Last week Apple released its 12th update to Final Cut Pro X since its release 3 years ago.

This 10.1.2 update includes a variety of workflow improvements which we covered in detail in this PVC article. Over the next few weeks we'll be discussing these changes here on MacBreak Studio. Today we start off by exploring the media management improvements.

When version 10.1 was released last December, it included a new unified library model, where projects, events, and media were all collected into a single library. This update builds on that model by introducing the Library Inspector.

Not only does the Library Inspector reflect all the information regarding storage locations for your media, cache, and backups, it also allows you to change those locations, and to move media via the Consolidate command.

In this episode, we explore the Library Inspector by defining the different storage locations, showing how tooltips reveal specific file path locations, and demonstrating how to change storage locations. One thing that may not be immediately obvious is that changing these storage locations with the Modify Settings operation only affects media that you import after making the change – it will not move any existing media. For example if you have a managed library, but then decide to move your library to an external location in order to share it with others, after making this location change you'll need to use the Consolidate command to move media that you've previously imported into your library to this new external location.

A key additional improvement to media management is that you can now move your transcoded media – that is, optimized and/or proxy files – outside of the Library with the Consolidate command. This is a welcome change as it allows you to create very small libraries for easy sharing.

We have three free videos on the media management changes and a complete media management tutorial that explains how to free up disk space, move your project to another machine for editing on the road, collaborate with other editors, archive your work and more.