Before running Final Cut Pro X 10.1 the first time, read this.
One of the most exciting new features of Final Cut Pro X 10.1 is the introduction of Libraries. Libraries now contain both Events and Projects in one package, very similar to classic Final Cut Pro “projectsâ€.
This is a huge improvement, but of course it leaves no role for Event Manager X with Libraries, which are well managed within Final Cut Pro X 10.1.
Except Event Manager X is the best tool to use during the migration to Final Cut Pro X Libraries, therefore from today it’s free.
Libraries contain Events and within those Events are Projects (and Compound Clips). One major difference is that media can be stored in the Event folder(s) within the Library, or independently of the Library. (See my article on the new features of Final Cut Pro X 10.1 for details.)
Smarter Upgrading
In this article I’m going to explain how to use the free Event Manager X to smooth the upgrade path to Libraries. Instead of upgrading each drive into one mega library, using Event Manager X allows you to control the upgrade and build your Libraries to better reflect the combinations of Events and Projects that make up logical tasks.
Using Event Manager X to manage the transition, you can load in the related Events and Projects, and then have Final Cut Pro X 10.1 convert just that selection to a Library. The workflow is simple:
- Use Event Manager X to load up related Events and Projects
- Run Final Cut Pro X to convert that combination to a modern Library.
- Rename the Library from the default Library name given by Final Cut Pro X.
- Repeat for each combination of Events and Projects you have.
We created Event Manager X very shortly after Final Cut Pro X’s initial release to meet the obvious need to manage the visibility (and memory usage) of Events and Projects. Being a small software company enabled us to be very nimble and release Event Manager X within two weeks of Final Cut Pro X 10.0. Since Event Manager X we’ve been proud to add a lot of value to the Final Cut Pro X ecosystem with our XML translation apps – 7toX for Final Cut Pro, and Xto7 for Final Cut Pro – and our metadata workflow tools Producer’s Best Friend (reporting), Sync-N-Link X and Change List X .
Upgrading Apple’s Way
Apple provides a perfectly reasonable upgrade path. For each hard drive that gets upgraded you will be provided with one Library for all the Events and Projects on that hard drive. Now, if you’ve organized things logically by drive, that will probably be fine.
Although, even if you have drives organized by customer, having one huge Library for everything they’ve ever done probably isn’t the best organization.
For example, I shot and edited a series of Enlightened Cook videos for my friend Yogi Marlon. If I’d kept them all on one drive, then 10.1 will create me one big library, that I would rename (see below). However, I’d prefer to have individual Libraries for each project: the Hollywood Farmers Market videos, for the redos, and for the the Thanksgiving Turkey shoot (with gravy).
If you are like me, with a G-tech RAID that carries most of my ongoing work, then one big library, isn’t going to be ideal.
Of course you can create new Libraries and move Events and Projects between Libraries once you’ve upgraded, but doing that within Final Cut Pro X after upgrading is somewhat painful. 10.1 copies – rather than moves – Events or Projects between Libraries, so you have a bunch of cleanup to do.
Further, all the Projects will be in an Updated Projects Event. There is no clue as to which Projects match up with which Events.
There is a better way using Event Manager X, which is why we made it free. Download now from assistedediting.com/downloads. Spread the word.
If you are upgrading a SAN location, refer to Apple’s Help for Final Cut Pro X 10.1.
Upgrading the Better Way using Event Manager X
This method applies to internal or directly connected drives, which has always been the role for Event Manager X.
If you do not already use Event Manager X, download it now from this download location (assistedediting.intelligentassistance.com/downloads/Event Manager X.dmg).
Before running Final Cut Pro X the first time, follow these instructions.
1. Run Event Manager X.
2. Deselect all Events and Projects in the Event Manager X interface by choosing the “All Off†set from the Sets popup menu.
3. Uncheck the “Re-open Final Cut Pro X†checkbox so Final Cut Pro X will not run.
4. Click “Move Events and Projectsâ€. This moves all the Events and Projects on the drives to their respective Final Cut Pro Events – Hidden, and Final Cut Pro Projects – Hidden folders. (You could do this without Event Manager X but it’s easier with it.)
All Events and Projects are now hidden from Final Cut Pro X ready for a controlled conversion to Libraries. You can see that I have multiple different projects here: from my Solar Odyssey footage, to some Lumberjack testing, to some Enlightened Cook videos for a friend. I do not want them all in the same Library, which is what Final Cut Pro X 10.1 would do by default.
For this example I want to create a Library for the Enlightened Cook Hollywood Farmers Market shoot and edits. Because I’m a long time user of Event Manager X, I use Sets to manage what I want to work on. These make it quick and easy for me to select a combination of Events and Projects in one step. An advantage for long time Event Manager X users.
5. I select the set and all related Events and Projects are selected. If you don’t currently have sets, click the check boxes on for the Events and Projects you want to move to this new Library.
6. With the ‘Re-open Final Cut Pro X†checkbox clicked on, click on Move Events and Projects.
The selected Events will be moved to Final Cut Pro Events on the relevant drive: selected Projects will be moved to Final Cut Pro Projects on the relevant drive. This will be instantaneous and take no additional drive space. We are now ready to have Final Cut Pro X 10.1 upgrade this set of Events and Projects to a new Library.
Final Cut Pro X will offer to upgrade your Events and Projects to a Library if this is your first time running 10.1, otherwise choose the File menu and select ‘Update Projects and Events’ to bring up the Update dialog .
7. Click the Update All button.
Final Cut Pro X will give a progress bar as it updates the selected Events and Projects to the Library.
Final Cut Pro X will move media that is self contained within the Events, into the Library (while at the same time retaining a hard link to the original location so it seems like there are two copies, without using twice the hard drive space).
8. When the update is complete, decide what to do with the old Events or Projects.
I strongly recommend clicking Save to retain a copy of the original Events and Projects until you have confirmed that the Library has been correctly updated. I had no failures but caution is called for.
9. Rename your Library.
By default Final Cut Pro X will give it a name based on the hard drive name. Obviously you’ll want to name it something appropriate. Click inside the name and type in the new name for the Library. You can see that I have the Lives of Style Library also loaded into Final Cut Pro X.
If you choose to Save the old Events and Projects (as I recommend you should, at least temporarily) then Final Cut Pro X will create an “Old†folder for the upgraded Events and Projects.
Final Cut Pro X will also delete the Final Cut Events and Final Cut Projects folder, as it considers that these are now obsolete. Event Manager X recreates them so that you can continue the controlled upgrade process with other combinations of Events and Projects.
10. Repeat for your other drives, or combinations of Events and Projects from this drive. You’ll note that your Projects are contained in an Event called ‘Updated Projects’. Each Event will continue to be an Event and contain any Compound Clips previously in that Event.
11. Once you are satisfied that the Library has been updated successfully, delete the old Events and Projects.
12. Repeat from Step 5 for as many projects as you want to update.
7toX for Final Cut Pro for translating XML from Final Cut Pro 6/7 or Premiere Pro CS 6 or later.
Xto7 for Final Cut Pro for translating XML from Final Cut Pro X to Final Cut Pro 6/7 XML (also for Premiere Pro)
Producer’s Best Friend for generating all sorts of reports and clip listings from your Projects and Events
Sync-N-Link X (for batch merging timecode-based dual system sound); and
Change List X (for Change Lists in film and TV production).
68 replies on “Upgrade your Events and Project to FCP X 10.1 Libraries the better way”
Thanks for the best practice tips Phillip, popped a link to this on Kens site
cheers
Graeme
I don’t want 10.1 to load EVERYTHING every time, so I wish there was a way to only load the libraries I want…maybe a “Library Manager” app?
Or is there a way to do this in 10.1 already? Only load certain libraries?
FCP X 10.1 doesn’t work the way FCP X used to. Only the Libraries you load are active. Nothing is loaded by default.
There is no need for a tool to manage this. Just load the library(s) you want to work with and nothing else is visible.
Way, way better than Event Manager X.
Philip you are always a great source of FCP knowledge…
(so much for the buttering up 😉
So how would you treat multiple users on a single system assuming each user has his or her own partition (or external drive) to work from?
I’m in an academic situation.
Ross
Each user has their own library. Store it wherever it mounts. Done. They can have multiple libraries on the same drive and just load the ones that you’re working on right now.
thanks for the info, but i had no idea this was all going down and opened Event Manager X as normal after the update, so want do those of us who screwed up to do get the rest of our projects and events to open in FCPX? thanks
I don’t understand the question sorry Blair. If you already updated a whole drive and didn’t keep the Events and Projects from the original, you’ll need to organize that mess into Libraires inside FCP X. If you still have the Original Events and Projects delete the library you have and follow the steps in the article.
If you’ve upgrades some and there are still Events and Projects to update, simply follow the steps in the article.
Hey guys, hope all is well..thanks for the new tutorial..One question..Today after i upgraded to the new 10.1 i soon realized that my additional content was missing after i clicked the music icon button over the timeline..Help please..I tried the additional content button but it just took me to the app store and that’s it..could it be hidden somewhere or was it discontinued? antonio
Sorry Antonio, I don’t have any idea. And worse, I just checked and I don’t have any of my additional content available, but I know it’s still there (maybe that’s why it wouldn’t download again). Will have to find out how to re-establish those links.
I solved my missing content problem by restarting FCP X. It wasn’t there. I quite, restarted, and it is there again. I’d definitely try a full restart of the computer.
How long does the the process take for around a dozen events and projects in one library?
Almost instant. Less than a minute because no media is copied. It’s very clever what they’re doing with “hard links” so the same media file appears in both the new Library (in an Event) and any saved version of the old library. The hard drive does not lose any space, yet both locations have original media (not an alias). Same as what is used in Time Machine.
Well it looks like FCPX 10.1 has stalled, then. I can see the menu bar but most choices are ghosted. No interface windows have opened. This does not look good. 🙁
I’d force quit, then delete FCP X preferences, then restart my computer and try again.
I forced quit and then launched FCPX and then updated files. This seems to have worked. Looks like it did not like the relaunch from Event manager. For the rest on my files I will just launch FCPX myself.
You might want to check this out:
This happens with a few people after an udate, either because there’s a problem with the database file, or a problem with the app itself. Here’s some things to try:
– manually update Event Manager X:
• Download the latest version from http://assistedediting.intelligentassistance.com/downloads/Event%20Manager%20X.dmg
• Drag Event Manager X to the Applications folder alias
• Choose “Replace file” when prompted. Event Manager X will be copied into your Applications folder
– manually trash the databases that EMX creates: the databases are in your user’s Library/Application Support/Assisted Editing folder.
• In Finder hold down the Option key and choose Go > Library
• Find the Application Support/Assisted Editing folder and trash the files called Event Manager X.yml and Event Manager X.plist
Trust me, you do not want to let FCP X upgrade to Libraries without managing the process.
Looks like I can’t rename the Libraries. ??
Sure you can. It’s part of the process in the article. Select the Library in FCP X and rename as you normally would. Or close it and rename at the Finder level.
Ya I know I select the library and try to type in a new name and nothing happens. Looks like I will have to research this one.
Select a Library, then press Return to have it change into an editable field. It’s the same action as if you were renaming a folder in Finder.
I had to do it from the finder level. 🙂
I’d be doing a repair permissions on that drive. Every library I’ve updated I’ve renamed inside FCP X. Across three different physical drives.
Thanks Phillip wery usefull app and tutorial.
for some reason I tried this and now i cannot open any of my old projects or events, after updating. ????? I only have one . All of the other projects are not openable ??? please any help is greatly appreciated !!!
Unfortunately I wasn’t looking over your shoulder so I can’t tell you what went wrong. I know I did about 20 different libraries when upgrading and had no hiccups, and apparently that’s the normal experience.
How can you open the saved Old Final Cut Projects, when i try to open , it is a text document ???
The only thing that will open the saved old Events and project is the old version of FCP X or FCP X 10.1 to upgrade.
What is the real question?
Somehow in all of this I lost projects. I have the saved versions in the Old Final Cut Events and Projects folder, but I can not open them. I can not update them , they are greyed out and it wont allow me to select them. I can see them there in folder but cannot select them. When i look at them in the Finder window and i try to open the old projects they are a text file. What can I do ?
I followed your steps, but could only update one set going from Event Manager X to FCPX 10.1. Now I can’t seem to get 10.1 to go through the same process with the rest of my sets. Am I doing something wrong?
Hello Philip:
A week ago today I bought Final Cut Pro X 10.0 to run on my new iMac, and on the advice of others also bought Event Manager X to manage my future projects. I’m new to FCPX, and have no video files to manage. I also have no libraries to use Event Manager X for migrating to the FCPX 10.1.
With need for the now-free Event Manager X having evaporated with a mouse-click, I’d like to ask whether you would offer credit to me toward the purchase of another product you offer for sale. Of course I would happy to pay the difference in price.
Thanks for considering my request.
Regards,
John
Send an email to info@intelligentassistance.com with your order number and we’ll take care of it for you.
Hi,
Thanx so much for this, helped me out a lot. The transition to FCP X 10.1 was easy this way. I’m happy to have read this before opening the updated FCP.
A question about the original and transcoded material of the events. It appears to be moved to the ‘Old projects and events’ folder, too, I nearly threw it all away.
Can I move this material to a difererent folder, for example a folder with the library, the rough footage and the transcoded material to have it together in one spot? Will FCP find it this way?
Thanx again for your clear explanation.
If your media was managed media – inside the Event folder before upgrading it is in the new Library folder. To be sure you can run the Consolidate command. You do NOT have to keep the old Event. Even though the original media seems to be original it is in fact in two places at the same time using the hard links technology proven in Time Machine.
“Even Manager X.app” can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer.
That’s the message I get when trying to open. Help!
The solution to an overly aggressive Gatekeeper setting is to right click on the app and choose open. BTW, no idea why you get that message as we’ve been a register, identified developer the entire time that apps been out, and it’s developer signed according to Apple’s guidelines.
Philip
Bingo! Thanks for the quick response.
Hi – thanks for this – very helpful stuff… q: if I have file(s) in ‘Updated Project’ that are causing 10.1 to crash, is there a way to isolate those so that the entire group is not corrupt?
I’ve fixed permissions, removed and reinstalled FCPX, tried doing separate libraries – but it seems like some key project files are in the updated projects area which is causing 10.1 to hang consistently.
If it’s a specific Library, you could quit FCP X and open the library by right clicking on it and selecting Show Package Contents (or very similar wording). You can then remove the Project folder you suspect is causing the issue. BUT I do not know if this will cause even worse problems, but short of being able to delete the Event with the problematic Project in it, I don’t know what else to suggest.
I have a unique and important question… In FCXP 10 I have several projects that reference multiple events from different international film shoots over the years. For instance I have a massive event library on a drobo that consists of about 40 different international shoots. And I have about 20 different projects referencing footage from all different events from that list of 40. Just curious if you or anyone else figured out a “best practice” for addressing this scenario. Any help you could provide on this issue would be so so appreciated.
Easy. Media should go into a central media location. Each of your projects becomes a Library. Event Clips will be duplicated into the Library, but they’re really small with the media external.
Philip, thank you so much for the incredibly fast reply. So if I’m following you correctly I should just turn on all of my events on the drobo using Event Manager X. And then allow FCPX 10.1 to update the entire drobo to a new library. And then turn on the individual projects and allow those to be turned into individual libraries?
Oh no, do NOT allow FCP X to upgrade your whole drobo. You will never work out which Projects go with which Events.
Assuming your media is already in one central store, not inside each Event (managed media). Then turn on the Events and Projects for project 1. Upgrade according to the instructions in this post.
Repeat for Project 2. Doesn’t matter if the Events appear in more than one Library as long as the media is external.
Ok I think I follow you now. Work on 1 project at a time just as your post explains. My concern is I will end up with tons of duplicated media? Or what happens when Project A is referencing media from Event 1, Event 2, and Event 3. Then I upgrade the projects and events to the new library model. Then I move on to updating Project B which references media from Event 1, Event 2, Event 12, and Event 14. I already upgraded Event 1 and Event 2 to the library model when I upgraded Project A. Will project B know where to find the media that “was” in Event 1 and Event 2 now that those have been upgraded to the new Library Model? Follow?
Yes, that’s exactly what the article says. As for media duplication…
You’ll notice that I said “If your media is external to your Events”. If it’s external you won’t get any duplication of media. If it is stored inside your Event then you will get duplication, but after the upgrades you could consolidate your media from all Libraries into a single media location.
You’d have duplication during the process but eventually only a single copy.
If the media is already managed separately, then there will be no duplication.
Thanks for clarifying that. On my Drobo, the actual media is stored inside each individual event. So I would imagine I end up with large amounts of duplication. Hmmm… this will be an interesting process 🙂 Thanks so much for you time.
If you have the space on the drobo for duplication then I’d go that way, and consolidate to a media store at the end, which should eliminate the duplication.
If not then you could consolidate media as you go, and relink next time they’re to be used.
Also, you’ll have to save the Events after upgrading and manually move them back to the Final Cut Events – Hidden folder ready for next time.
“Also, you’ll have to save the Events after upgrading and manually move them back to the Final Cut Events – Hidden folder ready for next time.” That was a super helpful note. I would have never thought about that. Ok excellent! I’ll give it a go.
Can you either explain or share a link to someone who explains what you mean by “consolidating to a media store at the end” of this process?
Sorry, no link because I’m not sure who worked it out and it wasn’t step by step.
Open each Library. I think the Consolidate command is in the File menu, select that. Choose “other” and locate (or create) a destination for media on your Drobo. Then Consolidate the Library to that location.
Close that Library. Repeat for each Library. FCP X 10.1 should not duplicate media it already has in the media location, so ultimately you’ll lose the duplication.
All highly theoretical but it should work.
I purchased Final Cut Pro X today. When I go to “Download Additional Content”, I get taken to the Mac App Store “Updates” page, but it says there are no updates. I’ve tried rebooting. I’ve also tried this on a second Mac with the same results. What’s going on? Is there a way to manually download this additional content?
Mac App Store issues can only be dealt with by Apple’s App Store support people. There is no way to download it outside the App Store mechanisms Apple provide.
How should we handle plugins? I’ve written to the makers asking if their plugins work with 10.1 but they’re so slow to reply, so I can’t upgrade yet. If I have a project that uses several plugins and they don’t work, what can I expect? Will it break something in the project, or when they update them will it start working automatically?
I would expect when you update the plug-in it should then work. Very few have problems btw.
Thanks, Philip.
Hi
I’ve been a long time user of Event Manager and I recently upgraded to Mavericks and FCP 10.1 and upgraded Event Manager.
I followed your instructions carefully, but Event manager just goes into waiting mode, doesn’t update FCP X and I’m completely stuck as I can’t get any of my old projects & event working now HELP please.
I’ve reinstalled EV switched off restart FCPX , tried everything. I’ve got a lot of urgent work to do.
Ok
I finally sorted it by rebuilding the EV database. phew!
I was just about to post our standard troubleshooting on upgrade post, which includes rebuilding the database. Glad you got it working.
Philip,
You seem like the best person for this question. I just bought FCP because I am sick and tired of iMovie 13’s bugginess. However, I spent lots of time reorganizing everything in iMovie into libraries. How do I get those over to Final Cut?
I see there is a menu item in iMovie called Send Movie to Final Cut Pro, but no matter what I select, it is grey.
How do I get my iMovie libraries into Final Cut Pro X 10.1?
Thanks!
When FCP X 10.1 is installed that Send Move to Final Cut Pro should be active. if it’s not then you’ll need to contact Apple Support because that is the method of moving from iMovie 13 and FCP X 10.1/
Hi Phil- You suggest opening events and projects with EMX and upgrading to a library, renaming and repeating process for each group of related projects and events. Question for you. How do I handle a project/library that uses the same event. For example: Projects A and B both used clips stored in event Y. Using EMX I had project A and its’ events, including event Y, open in FCPX which I upgraded. The upgrade process put that event in a library, and it no longer shows up in my list of events in Event Manager X to choose to open and include with Project B to upgrade into a ‘B’ library. Maybe I’m missing something but once used, I’m not seeing the events available to reopen and include in another project that used the same event/clips.
Please help PS- I’ve used EMX for a long time and it has been a life saver; thanks!
Dave
When FCP X asks if you want to keep the upgraded Events and Projects, say yes. They go into a folder by the name of the drive and “Old” appended (from memory). It gets a little manual but inside that folder you’ll find the Events folder. Drag the Event you want to use again into the active Final Cut Events folder or to the Final Cut Events – Hidden folder. EM X will recognize it and manage it from there.
Thanks Phil- I thought it might be like that.
Take Care
Dave
Thank you, Philip, for your creativity and ingenuity with Event Manager X. Your app was a HUGE help in my workflow, and I am sincerely grateful for your hard work. And while it seems Event Manager X will not be needed nearly as much going forward, your humility about it all is refreshing and I really respect it. Your toil was DEFINITELY not in vain.
Kind Regards & God Bless,
John
Thanks for your kind comments John.
Hi Philip!
No matter what I do, I can not upload my old projects, The events works but not the projects. I’ve tried manually and nothing. please help me?
If you follow the steps in the article it works, as long as you have not already let FCP X upgrade by itself.
Hi Philip,
thanks a lot for the tool. Unfortunately, when I open the EMX, its empty. No projects or events visible. Am I missing something?
Thanks!
Once you let Apple upgrade you Events and Projects to Libraries, then there are no Events or projects for Event Manager X to see. You should have used it to upgrade. Once the upgrade is finished, delete Event manager X from your system as it has no future use.