New Computer - Where are my projects? (Resolve 16)

Hi everybody,

i hope you can help me cause i think i have (hopefully not) a disaster.

I use Davinci Resolve 16 and like 2 months ago my PC gone broke. I buyed a new PC meanwhile and installed Davinci Resolve Studio 16 on it. Altho my PC gone broke, ALL files are still there, i got all files from the full C partition (os) of the old computer and all the files i worked on in my projects, also the folder (which i gotta give in at the end of installing Davinci Resolve 16). So all my files are still there.

But now the problem is my project manager is empty, how can i get my projects back? I read at a few sites that Davinci saves the projects not on the hard disk but on the computer, but how can that be, I still have ALL files I ever used with Davinci, even made many backups to be sure my work dont get lost. Then somewhere standed i had to backup the projects extra but no one told me that, I mean its usual that everything is saved in files... So, my question, how can I get my projects back now, is there any way to get my projects back?

Otherwise it would be a massive disaster, there was so much work which would be lost if these projects would be gone now. My whole work which was very much and very important, would be gone...

Please help me! Thank you

[Peter Chamberlain]

Do you have the old system drive? The projects are in a database on the drive.
They are not stored with media.

If we assume that you used the Disk Database, and not the PostGres database, then the FAQs describe where this DB is stored, and they can be copied to your new drive.

There is also a lot of info in the manual about the DB.

[Shrinivas Ramani]

Hi Robert

If you had been using DaVinci Resolve in its default configuration in the previous computer, you would have been using a disk database.

Please take a look at the paths listed in this FAQ. You want to go to your backups, go to this path, copy the folders under that location, create a new folder (example: C:\Users\Me\Documents\Resolve Databases\) and paste them here.

Next, in project manager, click the icon on the top left to show/hide databases. Click New Database > Connect (not Create) > point it to each folder you copied.

All files are still there, all files from the old computer.
When i go on the old Computers OS partition on the path /(User)/AppData/Roaming/Blackmagic Design/Davinci Resolve there are only 2 folders: "Preferences" and "Support". In the folder "Preferences" are several files and folders, also a folder named "ProjectServer" which is empty though.

This is the content of the order "Preferences" (from the old computer):

I don't have the system in front of me, but try ProgramData>Blackmagic>Resolve>Support>Resolve Disk database.

Is the last folder (the database) there? If that doesn't work either, search for "project.db". There should be one for every project, inside the database. If/when you find one, you can go backwards to find out where the outermost folder of the database resides.

I thank you so much, no in ProgramData>Blackmagic>Resolve>Support was no folder "Resolve Disk database", but then I searched for "project.db" and found it, many files which all have the names of my projects, under the direction

Users\(User)\AppData\Roaming\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Support\Resolve Disk Database\Resolve Projects\Users\guest\Projects

In that folder are now many folders which have the names of my projects and in each of that folder one file called "Project.db".

Now, how can I move all that projects back to my current Davinci that i can continue work on them?

On your new installation, you'll have a folder named Resolve Disk Database, following the same Appdata folder structure. That folder should now be empty of projects. Once you confirm that there are in fact no projects inside, delete it and replace it with the one on the old disk (that has the projects inside).

If you're worried about making a mistake, drag the empty database to another location (as a copy) before you delete it in the original location.

Or, you could rename the old Resolve Disk Database folder (to avoid conflicts), and then just connect to it.

In all cases, you want to have at least one database backup, should something go wrong.

I already did that, long ago, (replacing the whole new Blackmagic Design Folder in AppData/Roaming with the old). So all the projects are already in the folder ( Users\(User)\AppData\Roaming\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Support\Resolve Disk Database\Resolve Projects\Users\guest\Projects ) but the project manager is still empty.

I guess I have to import them probably or something, how do i get them in my project manager now?

When I open Davinci at the moment this screen comes:



It seems I gotta create a new database to make a new project, I think that at least, but I dont wanna do anything wrong now... When I click on "New Database" it asks me if I wanna do it on Disk or PostgreSQL. I dont wanna do anything wrong now, I better wait if maybe you or someone else tells me how to get my projects in Davinci back again?

Perhaps I need to reinstall Davinci, cause i overwrited the whole folder in AppData, that's no problem, but I need a solution, I'm still feared that all my work is gone...

You're doing something wrong, but from here, who knows what. Here's a final suggestion:

1) Create a folder on a disk where you want a new disk-based database to reside. Name it. No spaces or punctuation.

2) Go to database manager in Resolve and select "new database, "create", "disk-based", enter name [same as as folder above], for "location" browse to the folder you just created and select it.

3) You should now be looking at an empty new database, no projects. Create a new project (it can be empty) and save it. Exit Resolve.

4) copy all the project folders in the old database. These will probably be located in User>guest>Projects folder. You want to copy the folder of each project (at once).

5) paste all those project folders into the same location in the new database. The one project you already created should already be there. If you don't see it, you're in the wrong place.

6) restart Resolve.

It finally worked, the projects are back and I just opened one. I thank you very much! If I have any more question or when something wont work with the new projects, I will ask again.

Thank you very much for your help!