How to Easily Organize Libraries, Events, & Projects in Final Cut Pro

[@tombuck]

If you want to level up your editing skills with Final Cut Pro, check out my video editing course "Rough Cut to Final Cut" where I'll share literally everything I know to help you become a true Final Cut Pro: learnfinalcutpro.com

[@MuhammadFarag]

Your tip towards the end saved me about 600GB of storage that I wasn't aware I could save. Even better, saved me the money that I was about to spend to expand my storage, you're the dude... Thank you.

[@tombuck]

Glad it helped! It's wild how big FCP libraries can get.

[@jimcoon]

What a great video. I have worked for nearly 15 years off ONE library! Lordy. I create an .mp4 video of any family stuff I do, but the work I do for selling farms and ranches I will now delete after I send an .mp4 download to the seller to keep. I have never taken the time to understand libraries, events and projects. You clarified it in less than 15 minutes. I’m 70 now and won’t be shooting many more large ranch videos. Mostly just pro bono work or family stuff. Old dog…new trick. Again - thank you. Jim in Oregon

[@TBD3.0]

This guy is a pro at cutting through the noise and making it all finally make sense.

[@tombuck]

This is the best compliment ever. Thank you.

[@joepeter7682]

im not the only one here to state that this is best explanatory video on LIBRARY, EVENTS AND PROJECTS. Thanks very much Tom.

[@tombuck]

Glad it was helpful! These things are definitely named a bit oddly 😬

[@missv7689]

Yesss this is exactly what I was going to comment

[@glasco_]

Tom. After editing for years, what you just explained happened to me. I kept everything one one library. I could not figure for the life of me why final cut was running so slowly for me. That was it. If you’re reading this, listen to this man. It was a pain in my ass to clean everything out lol

[@tombuck]

Thanks for the ringing endorsement 😁 This is definitely one of those things that can easily get frustrating super quickly.

[@AwakeTours]

same!!!!

[@chrisr9320]

The pun game here is dad level. Respect.

[@linusaherrmann]

Love this short series! Your videos are super easy to comprehend, explain everything clearly and I love your organised and straightforward way of doing things! I previously had only edited videos within DaVinci Resolve from time to time and since I made the switch to Mac a while ago I figured it would be a good idea to switch to FCP. I was a little overwhelmed with the switch of interface at first and your videos helped me get a good overview over the program and get started getting some editing done with it in less than an hour. Thank you so much!

[@tombuck]

I really appreciate this! Glad the video was helpful and thank you for all the kind words 🙏

[@KerriBishman]

That was exactly what I needed Tom! My Final Cut Pro library had grown like a goldfish and filled my brand new computer's hard drive in a day! I was so confused. This helped so much!

[@tombuck]

So glad it helped Kerri!

[@JamesDel]

The 'Monthly Library" is so clever and simple, I'll be using this idea going forward!!

[@tombuck]

Glad it helps! It's not too complex, but still keeps things feeling nimble.

[@thesouthernelectric]

I just finished my first music video, all from YT tutorials, I ended up with multiple duplicate libraries of the same project, 150 gig of utter chaos everywhere ! I really should have watched this first, it's extremely informative. I'm a pro user of Logic, that's not Logical either. Many thanks, subbed !

[@AuthenTech]

This man is 👑 of the puns

[@tombuck]

My crowning achievement 🙏

[@LindsayLiving]

Thank you SO much! This video is exactly what I was looking for. I'm that editor that's got a zillion projects in one Final Cut library 😳I had a feeling it was slowing everything down - sometimes you don't know what you don't know. I love the monthly library idea. Thanks so much for a great video!

[@tombuck]

It's definitely like a goldfish and will keep growing to take up any space you give it! Happy editing 😁

[@BrandonAhmaud]

Very helpful vid Tom. I see FCP in a whole different light now

[@tombuck]

I'm so glad it's helpful! Getting that organizational foundation sorted out is super important.

[@woggersoverlandadventures]

FINALLY!! After watching countless videos on FCPX Libraries, Events, and Projects, you have cleared my vision on what they are used for. Thank you so much for finding a way to explain it in a way I and maybe others can understand. I was so frustrated... Nice video, keep up the good work! Liked and Subscribed :)

[@tombuck]

Wow, thank you! It makes me really happy to hear this! Sometimes I worry if I'm making sense or not, so it's awesome to hear that the video was helpful. Happy editing!

[@alexscheele]

Yours is the only true logical explanation, which appeals to my way of thinking, many thanks.

[@tombuck]

Thank you Alex! It's really helpful to hear that, I know this stuff can easily get confusing.

[@AfterWorkMusician]

Just started using Final Cut recently and the file organization was definitely a hurdle. Really appreciate this video…great breakdown!

[@tombuck]

So glad it was helpful!

[@GSMusikMix]

best time for this video. i am moving from adobe to final cut and been searching videos to get started. Yesterday i watched your video about audio editing in final cut from 2yrs ago it was really helpful.

[@tombuck]

Fantastic! There will definitely be a learning curve, but I absolutely love FCP. Once you get the hang of it, it's so fast and stable.

[@burrows10011]

Easily the BEST explanation of this very confusing topic. I have watched dozens of these videos and this one FINALLY clearly explains it! And the tips to keep the sizes down by deleting the proxy and rendered files is key. Thank you.

[@CoachellaAngel]

Final Cut Pro is my favorite application of all time. Buying an SSD to run a library and edit changed the game, speed kills 🙌🏻

[@tombuck]

It’s the best! 🙌

[@kiawahmovies2]

I liked the puns, gave me something to recall. Description of nesting dolls helped me understand the FCP terminology vs. others (Library, Event Project)

[@tombuck]

Glad it was helpful and not too pun-ishing!

[@PrimalVideo]

Helping people to Finally Cut Procrastination! Great video 👍 Fcp definitely handles projects different to others. Monthly library file is a good idea. So close to 100k 👊🥳

[@tombuck]

Thanks Justin! There are a lot of professional procrastinators out there 😁

[@akira_asahi]

Love the humor and the general attitude) Thank you for the information and for the joy)

[@tombuck]

Thanks so much! It means a lot to hear this. 🙏

[@loganwebb5449]

From a full-time premiere editor, I appreciate the new understanding. Going to give Final Cut a try soon.

[@tombuck]

Awesome! It's always tricky because all the apps do the same things but with different names. I'm having a similar experience trying to dip my toes into Resolve recently.

[@markandrewpiano]

Thanks for sharing this information, Tom. It helps to have some of the workflow in final cut clarified. The color in this video is so vibrant. Nice work!

[@tombuck]

Thanks Mark! I appreciate the kind words! One of my favorite things about Final Cut is that is can be as simple or complex as you want and dialing things in to your specific workflow is always super satisfying.

[@iamseeingdots]

Been binge watching your vids for the past 3 hours now, our new favourite KZbinr! Thank you so much for these really informative vids, love your sense of humour too :)

[@JerredZ]

Thanks so much for this! This is helping me FINAL(cutly) keep track of my stuff!

[@tombuck]

Now you can CUT out and all the PROlonged disorganization 😁

[@seanmonts2159]

Tom this was a very good video to help me organize my new youtube channel. Thanks. I will watch it again.

[@tombuck]

So glad to hear it! Good luck with your channel Sean!

[@myrealestateviews]

Came for FCP knowledge, stayed for the puns. Great video Tom! I'm new to your channel and subscribed to learn more tricks of the trade.

[@tombuck]

Thank you! I'm really glad the video was helpful and the puns didn't feel punishing 😬

[@burrows10011]

Those puns kept me on my toes

[@patrickkurmann]

Helped me, thank you. Especially the recommended library split by month or anything suitable.

[@tombuck]

Happy to hear it! It's definitely helpful to keep things nicely organized.

[@WayoftheRaven]

Great video as usual Mr. Tom. Thoroughly enjoy your information and pleasant presentation... not to mention, you're always so Punny. 😉 God bless.

[@tombuck]

Thanks so much! I really appreciate it. I know talking about file structures isn't always the most exciting thing, but it's darn important!

[@Wbc1811]

that sponsor transitions was up there in one of the best I have ever seen, great work!

[@tombuck]

Haha I tried really hard to make it smooooooooth 😬

[@Wbc1811]

@@tombuck well lets just say you succeeded

[@MusicDig]

love the information as well as the dad puns. I subscribes. keep up the good work!

[@tombuck]

Thanks so much! I really appreciate the kind words!

[@jdmillerYT]

Great info. Visually pleasing to watch and tons of good info. Appreciate this and you. I'm now a SUBSCRIBER.

[@tombuck]

It means a lot to hear that! Thanks so much!

[@ethanmoralesmusic]

I didn't know I needed this video so badly. You cleared up so much confusion! Great vid!

[@tombuck]

I’m really happy to hear that! I was hoping it’d be helpful.

[@ethanmoralesmusic]

@@tombuck if you have more tips and tricks that I'm sure there's tons of pun material on the horizon

[@richt80]

Really helpful video, especially liked the tip on how to reduce the library size - that was going to be my next google search. Thank you!

[@Ed_Scott]

This was needed!!!! Side note: your segues are legendary👌🏾

[@tombuck]

Haha, thank you! I tried my best 😁

[@andrewwwlife]

Thank you, finally got the difference between projects and events!

[@ruthzacarias2142]

thank you so much for such a great video, so clear and easy to understand... I finally get it!

[@tombuck]

I’m really happy to hear this! Thank you Ruth 🙏

[@JoKapoor]

Best video for organizing.. thank you so much❤. I go watch out other videos now !

[@KevinSinkPhotography-ju3uk]

Finally! I found someone who makes sense describing this stuff. Thank you Jesus… I mean Tom.😅

[@tombuck]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Guad777]

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS VIDEO! Just starting and this clears things up. I was confused about libraries!

[@tombuck]

I'm really happy it helped! Libraries confused me for so long.

[@Javarrol]

Well explained.. I just subscribed. I’m new to the world of Final Cut Pro

[@tombuck]

Fantastic! I hope you really enjoy it. There's definitely a learning curve, but it makes sense pretty quickly with a bit of practice.

[@nemesiscreativity6571]

As usual another well polished delivery

[@tombuck]

Glad you think so!

[@sentientbeans]

Informative! Now I can FINALly use Libraries and Events like a PRO :)

[@tombuck]

Glad it was helpful! It all makes sense in the end, I think the names are just a bit confusing.

[@andrewsaraceni]

Great overview! Separate library per project has been huge from an organizational perspective for me, especially if I want to preserve the project/edit for later. I know a number of folks who've gotten into trouble sticking to one library forever... To that end, I wish Apple made some of this more intuitive. e.g. Events would really be superfluous if FCPX handled folder organizational structure better (rather than making things "tags" within an event).

[@tombuck]

The term "Library" seemed to big that I thought there would be problems creating a new one for each project, but that's really probably the smartest way to do it. Definitely the safest.

[@BasicFilmmaker]

Nice. More please :)

[@tombuck]

As you wish.

[@PicturePilot]

I finally got it...thank you!

[@MrCameraJunkie]

This "May" be the best FCP Video you have made 😜 Coming soon Vid #300 & 100K 👊🏽 keep crushing bro 💯

[@tombuck]

Thank you sir! This is a simple one, but I think it's an important topic!

[@BikeShopGirl]

Tom, do you have any updates on this? I'm going to use the holidays to rework my storage and rewire my brain for organizing using your system!

[@tombuck]

Hey! This is all still accurate and still the same way I approach everything 👍

[@PrayingAttentionWithDea]

Ummmm. you turned my tanks into THANKS! ;) Such helpful info for a FCPX newbie who's determined to launch ORGANIZED! Hopefully...😄Thanks for the pun fun too!

[@BrothaTech]

You got me re-doing my WHOLE setup

[@tombuck]

Either I'm sorry or you're welcome 😬😁

[@Kmalmaulana]

Thankyou, this all that I want

[@gabrielarzatee]

Thank you, Tom :) This was the best explanation. You've been a great help and also made me laugh.

[@tombuck]

So glad it was helpful! This is definitely a tricky part of FCP.

[@bulcub]

hope to see you reach 100k subs by end of the month!

[@tombuck]

Thank you! That would be amazing haha 😁

[@nazfunkbeats1325]

Man.. this was such a simple vid, loved it!

[@tombuck]

Glad it helped!

[@wascollegeworthit]

Ok. I'm 3 minutes in and subscribing for the dad jokes alone. love this.

[@tombuck]

This makes my day 😁

[@PatrickBoberg]

This was not the video I was expecting this week... but it is still a good one.

[@tombuck]

You were expecting another Mixcast video?

[@PatrickBoberg]

@@tombuck Not exactly

[@TheBoomBoomRoomStLouis]

I pray you have young children, if not, your true gift, Dad jokes, will be waisted. Laugh. And all this time I thought this was MY flex. Dang I am humbled. Laugh. Great video.

[@brianpatterson6934]

Finally, I understand! Many thanks...

[@BobsBoy578]

Excellent! Thanks.

[@tombuck]

You're welcome!

[@alphaartisan]

Thank you, this was crazy helpful

[@jaimealmeida1271]

thank you so much! GREAT VIDEO

[@mmosley384]

thanks for the explanations!

[@JWVideo3]

Im just starting out and this was really helpful thanks :)

[@gregorysach]

These puns were murderous. Cheers for the vid.

[@JoeCastellon]

I prefer to use a library for each video, or videos if I make more than one video on the same topic. It’s great that FCP is flexible this way. You can ultimately choose the workflow that best fits your needs.

[@tombuck]

I think that's probably the safest way to do it, honestly. That way there's no risk of one library messing something up in multiple projects.

[@rusticlogcabinlife9443]

Greetings, I am new to Final Cut Pro I found this info very helpfull Nice purple shirt. BigT,Alaska

[@user-qh4uv5dz7i]

Thanks!

[@tombuck]

Welcome!

[@ErnestoAcosta]

When do they lift the embargo on the Rodecaster Pro II? I am looking forward to seeing your impressions.

[@PeterVistisen]

This was great overview Tom - keep em’ coming for basic and advanced editing, plugins, and pipelines for FCPX and im sure many will be very grateful 🤟🏼

[@tombuck]

Thanks Peter! Trying to answer some of the questions I seem to get often.

[@wascollegeworthit]

Man -- I cracked up after seeing your library card dad joke.

[@danielschaller-digitalcrealab]

Ah, really like the monthly library concept 👍 Currently I'm in the one project, one library camp but for no reason really just... habits

[@tombuck]

That’s honestly probably the safer way. I’ve just also been doing it the monthly way forever, so I’m stuck in my routine 😁

[@clareherriot]

Thank you. Do you ever save the XLP file so that you can add raw footage to a new footage later if a client asks for an edited version?

[@tombuck]

I’ve definitely done that, but for me it’s not too common. In those cases I usually make a folder with all the footage, project files, and library inside.

[@crumpetsbuttered]

Great video, how do you store your project files? do you have a NAS?

[@tombuck]

I keep my current files on my computer's internal 2tb drive, but after that everything is backed up to a NAS. We finally got one last year and it's made a world of difference.

[@magopoker]

Great video

[@tombuck]

Thanks you, glad it was helpful!

[@willowandoakphotography474]

Loved your video, thank you! I learned a lot. Ok, here’s my question tho. What is the best way to organize if you want the fluidity to pull footage from various client projects to make a showreel??? In other words, can you easily access your source material between Libraries &/or events? If so, how? Maybe that’s a dumb question, but that was the question i was really hoping I would find an answer to. :). I’m very new to FCP. Thanks!!

[@tombuck]

Not a dumb question at all! If you're planning to do this sort of thing in a short period of time, then keeping everything in one library is probably fine. If you want to keep a collection of work over a long period of time to come back to and create highlights reels, then it's just important to keep things organized on a SSD or NAS server. You cna always bring the footage back into a new library.

[@willowandoakphotography474]

@@tombuck Thanks! I think you answered my question when you said "You can always BRING THE FOOTAGE BACK INTO a new library." So, from within a specific library, you CANNOT grab footage from another library or event to use, but you need to IMPORT the footage AGAIN from your source folder into FCP??? Is that right???

[@focusboxmedia5471]

thanks. me as a premiere pro user was confusing but not any more 😀

[@tombuck]

Happy to hear it! Every app has it's own quirks for sure.

[@burrows10011]

A question about how you would suggest organizing the best. I make nice simple movies of my ski trips or family vacations. I'll create one movie per trip 99% of the time. Would it be ideal to create a library for "Trip to Hawaii", one library for "Ski vacation in Colorado", "Daughters Soccer Highlights" etc and THEN use the events to separate footage from each day of the trip or for each camera used (we tend to have footage from a GoPro, iPhones, Insta360 cameras, drones so its sometimes nice to keep them separate). Or Should I make the Library something like "Movies from 2022" and then make each event hold the files of an individual Trip/Vacation footage? Just trying to figure out what is the best from a work flow and logical view point. Thank you.

[@DiscordCoach]

My LibrarIES are my projects (like a single field hockey match I'm clipping, or one live stream I'm repurposing), my Events are types of content, and my Projects are my exports. That way I can move the entire library to my NAS when I'm done with that project.

[@tombuck]

Yep, that's super smart! 🙌

[@shaun_pepper]

I am here for the poetry and puns.

[@dmurray1207]

His dad jokes are ok a different level than us mortalz

[@tombuck]

I've heard that a regular joke can only become a dad joke once it's apparent.

[@MD-wk3gj]

Thanks for mentioning you don't use Smart Collections and simply delete it. For some reason wrapping my head around FCP Library, Projects, Events is not coming intuitively like almost everything else Apple and Smart Collections really wasn't making sense and seemed like multiple steps that didn't need to be made so deleting is perfect. I like the idea of deleting everything at the end of the month but what do you do with the finish product? Do you keep a copy somewhere and what if you ever needed to make a change and upload again to KZbin?

[@lucas_92]

Thanks for this! Have you noticed that FCP stores cache in the inaccesible folder “other”? I’ve been trying to clear it out but unsuccessfully. I was able to change where FCP saves files so I can delete them afterwards. Any tips for clearing out the “other” memory are much appreciated!

[@AlexHarephotographer]

Hi Tom, great Vid, one question, you deleted the library and event. Do you not need to transfer/copy it to an external drive first? otherwise how would you have a record of your film project and all your edits etc?

[@PaulFeinberg]

Nice overview….I love FCPX. I make a new library for every KZbin video, I just have a template I copy and paste

[@tombuck]

That's smart! Once you have a library get corrupted and ruin multiple projects it becomes really scary to keep everything in one place. To be fair, I think that's only happened once for me, but that was more than enough.

[@PaulFeinberg]

@@tombuck yea I need to do a video on my template. Need to figure out a good title and stuff

[@mhpreach]

Here’s the way I’ve been organizing mine on an external drive. I do two sermons a week up load to KZbin PE, rumble and Facebook. If knew of others would go their as well. Anyway. I put each in its own library, then event and the project. Series lesson I put in the same library with a different event / project for each individual lesson. Any suggestions?

[@tombuck]

This sounds like a great system to keep things both safe and organized 👍

[@阿咕咕-b6r]

Can you share your video export setup for youtube? I was some youtubers use prores 422 or 422LQ, but this makes the file very huge 😃

[@HomesickMac]

Great reminder for us pros (sic!) ain't it? I've tried editing off of an external Sabrent SSD that's supposed to go to 2500 MB/s but it cannot be compared to the internal SSD speeds. Also, all those nice external and fast SSDs will throttle if you push them too hard. So my initial idea when getting a 512GB SSD Mac Mini, that was to have the FCPX library on an external drive, went to smoke. Not even with a single camera footage and just adding titles, menus, simple color grading etc. So I moved the library onto the internal SSD but tried to import the footage so that the files are left on the external drive (not choosing the "Copy to Library" option). Better, but still.. Internal SSD is the absolutely best solution, only I sometimes need to move the actual Libraries back and forth from my external storage.

[@tombuck]

I've definitely had the best luck just using the internal drive. I'm terrible with cables/connections/etc, so getting the maximum read/write speed is always a challenge for me. Usually things work fine for basic projects, but like you said, titles specifically seem to clog things up.

[@Dronessey]

Thank You

[@elwirastadnik]

Would it be easier to call a FCPX library a chest of drawers, an event - a drawer, and a project - a final choice of a chosen and "timelined = edited" drawers content? It's helped me to "see" FCPX structure:))

[@tombuck]

That's probably a good way to look at it!

[@mattwruff]

You are totally correct it does NOT make sense. I like the cost of Final Cut Pro (pay once). But coming from Vegas on a PC I still haven't figured it out. Next, do one on Plug-in! People need to watch your Stream Deck one as well that has been a game-changer along with a purchase of a complete library of FCP Stream Deck cards (the trouble is if I ever have to edit a video without my stream deck I'm toast!)

[@tombuck]

Plug-ins are a good idea- those always confuse the heck out of me. I do really love Final Cut though. I had to learn it on the fly when I started teaching Digital Media. It just happened to be what the class was already using, so I spent a lot of time Googling things with students to figure it out. But it clicked pretty fast and I do really love it.

[@BrianHuether]

One question: I thought actual original media is stored separately - not in Library or Event. When I create Event I tell it to leave media in original location. That way I was planning to keep original media and project data (libraries) on other drive. Also, you mention project file. I have wondered about that for a while. I have never seen an actual project file. I always have to open a library to see a project file. Just trying to clarify. Thanks!

[@bigbtechproductions]

Make it make sense Tom Buck! Thank you for this lolf

[@tombuck]

So glad it was helpful! Sometimes it's these foundational things that get overlooked and cause all kinds of confusion later one. I'm definitely speaking from experience...

[@bigbtechproductions]

@@tombuck Love it! Your channel has helped me TREMENDOUSLY! Thank you for all the work that you do, this definitely encourages me for my channel! See you in the next video!

[@PrimalVideo]

First!

[@Jello998]

So I am starting out editting footage of sports. Should I keep my original files? Or should I just delete the originals?

[@kalintaylor8945]

0:42 An Arthur reference? I see you are also a man of culture.

[@amberbrown5788]

the puns were great

[@ChannelWright]

Thanks! I'm feeling less intimidated by FCP now.

[@tombuck]

So happy to hear it! It’s a really fluid program to learn once you get a hang of the basics.

[@NicoleFerre]

Great video Tom :) very helpful. I have a query regarding editing a short film. I understand the concept of the "Library" as the main folder, within which I would organize "Events." Considering I have footage from 5 days of shooting, I plan to create 5 separate Events. Now, if I were to proceed with the final edit in a "Project," where should this "Project" be located?

[@tombuck]

As long as that project is within the same Library as the events, you should be good to go. Good luck with your film! 👍

[@NicoleFerre]

Thx - would it be a good idea to create a new 'event' and keep the project there?@@tombuck