Tips for Using Archives

General Guidelines

• Multiple users can connect to the same file archive and restore material, projects, and settings from it. But only the first user to open it can write to it! Once that user closes the archive, someone else can open it and write to it.
• After you have processed a clip, remove any material that you are no longer using before you create your archive.
• Try to keep your libraries clean at all times. Remove clips that are no longer being used and delete earlier but no longer used versions of your work.
• Use a consistent and clear naming technique so that you can easily find your material when you want to create or open an archive.
• Consolidate clips before archiving, to save space.
• If you want to use the workstation that archived the material as an access point for the contents of the archive: in Archive Options, set Linked Archive Options to Use Archived Path, and then restore the archived project. The path for media is displayed in the File Location column Media Panel.

Archiving When Working On Location

For projects done on remote location, and then archived without media, it is possible to relink later the archived clips to their media files, even if the media are not in the same location. Archive the project using the settings:

• Cache Media on Archive: disabled.
• Archive Renders box: set to Exclude Renders and Cache.

These create the smallest possible archive containing only the clips of the imported media files (links), and the media generated by tools such as Paint. Renderings from Timeline FX are not archived with these settings.

To restore and relink:

1. Restore the archived project.
   • If the media is stored at the path displayed in the Location column (in the MediaHub browser, when viewing the archive using the Workspace view), then all the clips are automatically relinked to their media once restored.
   • If the media is stored in a different location, then the restored clips are unlinked. Continue with this procedure.
2. In the Media panel, right-click the sequence and clips to relink. Select Media Unlink Reloadable Media. This deletes from the sequence the old paths that linked the clips to the media. Since the media is no longer accessible, these paths are obsolete.
3. Relink the clips to the media:
   1. Open the sequence and go to Conform tab.
   2. Set the Match Criteria to File Name.
   3. Click Set Search Location and navigate to the folder where you want to search from, and click Set.
   4. When media files are found, press Link Matched Sources. The sequence is now ready to be used.