Advice: How long should I keep render files? Autosave files?

I just found apprx. 20 gigs of Autosave and render files on my hard drive. How important are these?

Question: What is the best practice? Do you keep these and archive them with your projects?

Dual 2.5 Ghz G5, 5GB SDRAM, FCP 6.0.6, QT 7.6.2, OS 10.4.11

if youve delivered the final to the client, you can delete them. if you havent, you can still trash em. worst case is youd have to re-render any effects/filters/audio again.

me, personally, i just shelve drives when done. so i leave everything at it was last used. in the event the client shows up outta the blue and wants a new edit...

On this project, I'm the client. It's a docu that I've been working on (and off) for 5 years.

i wouldnt trash autosave because they still may save you if something goes haywire. but you can trash render files at any time. you'll just have to render them again if need be.

Autosave Vault can be a bit too much over time. Most people have it set to 10 to 30 minutes per save. But two months down the road, you tend not to have to micromanage quite so much (ie. having to restore to the cut from Jan. 1, 2:35PM rather than Jan. 1, end of session).

What I usually do is keep all Autosave Vault files up to two or four weeks old (dependent on how often editing was done). Every six months or so on long projects, I go in and delete every Autosave file except the latest one on every given day. Those files can be pretty large when cumulated, so it's a good balance to wipe some out but keep enough in case of corruptions. I usually go to manual archives rather than Autosave for restoring older cuts, anyway. Autosave isn't precise or reliable enough for that purpose.


www.derekmok.com

Thanks for the suggestions. I can always re-render what is necessary on older timelines. I like the 1 Autosave per day after four weeks, Derek. An Autosave a day keeps the tech-doc away.

Dual 2.5 Ghz G5, 5GB SDRAM, FCP 6.0.6, QT 7.6.2, OS 10.4.11

I wouldn't be so quick to take the advice to delete them (render files).

One thing nobody ever mentions...if you used Quicktime References to output to say After Effects or another program...if you rendered your timeline for that QT Ref and you delete the render files, that QT Ref that you used somewhere else will not open because the reference media (the render files) is now gone. I would be very careful before deleting render files and retrace your steps.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

> One thing nobody ever mentions...if you used Quicktime References to output to say After
> Effects or another program...if you rendered your timeline for that QT Ref and you delete the
> render files, that QT Ref that you used somewhere else will not open

True...but the render files can disappear on their own anyway. They're prone to corruption, and if you re-render something in FCP, you can replace render files without seeing that happening.

QuickTime reference movies should never be used for any task lasting more than a day...if at all. Render files are simply too unreliable to count on.


www.derekmok.com