
• Generated media (render, optimized and proxy files) can always be re-created, so you can leave it out to save space.

To see where a library keeps everything, select it in the Libraries sidebar and choose File > Library Properties (Control-Command-J). The Library Properties inspector shows the storage locations and how much original, optimized and proxy media is on each drive, which is a quick way to check how much space you need.

Prepare the external drive

• Use APFS. Apple recommends APFS for drives you use with Final Cut Pro. Drives sold pre-formatted as ExFAT or FAT32 may not perform as expected. To check, select the drive in the Finder and choose File > Get Info; the format is under General. Reformatting in Disk Utility erases the drive, so back it up first (Format storage devices for Final Cut Pro).
• Not your Time Machine drive. You can’t store a Final Cut Pro library on a drive used for Time Machine backups.
• Enough space. Compare the drive’s free space with the media totals in Library Properties. Apple lists USB and Thunderbolt drives as suitable for libraries; a fast SSD makes editing straight from the drive smoother.

Copy one project to an external drive

If the library holds lots of projects, you don’t have to copy all of it. Put just the project you need, with its media, into a new library on the drive (see Copy a project to another Mac):

1. Connect the external drive.
2. If the project uses effects, titles, transitions or generators you made or customized in Motion, select the library, set Motion Content to In Library in the Library Properties inspector, and click Consolidate in the Motion Content section.
3. In the Libraries sidebar, select the event that contains the project, then select the project in the browser. (Or select the whole event to bring every project and clip in it.)
4. Choose File > Copy Project to Library > New Library. The menu shows the name of what you selected, for example Copy Event to Library.
5. Name the new library, choose a location on the external drive and click Save.
6. In the window that appears, select Copy media stored in external locations to include all the media the project uses. Deselect Optimized media and Proxy media to keep the copy small.
7. Click Modify Settings in the Media Destination section, choose In Library from the Media, Motion Content and Cache pop-up menus, then click OK.

Final Cut Pro creates the new library on the drive and adds it to the Libraries sidebar. Your original library is unchanged.

Already have the media on the other Mac? Choose File > Copy Project to Library > New Library as above, and select Project without media. The new library is small enough to send online.

Copy or move a whole library

Option 1: from inside Final Cut Pro

1. Connect the drive and select the library in the Libraries sidebar.
2. If it contains Motion content you created or customized, set Motion Content to In Library and click Consolidate in Library Properties.
3. Choose File > Copy to Library > New Library, name it and choose a location on the external drive.
4. Select Copy media stored in external locations. Deselect Optimized media and Proxy media to save space.
5. Click Modify Settings, choose In Library for Media, Motion Content and Cache, then click OK.

This copies the library and its media, and leaves the original in place. Library backups aren’t copied.

Option 2: drag it in the Finder

Apple’s Move a Final Cut Pro library article also describes moving a library by hand, which gives you more control:

1. Optional: choose File > Delete Generated Library Files to save space.
2. Select the library and choose File > Reveal in Finder.
3. Quit Final Cut Pro.
4. In the Finder, drag the library file to the external drive.
5. Double-click the copied library to open it. In Library Properties, click Modify Settings, choose In Library for each pop-up menu, then click Consolidate in the Media and Motion Content sections to pull in any external media. Choose Window > Background Tasks (Command-9) to watch the progress.

Moving rather than copying? Once you have checked the library on the drive and every clip plays, you can drag the original library (and any media you consolidated from) to the Trash to free up space.

Moving vs. copying projects and events

You can also move clips, projects and events between libraries that are already open, for example from a library on your Mac to one on the external drive (see Copy or move items between libraries):

You can’t select clips and projects at the same time, so copy them in separate steps, or copy the whole event. If you imported with “Leave files in place,” only links (symlinks) to the media are copied or moved. Select the events and choose File > Consolidate Event Files to replace the links with the actual media files.

Consolidate media into one place

Consolidating gathers all the media a library, event, project or clip uses into the library’s current storage location, so nothing is scattered across drives (see Consolidate projects and libraries).

1. In the Libraries sidebar, select a library or events, or select projects or clips in the browser.
2. Choose File > Consolidate [item] Media.
3. Choose the media types to include (original, optimized or proxy) and confirm the library, then click OK.

• Consolidating out of a library to an external folder moves the files. Consolidating into a library, or between external folders, copies them, so other libraries using that media don’t break.
• For Motion content, choose File > Consolidate Motion Content (Option-Shift-Command-C). It only affects Motion content used in that library.
• “Nothing to consolidate” means the media is already in one location.

Library Properties and storage locations

Each library has its own storage settings. Select the library, choose File > Library Properties (Control-Command-J), then click Modify Settings (see Set storage locations):

New settings apply to future files. Existing media and backups stay where they are, which is why you consolidate after changing them.

Transfer a project to another Mac

1. Copy the project or library to the external drive with media, using one of the methods above.
2. Select the new library in the Libraries sidebar and choose File > Close Library. Always close a library before you disconnect its drive.
3. Quit Final Cut Pro, eject the drive and connect it to the other Mac.
4. Drag the library to a folder on that Mac (or edit straight from the drive), then double-click it to open it in Final Cut Pro.
5. Select the event and double-click the project to open it.

Apple recommends the same versions of macOS and Final Cut Pro on both Macs. Third-party plugins and special fonts aren’t stored in libraries, so install them on the other Mac with their installers, and make sure they are compatible with its macOS and Final Cut Pro versions.

Using FCPeffects plugins? You can install each plugin you buy on any Mac you own that’s signed in to the same Apple account, which Apple allows for up to 5 Macs. Log in to your account on fcpeffects.com with the email you ordered with to download your purchases again, run the installers on the second Mac and restart Final Cut Pro. If you need a lot of our plugins on every machine, the MEGA BUNDLE puts them all in one download.

Back up your libraries

Final Cut Pro saves every change automatically, and it backs up each library’s database at regular intervals, to the Final Cut Pro Backups folder in Movies by default. Backups don’t include media files, and backups more than several days old are deleted automatically. To restore one, select the library and choose File > Open Library > From Backup (see Restore a library).

For a real backup, copy your libraries and media to a different drive from the one your media is on, using Copy to Library or the Finder. Before a risky change, you can also duplicate a project as a snapshot with Edit > Snapshot Project (Shift-Command-D); snapshots include copies of compound and multicam clips, so later changes don’t affect them.

Save space before you copy

Render, optimized and proxy files can take up a lot of room. Select the library and choose File > Delete Generated Library Files, then select the file types to delete (see Manage render files). Your original media isn’t touched, and Final Cut Pro re-creates render files as you work. Optimized and proxy files you delete have to be regenerated manually.

Common problems and fixes

• Red frames with a yellow alert triangle (Missing File or Missing Clip). The library can’t find the media, usually because it was external and not copied, or was moved or renamed in the Finder. Reconnect the drive that has it, rename files back to their original names, or select the clips and choose File > Relink Files > Original Media, then Locate All. Relinking can’t be undone (see Relink clips to media files).
• Missing Effect, Title or Transition. A plugin or Motion template isn’t installed on this Mac. Install the plugin, or go back and consolidate Motion content into the library.
• “Nothing to consolidate.” All the media is already in one place, so you’re good to copy.
• The drive is slow or behaves oddly. Check it’s formatted as APFS, not ExFAT or FAT32.
• You can’t save the library to the drive. It may be your Time Machine backup drive, which can’t hold Final Cut Pro libraries.
• The library won’t open on the other Mac. Check that both Macs run the same versions of macOS and Final Cut Pro, as Apple recommends.
• Media went missing after you unplugged the drive. Close the library (File > Close Library) before you eject, then reconnect and reopen it.
• A huge library. Delete generated files, or leave optimized and proxy media out of the copy.

More in Apple’s solutions to media management issues and alert icons guides. Also handy: how to delete render files to recover drive space.

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