'Remove unused media from pool' - What exactly is removed?

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?

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 :smiley:

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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