Probably the worst thing that can happen
to you as you edit a video or build a complex composition is to lose all your work
because of a crash or a hardware failure. Nooooooo...! But it could also be a software update to
version 18 that didn't go well and that you can't revert back to version 17 because
your projects aren't compatible anymore . So, in this video, we are going to cover the
different ways to protect your projects as well as how to backup the oh! so
precious DaVinci Resolve database. Let's get started We are first going to make sure that you don't
lose your editing or compositing session in case of a crash. This is not Adobe Premiere, but as with
any software yes it can still happen. Particularly if your computer isn't that
powerful and your GPU runs out of memory. Open The DaVinci Resolve
menu and select preferences. Switch to the User Tab and in the
Project Save and Load section you will find all the Save Settings. Live save is self-explanatory. DaVinci Resolve will save
your project in real time without the need to manually
hit [Ctrl] or [Cmd] + [S]. Well, I have used Premiere for over two decades so, at this point I am hitting
those keys instinctively anyway. If you have collaboration enabled like me, Live save will be automatically forced ON
and the option will appear grayed out. This live save feature alone has saved me
from losing hours of compositing work on many occasions. Not only because sometimes I go
little wild when experimenting in Fusion but also, because I have a very
young kid that loves pressing buttons. I'm Groot! NO! That's the button that will kill everyone! The following options are all about where and how often DaVinci Resolve
will be backing up your project so you can recover to a previous state. First is to choose where
those backups will be saved. I won't stress it enough... This is very important that, if possible,
you set it to a separate storage to avoid losing your backups in
case of a hardware failure. Then you can set at which interval
the backup will be performed and how far back in time you will
be able to recover a project. For example, here we have
an interval set to 10 minutes which is the default value. Hourly backup will keep the last
x hours as separate backups and will automatically replace the
oldest one as you reach this value. Same for the daily backup but
this time DaVinci Resolve will keep the last x days
as individual backups. The latest backup of each
day becoming the daily. It will be easier to understand this when I show
you how to recover one of those backups You can open the project manager
at any time from the file menu or by clicking on the Home icon at
the bottom right of the screen. Here right click on a project
and select Project Backups to display a list of every backup available. First the hourly backups followed by the daily ones. Recovering from a previous state is
not going to overwrite anything so simply select the one matching
the right time frame. Then click Load to create a copy of your project that you can
then open individually. If you ever mess up a composition so bad
that DaVinci Resolve crashes every time you try to open your project,
this is your way out Exporting a project is as simple as a right
click and choosing one of the two export options But the one thing that you should
regularly do and before every update is a backup of your Projects Library
which is DaVinci Resolve database. Inside the Project Manager or the
DaVinci Resolve Project Server app click on the Details icon and select
Backup to save it to a safe place. Once again it is recommended
to choose a separate storage . This simple task alone will protect
every project that you created and because once a Project Library
is upgraded to a new version like from 17 to 18,
there is no way back. Having a backup of your Project Library is the only way to restore your
database if you decide to downgrade. And if your Project Library is
managed by your dedicated server you can use a script to automatically
backup the whole database daily. You will find in the description
a link to a GitHub project if this is something that you would
like to implement for yourself. Restoring a Project Library
is very straightforward. Simply click on the Restore icon and select the .backup file
that was previously created. Now to manually make a copy of an entire project with all the media ingested
inside for archiving purpose, to move it to another computer
or to pass it on to collaborator, you can create a Project Archive. Right click on a project and
select Export Project Archive. Choose a disk where you have enough
space to contain the entire project including all the media ingested
into it and click Save. This window will then let you choose
what will be included in the archive. Usually you want to attach the media files but you can also use this feature to
export a lightweight version to someone by first building light proxies and only
selecting Proxy Media for the export. To import an archive you can either drag
the .dra folder into the project manager or right click in an empty space choose Restore Project Archive
and select that same .dra folder. Done! Last is the Media Management tool a powerful feature that lets you be
a lot more selective with what you do with all the media files that you
have ingested into your projects. This is a very versatile tool that
you can use to create a copy or even transcode your media. This can be done at the
project, timeline, and clips level for either all the media ingested or
only the ones that you have used. So, let's say that I want to
make a backup of this project but at the same time, I definitely don't want to deal
with an extra terabyte of data. And while selecting the Use Media
option does virtually nothing in this case because every source media has been used look at what is happening
when I use the trim option. By only exporting the cuts
plus 30 extra frame handles the space requirement is now about 5%
of what the Project Archive would take. And if you need a little extra editing flexibility you can raise the amount of frame handles There are many applications and for example I can use this to send a timeline
to someone in a very small footprint by not only trimming but
also transcoding each clip to a compressed codec that
will be easier to share There you go, I hope you enjoyed this video, stay safe and I'll see you, in next video See ya!
