I think we can all empathise with that thought!!
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This occurs whenever you use Save As… to create a new Project from an existing Project.
It will not occur if you use Backup Project… to create the new Project.
This is because Backup will create and use a new Folder to store the Project’s Pool files. But Save As… will continue to use & share the Pool’s Folder with the initial Project.
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I have Projects so old they haven’t even started yet
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The Pool allows you to delete two different things:
- delete the reference to an audio file from the Pool (and therefore from the project) but keep the audio file untouched
- do the above AND also delete the actual audio file from the hard drive
The latter one happens only when you move a clip into the Pool’s Trash folder and then empty the Trash.
If you use “Remove Unused Media from Pool”, click the button “Remove from Pool” in the following dialog. This will only remove the references in the active project but will not delete any audio files on hard drives.
To add: I wish Steinberg would change the text of the dialog to tell the user w/o looking into the manual that there is a destructive operation ahead. Data security is king.
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Just a couple of thoughts. First, I never delete media any more. I got into this situation because I was taking a project that was set up in a good place and saving it as a template. The template carried over the media from the pool, and naively thinking that it would clean up only the template, I removed the media. Moral of that story is to delete events but never media.
The other thing I’m now doing is using Backblaze to back up everything with a 1 year history. I think it’s a great service and very secure. Full disclosure: I wrote an article for their blog back in 2022 and got a year of service for free, but now I’m just a happy, paying customer.
Does backblaze work also on a NAS/network drive?
1a) When you select “Remove unused Media” from the pool, you remove any Audio/Video clip/s from the Projects Pool that are not used in the current Project. The files are not deleted, they will still reside in the original Projects Audio/Video folder.
1b) If you save the Project after you have removed the unused Audio/Video clip/s, on reloading that Project, the removed clip/s will be absent from the Pool, but will still remain in the Projects Audio/Video folder.
1c) If you wish to reuse a clip that was previously removed from the Pool, you would need to navigate to the Projects Audio folder via Windows File Explorer to retrieve it.
Think of the “Trash” function the same as Windows Recycle Bin.
2a) When you “Move to Trash”, the clip is not deleted and can be restored at anytime during the Project it is associated with. Saving the Project, will also save the clip/s in the “Trash”.
2b) When you “Empty Trash”, this is when the clips are deleted permanently. There is no retrieve/restore, they do not go to the Windows Recycle Bin.
3a) If a BAK file is created before the “Remove unused Media” or “Move to Trash” operation, opening that BAK file will still have the original media in the pool, since the BAK file saves the last state of a Project including what was in the Pool.
3b) If you “Move to Trash” and then “Empty Trash”, opening a BAK file that was saved before the “Empty Trash” operation, will throw up a warning that some files are missing, with an option to browse and locate these files. Unfortunately, they’d have been permanently deleted with the “Empty Trash” operation with no way to retrieve the missing files.
I use these options regularly in the Pool, especially when creating Templates from Projects, removing all Audio/Video tracks and completely emptying the Pool of all clips by using the “Remove Unused Media” function.
One must be mindful not to overwrite the current Project that the Template was created from. Best practice is to save the Project before creating the Template and close the Project without saving, after the Template has been created.
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No there are some limitations to what Backblaze personal backup will backup, but it works for me with my multitiered backup strategy. Check the site for details. I’m just a happy paying customer 
Nice explanation but it would really help not to use the word “file” for an entry in the Pool. These are called “clips” and are references to files on the hard drive.
The better we communicate these things on this forum the more people will understand how things work.
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Thanks for the advice.
Post has been updated.
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