is it possible to delete a clip from disk?

Hi,

When managing my footage in resolve I check the clips in media panel, set tags / keywords and so on.
If some clips are unusable I give them the keyword "toDelete".

I know I can filter for all clips with the given keyword. But is there a possibility to delete them from davinci's media pool AND from disk?

When hitting DEL it only deletes the clip from media pool, but not from disk.

Thanks,
Andreas

[Peter Chamberlain]

You need to use the Storage area of the media page to permanently delete a clip from the storage.

I imported a single frame via drag n drop into a bin, was prompted whether I want to move the file and the frame was deleted from disk. So I'd say it's possible.

Sent from my GM 5 Plus d using Tapatalk

[Shrinivas Ramani]

Mario

Media pool clips are intended to be references to the original files. Modifying attributes or deleting the clip entries in the Media pool will not affect the files on disk.

Are you referring to media storage bins or media management as opposed to media pool bins? Could you describe your scenario in more detail? With numbered steps perhaps?

Thanks
Shrinivas

Mario

Media pool clips are intended to be references to the original files. Modifying attributes or deleting the clip entries in the Media pool will not affect the files on disk.

Are you referring to media storage bins or media management as opposed to media pool bins? Could you describe your scenario in more detail? With numbered steps perhaps?

Thanks
Shrinivas

Since I use Fusion standalone as well, I (accidentally) used Shift-drag on a single frame from a sequence on disk (i.e. from Windows explorer window) and into a custom-made bin on the Media page (the Pool, I suppose). The said shortcut works successfully to import just that single frame into Fusion instead of a sequence). The file appeared in the bin and was immediately gone from the Windows explorer window i.e. from disk. Selecting "undo" in Resolve didn't revert the action, but, as I found out later, the "undo" in Windows explorer did. So obviously the Shift-drag actually performed the Windows "move file" action because Resolve doesn't recognize it even if it were performed over Resolve UI window.

This is perhaps a good time to remind that matching behavior between Resolve and Fusion whenever possible would be nice.

Cheers.

You need to use the Storage area of the media page to permanently delete a clip from the storage.

thanks. It is working for single clip by searching in media pool for the keyword, then clicking on reveal in media storage and then I can delete it there.

But is there also a chance to do so for multiple clips at once? Doing the procedure for every clip is quite a hassle.

When I deal with fotos in lightroom my workflow looks like this:
1. tag photos which are unusable as "denied".
2. filter for all photos which have flag denied.
3. select all of these denied fotos
4. click delete from disk and cataloge.

I would do sth. similar with resolve with video footage.

Thanks, Andreas

[Shrinivas Ramani]

Andreas,
Under media management, you have options to move clips. Once aggregated, you can delete the parent folder from the File browser

Andreas,
Under media management, you have options to move clips.

Is this correct?

I have a couple thousand files used in an old film, 200 or so of which are used in a new film. I have identified what is used and what isn't, and want to move the used files to a new folder so I can delete the old media, but there doesn't appear to be a "Move" option for media.

Reading the manual (R17 pg.798), it actually says "Moving all clips used in a project to a specific storage location", but I don't believe it actually does move, it can only copy.

Can you please confirm this?

The move feature was disabled because of stability concerns I believe. No word yet if it's coming back.

any update for the delete clips permanently feature? like in adobe premiere? this is must-have feature

17.3 has this on the MEDIA page.....

Screen Shot 2021-08-28 at 16.47.10.png (33.97 KiB) Viewed 3929 times

17.3 has this on the MEDIA page.....

How did get that prompt?

How did get that prompt?

+1 for having option to delete selected files from anywhere.
I often like to import all footage make a rough cut and then delete unused clips from disk to save space. Can not find a way to do this on Resolve.

How did get that prompt?

Thanks for that. Unfortunately, it doesn't really help much. It's essentially a file browser built into Resolve but there is no integration with bins or markers etc.

+1 for having option to delete selected files from anywhere.
I often like to import all footage make a rough cut and then delete unused clips from disk to save space. Can not find a way to do this on Resolve.

+1
I just need some way to mark clips within Resolve, be it by putting them in a bin, or adding a flag or clip colour, and then to be able to delete all of the marked clips.

So I found this topic when trying to find a way to delete the files from the disk as well as the media pool. Having read the manual and done some research there is no way currently to delete files from the disk from within the media pool. I can understand some of the potential reasons why it is not possible and also why some people seem confused about what people are wanting. If you are here looking for a solution I have a workaround that is at the bottom of this post.

The Problem

We have lots of clips, in our instance we shoot run and gun event footage using several operators. We end up with a lot of footage and a lot is mediocre the mediocre footage is wasting space on the drives we store on costing us money and cluttering up our disks. We want to review the footage and delete it from the disk much like a photographer does with Lightroom or a videographer can do with Premiere (if it doesn't crash whilst trying to delete!)

The Issues

The only way to delete from the disk in Resolve is to delete from the media page and it take several clicks. It is time consuming and essentially just a file manager (though admittedly better than MacOS Finder!).

What We Want

The ability to delete clips from disk that are in media bins. This means that you can review your dailies bin/tag/mark them and then delete from the disk those that you want to get rid of. For context at one event we had 912GB of footage, after reviewing we had 298GB a 66% decrease in storage space required. The workflow I think that is being talked about is something like this:

Add footage to media pool
Review footage and tag/mark/move to bin footage that you want deleted
Select all footage tag/marked/moved for deletion and delete it from the pool and the disk.

Our Current Solution

Add footage to media pool.

Review footage and add all footage for keeping to a single timeline. (Do this in the cut page and use add to timeline shortcut, the Speed Editor makes this process quick)

Once all clips you want to keep are added to the timeline, click on the "File" menu.

Select "Media Management"

Click on "Timelines" in the box that opened

Select the timeline that you added the clips to

Select a destination for the copied files, select copy used media.

Click Start.

Once completed you can delete the original footage folder all clips you wanted to keep were copied to the new folder.

Anyway I hope this helps someone, obviously this is a necrothread but I thought it may be of some use to anyone else looking this up.

Our Current Solution
[list]
[i]Add footage to media pool.

Review footage and add all footage for keeping to a single timeline. (Do this in the cut page and use add to timeline shortcut, the Speed Editor makes this process quick)

Once all clips you want to keep are added to the timeline, click on the "File" menu.

Wow. Thank you! This actually works! Up till now I used function "delete permanently" ( with custom keyboard shortcut) in media pool before adding to my bins, but in conjunction with your way it is much better now. It is not the fastest way to control what on the disk but in my case, the only one possible right now, due to non readable codecs by all programs but Davinci
Thanks again.

Our Current Solution

Add footage to media pool.

Review footage and add all footage for keeping to a single timeline. (Do this in the cut page and use add to timeline shortcut, the Speed Editor makes this process quick)

Once all clips you want to keep are added to the timeline, click on the "File" menu.

Select "Media Management"

Click on "Timelines" in the box that opened

Select the timeline that you added the clips to

Select a destination for the copied files, select copy used media.

Click Start.

Once completed you can delete the original footage folder all clips you wanted to keep were copied to the new folder.

Anyway I hope this helps someone, obviously this is a necrothread but I thought it may be of some use to anyone else looking this up.

Love the solution. And the clear feature request!

I rarely argue against a feature but I think the ability to delete files from within the NLE is very dangerous. There are other threads on here where someone thought they were deleting the clip but ended up deleting the file off the disk. The current implementation doesn't even move it to the trash - just deletes it permanently - as is warned in the UI - but still!

As someone else mentioned, this is a perfect case for Media Management. Just copies the files you want to a new location. So much safer!

This is a clunky workaround, and only for people familiar with the command line. But gotta be honest, considering that deleting unused media is infrequent, I found this route fast enough, perfectly fine. Ugly, but perfectly fine. Hugely beats 45 minutes of grinding disks copying files in Media Manager to a scratch disk with enough room, deleting files, copying back, yada yada. (BM, just join the NLE team, might as well! But until then...)

This works on Mac or Linux. Windows is slightly different. ["dir" instead of "ls -lah; "del" instead of rm, run as a batch file]

So in the media tab I made a smart bin of all the unused clips (and some other constraints).

Selected all the clips, then

• File > Export Metadata From > Selected Media Pool Clips...

Opened the .cvs in a spreadsheet, removed all columns except the file path and filename.

• Find/Replace: Append 'ls -lah' at the head of each line in the path column.
  
• Added a quote at the head of the file path, and one at the end of the filename.
  
• Save as (comma delimited) text. In a text editor, one more find/replace: Remove the commas, replace with "/"

Chmod +x and run the thing as a script. It confirms the existence of the files to delete.

Back into the text editor, find/replace "ls -lah" to "rm". Run the thing. Files gone.

Return to DRS and remove all the clips from the smart bin. All gone!

- The Poor Man's Delete all Unused Media

At your own risk, best to know the command line. And you know, this would not be a hard script it program to write and toss up on github: Convert the metadata file; show and confirm files to be deleted; execute. It can also give an option to move to Trash / Recycle Bin. That's for somebody else to do (just credt moi). Meanwhile, cheereo!