Davinci Resolve Database not on system drive

I've been having a lot of render crashes and in my search for solutions was reading in one post where Dwaine stated that the Davinci Resolve database needs to be in the Application support folder. I would like to move it there and maybe solve some of my crashing issues. My question is, can I take my backup database and drag it into the Database folder in Davinci Resolve in Application Support?

I have a half dozen or so active projects that I can't lose, so don't want to screw this up.

Would really appreciate some help.

Thanks...Jim


IMac specs

IMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014)
OS 11.4
Davinci Resolve Studio 17.2.2 Build 4
Processor: 4 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory: 32 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Startup Disk: Mac HD/3 TB Fusion
Graphics: AMD Radeon R9 M295X 4096 MB

Video Drives
6TB Raid “0” in OWC Thunderbolt Housing, W328, R337.7
G-Raid 6TB-1 Ultra Studio thunderbolt raid 0, W229, R 232
G-Raid 6TB-2 Ultra Studio thunderbolt raid 0, w 230, R229
G-Raid 8TB Thunderbolt Raid 0, W 225 R 358
2 TB San Disk Rugged SSD
1 additional HDMI Monitor
Ultrstudio Mini Monitor

Dwaine stated that the Davinci Resolve database needs to be in the Application support folder.

I question that. I've never had mine there. I use a dedicated Database drive.

If you're not careful about keeping the folder structure consistent, what you propose might result in something which isn't readable as a database.

What you could do instead is make a copy of the current working database (the outer folder), rename it, then copy or move the renamed copy to the system disk at the root level. Then create and connect to it, giving it the new name. And disconnect the one on the external disk. And of course you'll have backups of all your projects before you attempt anything.

Unless your databases are enormous I wouldn't dedicate a drive to them. Whether your render crashes have anything to do with the location of the db is another question..... Probably not the first place to look.

Hi John,

Thanks for the note. Any suggestions on where to look to track down the crashes. The problem project is a 60 minute program on Birding in Costa Rica with many, many 4K clips and several supersized shots which I exported then reimported as 1080 or 4K clips hoping to avoid slowing down my system. I've been tracking where my crashes are happening and 1 crash was indeed on one of the supersized shots, so I've gone back and rendered the shot in place, even though the clip shows that it's now a 1080 clip. I've done that with several other clips where crashes have occurred. Also during render my CPU is only showing between 55-65% usage, which I would think should be higher. Also many clips show the frame rate at .5-1.5 fps and other times it's faster but not often.

I also created a new database on one of my SSD drives and moved the "Birds" program into that database which I'm attempting to export now.

Thanks...Jim

I divided the show into 3 sections and the first section rendered successfully again with only using a minuscule portion of my 4 CPU's. The second segment is rendering now, and it started out using 350% or so of my 4 CPU's, but now it has slowed to under 100% of the CPU's. Earlier when the CPU usage was good, the fps were good, 28fps or more, Now it's down to about 1.5-4, fps. Further into show jumped back up to 350% of CPU's and a decent fps.

You've got effects in play that slow things down, most likely.

My effects are relatively normal. Cross dissolve between scenes, a little PIP, a couple of times, color correction and a few clips with noise reduction. I have noticed that noise reduction slows things down until rendered but seems to run smoothly after it is rendered.

I managed to export the show (62 minutes total length) in 3 parts and now I'm rendering that composite so basically no effects just 3 pieces of ProRes 1080/30P video and my CPU usage (4 cores( in the activities monitor is hovering around 40-Thanks...Jim57% and the fps running about 20fps + or -3 fps.

This doesn't seem right. In theory it should be using all 4 cores which would give me CPU usage of around 350% or so, Any ideas would be most appreciated.

Once this renders I'm going to test the composite export on a new M1 MacBook Pro and see how it does.

Thanks....Jim

a few clips with noise reduction.

That'll do it. You might try using the Cache during the export, in Advanced Settings (Video tab, Deliver page.)

Yes good suggestion, however that doesn't explain why the CPU usage is so low on a simple ProRes to ProRes export with no effects.

thx...Jim

I don't use macs' so...