Cleaning Up a Project to free up Drive Space!

[Lionzeye]

I am interested in cleaning up a project in PT10, and I want to delete unused files.

I have several "saves" of the same project/song, with different names (i.e. song a mix1, song a mix2, song a instrumental etc.)

When deleting unused files in one saved version, will it delete any files in all the versions?

I hope this makes sense, I want to clean up a project, BUT I am so worried that I will delete some original files and takes, that I do want.

It kinda seems like searching for a needle in a haystack, when it comes to figuring out files needed in each saved version if you have a dozen or so different versions of the same song.

Feeling a little swamped!

[Chief Technician]

Originally Posted by Lionzeye

When deleting unused files in one saved version, will it delete any files in all the versions?

That depends. Let's say mix1 has a clip named guitar_01 that is not on the timeline (unused). Let's say mix2 has the same clip named guitar_01 and it is on the timeline.

If you load mix1 and select unused, it will select guitar_01. If you choose to delete unused, then guitar_01 will be deleted. When you open mix2, you will find that guitar_01 is gone forever.

My suggestion is for you to remove unused clips (not delete) from each session, then save. Next, do a Save Copy In for each session and be sure to select the copy audio files option. Select the same destination folder for each session copy. When you are finished, all of your audio files should have been used in at least one session.

[Kenny Gioia]

There's a few different ways to approach this.

The response before mine is perfectly valid.

But here's what I would do.

Save everything first.

Unmount that drive.

Then, open your newest mix file and delete everything NOT used in that version.

Now open up each version and see if anything is missing. If it's just a few files you can just copy it from your backup drive back into your folder.

If it's alot, use the features in pro tools to find it and COPY each file back to your MAIN drive.

Once that's done, double-check it by opening each session with the back up drive NOT mountedand confirm that everything is there.

Then you can replace the backup with this new version.

Good luck.

[JFreak]

If you're saving sessions with different names, it will not copy audio files (i.o.w. all of them use the same files). So if you remove files, all of the sessions are affected. Save Copy In command creates a new folder structure and copies files too. You need to understand this, otherwise at some point you will destroy files that you need.

What I usually do (and because I usually record about 3 hours at a time this might not suit everyone) is this:

1) create a rough mix of the show where there is no automation but nothing is disturbing.
2) select timeline for song1 and hit consolidate (this creates new files), then REMOVE (not delete) everything else and save as song1 session. repeat for all songs.
3) the end result: original takes are the long ones (huge filesize) and whatever I do later is done with the short ones and in case I mess something up I still have the original take as a backup.

Audio files have unique identifier in the header, so sessions can share them, or if you want two sessions to use an audio file with a same file name, the unique identifier is the one that says which file is used in whatever session. Any time you create a new file by consolidating or saving a copy in, new files (and new identifiers) are created.

Please do yourself a favor and backup everything first, then take a close look at the commands available in PT before you destroy something you need.