Save, Revert, Restore in Final Cut Pro – Oh My!
In the Final Cut Pro File menu, there are 5 different options you can use to either save your changes in open projects or bring a project back to life. Let’s take a closer look at these options.
To save one or more projects:
Don’t ever underestimate the power of saving frequently. You may have just spent a few hours simply organizing and naming bins and clips. But unless you want to redo that work, save what you’ve done. The easiest way to save is simply pressing Cmd-S to save the changes you make to the current project as you edit. But don’t forget to use the other Save options when you need them.
Do one of the following:
- If you want to save the current project, simply choose File > Save Project, or press Cmd-S. To save a different project, click its project tab, then press Cmd-S.
- To save a project in a different location, or to rename it from within Final Cut Pro, choose File > Save Project As, or press Shift-Cmd-S. In the file browser, enter the name and target location of the project. Then click Save.
- If you’re bouncing between open projects, you can save all open projects at one time. Choose File > Save All, or press Option-Cmd-S.
To revert a project:
Some days can get off on a really bad foot. Has that happened to you? Have you ever felt like you wanted to go back to square one and start the day all over again? When you feel like that, it’s actually pretty easy to get back to where you started by reverting your project. Choosing this option will return your current project (the active one, i.e. the selected project tab in the Browser) to the state it was in when it was last saved. If you’ve just pressed Cmd-S to save the editing steps you’re not crazy about, then this is not the option for you. (Try the next one – restore.) But if you haven’t saved for a while and want to return to what the project looked like the last time you did save it, just choose File > Revert Project.
As the warning states, you will lose all changes to the project since the last previous save. Make sure this is what you want before clicking OK.
To restore a project:
The fifth option in this set is to open a project that was automatically saved as a backup in the Autosave Vault. These backup project files are totally separate from the original project file and are even saved in a different location on your computer. To restore a backup copy of a project, choose File > Restore Project.
In the From pop-up, you can choose which backup version you want to restore. Use the date/time stamp as a reference. Keep in mind that when you restore a project from this list in the Autosave Vault, the original project will close and you will lose any changes you may have made since you last saved the project.
Tip: To save the latest version of your current project before restoring the backup project, press Cmd-S before initiating Restore Project.
To customize your Autosave Vault settings, choose Final Cut Pro > User Preferences General tab. In the Autosave Vault area, make whatever changes you wish to customize the save times and copies.
You can choose how frequently you want FCP to save a backup project copy, how many copies to keep, and for how many projects. Often times, I will choose to save a copy every 10 minutes.
Tip: Since the Restore and Revert options don’t have default keyboard shortcuts, consider giving them one. Consider mapping Revert to Option-S and Restore to Shift-Option-S.
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For more Final Cut Pro articles and tutorials, check out Diana's site at Weynand.com
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