You can also use Postlab Drive along with other locally attached storage and/or network attached storage. Final Cut Pro teams can take advantage of Postlab's Relink Prevention feature by defining the MEDIA LOCATION for Libraries added as Documents to a Production.
Where should I store Postlab's caches?
In Postlab there are 3 categories of caches:
1.
Productions - Preferences > General > DEFAULT PRODUCTION LOCATION
2.
Drive - Preferences > Drive > CACHE LOCATION
3.
Your host NLE - Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro
Store these caches on high-performance, local storage such as an internal SSD, an external SSD, or a RAID built for performance.
Do not store your caches on shared storage, whether it's network attached storage (NAS), a storage area network (SAN), or cloud storage (e.g. Postlab Drive).
In Final Cut Pro, set your Library's Cache to a folder outside your Library.
For Premiere Pro, if you're using Projects with Postlab Productions, Postlab creates Scratch Disks for you in the same folder where your Productions are cached (Preferences > General > DEFAULT PRODUCTION LOCATION).
I installed or updated Postlab and get a Missing Components error.
Missing Components
This is not something destructive, and easily remedied. Although in most cases it's caused by conflicting installations of developer tools, the remedy doesn't interfere with other apps and only touches Postlab.
How do I move my Media and/or Cache outside my FCP Library?
Before Postlab, one or more of your Library's Storage Locations were likely set to In Library. With Postlab, nothing goes in the Library. This keeps your Library as lean as possible for quickly importing Libraries or uploading changes to Postlab.
When importing or uploading a Library, Postlab will detect if any of these exist in your Library:
Cache, which includes these folders:
/Render Files
/Analysis Files
Original Media
Proxy Media
Optimized Media
Here's how to move and/or remove these.
Cache
In FCP, select your Library in the Libraries sidebar, go to the Inspector.
Next to Storage Locations, click [Modify Settings].
If Cache is set to In Library, choose a folder outside of your Library on a high-performance local drive.
Do not store a FCP Library's Cache on shared storage, whether it's network attached storage (NAS), a storage area network (SAN), or cloud storage (e.g. Postlab Drive).
FCP will ask you to confirm: Do you want to move your render files? You can [Include] your current cache to be moved to this new folder, or [Don't Include] and FCP will create a new cache there.
Once you decide, click one of those options, and your Cache will be outside your Library.
Afterwards, go back to Postlab and import or upload your Library.
Original, Proxy, and Optimized Media
FCP's Consolidate feature lets you move media inside a Library to a destination folder outside the Library.
In FCP, select your Library in the Libraries sidebar, then go to the Inspector.
In the Media section, click [Consolidate].
In the Consolidate Library Media dialog, select the media you'd like to move based on the media types you're currently using:
Original media
Optimized media
Proxy media
If you try consolidating a media type that doesn't exist in your Library, FCP will offer to [Transcode] media of that type, or you can [Continue] with the consolidation.
A folder for each media type will appear in the location defined in Library > Storage Locations > Media, which should be outside your Library.
Afterwards, go back to Postlab and import or upload your Library.
Manual Removal
In some cases, you may need to move or remove these files or folders from your Library manually before importing or uploading to Postlab.
Method 1
This requires deep digging into your FCP Library (.fcpbundle) so be sure to make a backup of the Library before proceeding!
1.
In Finder, duplicate your Library (.fcpbundle).
2.
Right-click on the Library, then choose Show Package Contents.
3.
Locate these folders, then move them to the Trash:
1.
Render Files
2.
Analysis Files
4.
In Postlab, try importing your Library into your Postlab Production.
Method 2
If that feels a bit too surgical, here's an alternative method:
1.
In Postlab, create a new Library in your Production, then [Start Editing].
2.
In FCP:
1.
Set your Library's Storage Locations. (Remember: nothing goes In Library.)
2.
Open the Library you couldn't import into Postlab, then drag-and-drop all Events into the newly created Library you opened from Postlab.
3.
Back in Postlab, upload the newly created Library.
This method won't preserve the Activity Log in the former Library. You can either keep the former Library in your Production until it's no longer needed or retry Method 1. Still having trouble? Reach out.​
Why won't Premiere Pro launch when I [Start Editing] my Project?
Currently, Postlab supports these versions of Premiere Pro:
CC 2019 (13.1.5)
CC 2020 (14.x)
CC 2021 (15.x)
If Premiere Pro doesn't launch, you likely have an unsupported version installed on your workstation. Remove the older versions of Premiere Pro, then Postlab will launch.
Have multiple versions of Premiere Pro installed? Postlab will also detect those, then prompt you to launch the desired version.
[Change Default Project Version] takes you to Preferences > Templates. Then you can set which Premiere Pro Project version will be used as the DEFAULT EMPTY PROJECT when adding Projects as Documents to a Production.