Archiving without media not working?

[ManChicken]

Trying to archive my first real project I need to keep.  It's 99% linked sources which I will back up to LTO separately as the original media; I don't need any renders or media I cached.

I've created a new archive.  Cache Media on Archive is turned off, and I selected Exclude Renders and Cache which, according to grid in the manual should create "an archive where media and renders are not archived, only the clips. This is the smallest possible project archive."

With my options set, I click 'Archive Project' and it tells me it wants to write out ~773MB which seems excessive for a small project with a couple of finished sequences.  It's still much smaller than if I select 'Include Renders & Cache' which wants to do 30GB, but something doesn't seem right.

So for the hell of it I selected my 2 finished sequences and did a Flush Renders on them.

Now when I hit the Archive Project button it only wants to write out ~101MB.  If I cancel that and instead of hitting Archive Project I manually drag the two Media Libraries in the project into the archive, the status says it only wants to write ~60MB.

What's going on here?

[Grant.Kay]

Hi Bob,

You are experimenting with the differences between project archiving and selection archiving.

Selection archiving is simply dragging your clips (sequences or sources) into an archive and that is the only things that are backed up.

A project archive is much more than that. It is everything in the project. So if there are any clips else where in the project, they will be archived.

The other consideration is that all other surrounding metadata is backed up as well. This includes configuration files, project settings and don't forget about snapshots (which can contain media too!).

These small files may not be significant individually however when you add them up, they do increase the archive size.

Having said that, a 40MB difference these days is not such a big deal. 🙂

If we were talking about a difference of 40 gigs than I would definitely look at what is stored in the project to cause such a difference.

Hope this helps.

Regards
Grant

[Robert.Adam]

Hi Bob,

Grant has explained very well what could account for the 40MB difference between selective archive and project archive.

What intrigues me is that the total was 700MB even when you chose to not include renders and cache. Does your project use proxies? Does it have lots of audio?

I've tried a few test projects over here and by excluding renders and cache the estimate always went down from many gigabytes to just a few megs.

Regards,

Robert.

[ManChicken]

I can understand the moderate difference in size in using the Archive Project button vs. dragging all my project contents to an archive - thanks for the explanation.

As for the other significant bloat, I made a test project and couldn't duplicate it.  Then comparing it to the original project in question, I was able to duplicate it, discoving a very specific use case.  See if you can duplicate it as well:

1. Import a clip or still image and drop it in a sequence.  Whichever it is, trim it out to be a few seconds long.

2. Create a project archive, and with Exclude Renders and Cache selected hit Archive Project and note the size of the archive it wants to create (probably 40 to 50MB in an otherwise empty project)

3. Go back to the sequence and create a BFX on the clip, selecting 'Include Timeline FX'.  This results in a schematic with the clip piped into a Resize node (changing it to 16bit fp presumably, see pic) piped into the output.

4. Exit out of BFX and render the clip.

5. Go back into the archive and with Exclude Renders and Cache still selected, hit Archive Project and note the size has bloated up to a few gigs (depending how long you made the clip)

6. Go back to the sequence and purge the renders for the clip, then re-archive and you'll see the size go back down to or very near the original size.

I can't seem to duplicate it any other way besides the initial 'Include Timeline FX' that gets the original Resize into the schematic and off the effects pipeline.  But for whatever reason renders from effects made this way seem to work their way into the archive (I guess they are considered neither media nor caches but something else!)

[BKM]

The archive ignore options don't apply to clips inside of BFX.  It's a bug or limitation. So if you have cached clips or renders in BFX then they will get archived as full media.

[ManChicken]

I can make a BFX on a clip and do whatever I want in there and it won't try to archive the render.  It seems to only happen specifically when you create a BXF with 'Include Timeline FX' selected (which to me sounds like a bug.)

[Robert.Adam · Accepted solution]

Hi Bob.

I was able to reproduce the issue and logged a defect: BSPR-13487

Thank you so much for providing the repro steps.

Best regards,

Robert.