fix the Autosave function on FCPX

Now that FCP-X has been shown to the world there is one feature that I would like them to fix and that is the Autosave function (not the Autosave Vault, it's OK)

I've been a non-linear owner/editor since 1993. Back then there was one feature that both D-Vision & LightWorks had that was just wonderful! Each edit was saved when created. If the power went out or if the system crashed none of my edits would be lost. None! Nor would I have to worry about saving my project every few minutes as I do now. Neither was there the intrusion of the Autosave function every few minutes. Now when my system crashes I get very frustrated knowing that I will loose the last 5 to 10 minutes of my work. (30 minutes if left in the default setting.)

If you are as frustrated with this problem as I am, I encourage you to write to Apple using the "Provide Final Cut Pro Feedback" under the "Final Cut Pro" menu. My hope is that this problem can be buried forever.

Good Lord! Saving every edit automatically? No thanks. Anything goes corrupt, it gets written to your project whether you want it to or not? That much write/replace action on the drive?

Learn to hit save, man. If you're relying on only Autosave, there's something wrong with your Final Cut Pro operation. This is like blaming Microsoft for losing your 500-page Word document because you feel like keeping it in the Trash.


www.derekmok.com

dr, most editors don't find the relative intrusiveness of the autosave objectionable enough to complaining about.

However, I know where you are coming from. Way back about 1999 I worked for a year or so freelance on a system
Lightworks made called the Lightworks V.I.P. This was their attempt at having a system that could do online work. It was
a hybrid of sorts with your basic non-linear editing system tied to two hardware DVE channels. Media was fed from a Grass Valley Profile server.

It was version 1.0 and the damn thing was horribly buggy. Crash after crash. The problem was something to do with the driver for their
film style controller. If you just looked at the controller sideways the system would crash. Usually turning the controller to the left to shuttle media
backwards would crash the system. So it was dozens of crashes everyday until they came in with a software fix.
Until it got fixed all you could do was scrub backwards with your mouse and avoid the controller.

However, the autosave feature was pretty nice. The system ran on Windows NT and had a separate old style "green" text monitor for the express purpose of displaying system information. I don't think the VIP saved every single edit but it saved at least every 30 seconds. You could watch it work. And it did not intrude or interrupt the use of the edit system at all. It was actually pretty nice considering that the other systems I worked on were Avid ABVB and the saves on those things were horribly, horribly intrusive.

So for all the crashes I had to wade through, hundreds probably, it never lost more than a couple of edits.
That was a great feature.

Unfortunately, it was just about the only great feature and the VIP is now long gone.

Anybody experience , like me, the ASV just not actually working. Set the period, wait for an autosave. Nothing...

Might all be moot anyway with the release of Lion with "Autosave" and "Versions"

from Apple's website:

"Autosave" Say good-bye to manual saving. Auto Save in Mac OS X Lion automatically saves your work ? while you work ? so you don?t have to. Lion saves changes in the working document instead of creating additional copies, making the best use of available disk space. The lock feature prevents inadvertent changes from being saved and automatically locks documents after two weeks. And the revert feature returns you to the state the document was in when you last opened it, so you can feel free to experiment with confidence.*

"Versions" Versions records the evolution of a document as you create it. Mac OS X Lion automatically creates a version of the document each time you open it and every hour while you?re working on it. If you need to revert to an older version or retrieve part of a document, Versions shows you the current document next to a cascade of previous versions ? in an interface similar to that of Time Machine ? so you can see how your work looked at any given time. You can revert with a click, or quickly copy and paste work from a previous version into the current version.*

More info at Appleinsider.com
Inside Mac OS X 10.7 Lion: Auto Save, File Versions and Time Machine

Respectfully disagree Derek ... all that is being saved is a history of actions, no bigger a deal than "journaling", the idea that one should "learn to hit save" is obviously admirable but its relevance is solely based on the fact that if one doesn't then ones f@#$ed. I've worked on multiple systems that maintain a constant preserved state not "autosave", and its wonderful thing to behold. Crash, Power Outage, whatever ... everything comes back after you restart.

Cheers
Andy

Okay. As long it's reliable and doesn't cause bugs. I might argue then it's not an autosave function. It's an Undo list that gets preserved even when the application quits (in the project file itself). Me, I'd still prefer the reliability of knowing that the thing doesn't save unless I tell it to. I don't like software that's too "smart" and tries to guess what you want, because I often find those guesses to be a hindrance (eg. auto spelling check) rather than a help.


www.derekmok.com

I have had at least 3 very nasty experiences with Auto Save (Confessions of an Editor)

Working on a system in a production house for 2 hours when the thing crashed only to discover that the the autosave function was switched off!!! (Shame on me I didn´t Cmd S)

Also worked in another production house where things crashed and couldn´t open the Auto save File!!!

Another thing that is dodgy is juggling between several projects eg 6, autosaves set to 20 minutes and the thing crashes, actually happened to me once in the depth of Germany. Arghhhhhh

Save, save and save is very cool but I have to admit it is kind of nice having your project crash (Lightworks) opening it and having every thing exactly as it was. Maybe an autosave history? In 10/20/30 minute steps as plan C.

i.e. Cmd S, Auto Save after every Edit, Auto Save History

Thats a periodical autosave function - not what Apple are proposing in Lion at all.

In Lion everything will be saved right up to the moment of quitting or crashing regardless.

Hopefully this function will be on the Snow Leopard version of FCPX too.

For many years Adobe After Effects has done a very good job of saving if a crash happens. I've not lost an AE file in as long as I can remember. When done correctly I would imagine we will very quickly forget how much of a waste of time manual saving is (unless you want to save a copy to another location for data backup).

I'm just wondering what sort of file-sizes we are going to see in this sort of setup and whether the undo/save lists will be attached to the project files/folders or to a separate directory as they are now.



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> Also worked in another production house where things crashed and couldn´t open the
> Autosave File!!!

Yeah, that definitely needs fixing. An even more common issue up to now has been that you have Autosave enabled, a legit disk location for the Vault, only that it hasn't been saving files. Not excusable, even to a manual-backup fiend like me. This is actually why I haven't been depending on Autosave -- it's been too unreliable.


www.derekmok.com