Drive with Final Cut Pro video files on it is dying, need to point FCP to the backup drive

final-cut-prohard drivelibrary-managementstoragevideo editing

We have a 45 minute feature in Final Cut Pro. We've kept the video files on an external drive which is evidently dying — like totally dying. Let's call this dying drive OldDrive. Fortunately we have a backup drive that has all the same files in exactly the same file structure — it's an exact copy of the folders and files on the original drive. Let's call this NewDrive. Unfortunately, NewDrive is a different drive with a different manufacturer and different name in the finder. Since OldDrive is dying/dead, we cannot use any of the Final Cut Pro library functions to move the library from within. Is there any way in Final Cut Pro to just tell it to link all the video files on NewDrive instead? It would be a real chore to try and relink every file one by one.

Best Answer

Reconnecting the original and even proxy media is very easy in Final Cut Pro.

  1. Disconnect your oldDrive
  2. Connect your newDrive
  3. Open the Final Cut Pro X library and open the media tab. All media which can't be found will look something like this:
    Missing file
  4. In your top menu bar go to file, next reconnect media and then select original media.
  5. Search for the files on the newDrive.

This Apple support article covers this also very well.

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