Create a proxy-only project in Final Cut Pro

You can create proxy-only versions of your projects, events, and libraries for portability and performance. The proxy-only versions contain only proxy media files, along with file types that don’t support proxy media, such as audio, video with an alpha channel, and still images.

Proxy-only projects are useful for offline editing. Video proxy files use considerably less storage space, often enough to allow you to work on a portable computer instead of a desktop computer with significantly more memory and processing power.

The following instructions are for making a proxy-only version of a project, but they apply equally to making proxy-only events and proxy-only libraries.

Create a proxy-only project for offline editing

In the Libraries sidebar in Final Cut Pro, select the event that contains your project.
In the browser, select the project, then choose File > Copy [item] to Library > New Library.
Note: To make a proxy-only version of an event or a library, select it in the Libraries sidebar.
Enter a name for the new library, choose a location for it, and click Save.
In the window that appears, select Media in the Include section, then select the “Proxy media” checkbox.
In the Media Destination section, click Modify Settings and choose a storage location for the new library, then click OK.
Important: If a window appears with the option to generate proxy media for clips in the project, click Transcode.
Final Cut Pro copies the item you selected and its proxy media to the new library’s storage location (or generates the proxy media at that location). The new library appears in the Libraries sidebar.
Note: File types that don’t support proxy media (audio, video with an alpha channel, and still images) are copied to the new library’s storage location in their original format.
Open the project in the new library.
Click the View pop-up menu in the upper-right corner of the viewer, and choose either Proxy Only or Proxy Preferred in the Media Playback section.
Missing File alert icons may appear in the browser, timeline, and viewer if Media Playback is set to Optimized/Original. See Control playback quality in Final Cut Pro.

For more information about setting the library storage location, see Set storage locations in Final Cut Pro.

Relink a proxy-only project to original or optimized media

You can return a proxy-only project to the original library and reunite it with its original or optimized media.

In the Final Cut Pro browser, rename the proxy-only project (to distinguish it from the original project), then drag it to an event in the original library.
See Copy or move items between libraries in Final Cut Pro.
In the window that appears, select “Project without media” in the Include section.
Note: If you added new media to the project and want the new media to be copied to the original library, select Media in the Include section, then select the “Original media” checkbox.
A copy of the project appears in the event, automatically connected to the relevant original or optimized media.

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Final Cut Pro User Guide

Create a proxy-only project in Final Cut Pro

Create a proxy-only project for offline editing

Relink a proxy-only project to original or optimized media