Where Are DaVinci Resolve Projects Saved? A Comprehensive Guide

If you‘re new to DaVinci Resolve or switching over from another video editing program, one of the first things you need to know is where Resolve saves your project files by default and how to change that location if needed. Choosing a consistent, organized location for your project files is key to an efficient post-production workflow. In this in-depth guide, I‘ll cover everything you need to know about DaVinci Resolve project save locations as well as best practices for managing and backing up your valuable project files.

As a professional colorist and editing instructor who teaches DaVinci Resolve, I‘ve seen firsthand how poor project file management can lead to lost work and major headaches. That‘s why I always emphasize to my students how critical it is to understand where Resolve stores your projects and establish good habits for organizing, backing up, and archiving your project files from the very beginning. It will save you so much time and stress in the long run!

Default Project Save Locations

When you create a new project in DaVinci Resolve, it‘s automatically saved in a default location that varies depending on your operating system:

Mac default location:
~/Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/

Windows default location:
C:\Users[username]\AppData\Roaming\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\

These folder paths are hidden by default on both Mac and Windows. To access them, here‘s what you need to do:

On Mac:

1. Open a new Finder window
2. Click Go > Go to Folder in the menu bar
3. Paste in the path ~/Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/ and click Go
4. Your DaVinci Resolve folder will open with all your project files

On Windows:

1. Open File Explorer
2. Paste %appdata%\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve into the address bar at the top and press Enter
3. Your DaVinci Resolve folder will open with all your project files

Inside your main DaVinci Resolve folder you‘ll see a subfolder called Projects where all your actual project files are kept with the .drp file extension.

While this default structure works okay, I recommend changing your project save location to somewhere that is easier to find and more organized. I‘ll explain how to do that next.

Changing the Default Save Location

You can easily set a new default save location for your Resolve projects in the Project Manager:

1. Open DaVinci Resolve and in the bottom right corner of the Project Manager window, click the gear icon and choose System Preferences.

2. Go to the Save and Load category on the left sidebar.

3. Under "Project Save Location," click Browse to choose a new location for your project files. You may want to create a top-level folder called "DaVinci Resolve Projects" and select that.

4. Under "Sub-directories," choose whether you want to sort your projects into subfolders based on Video format, Audio sampling rate, Frame rate, and/or Project name. This is entirely optional but can be helpful for organizing large numbers of projects.

5. Click Apply to confirm the changes.

Now whenever you create a new project, it will automatically be saved in the custom location you just set. I recommend using the same save location on any computer you regularly use for editing in Resolve to keep things consistent.

However, any existing projects created before you changed the setting will still be saved in the original default location. To move them over to your new custom location, you‘ll need to do that manually in your file browser.

Setting Up Automatic Backups

The next essential step in protecting your project files is to set up automatic backups in Resolve. That way if your project file becomes corrupted or your computer crashes before you can manually save, you‘ll have backups to fall back on. Here‘s how to enable automatic backups:

1. Go back into System Preferences and under the Save and Load category, enable "Live Save" and "Project Backups." Live Save will save your project after every single change you make, while Project Backups will save a copy of your project at regular intervals (which you can customize).

2. Under "Project Backup Destination," click Browse to choose where you want your backup files to be saved. This could be on your computer‘s internal drive, an external drive, or cloud storage. Choose a location separate from your main project save location so you have backups available if your drive fails.

3. Specify the interval time between backups, maximum number of backups saved, plus the number of backups to keep before the oldest ones get deleted to free up space. I recommend setting the backup interval for every 10 minutes or whatever increment of time you‘d be okay with losing work, if that worst case scenario happens.

4. Finally, enable "Automatically Optimize Database" at the bottom. This will clean up and optimize your project databases at regular intervals (so they don‘t balloon in size).

With Live Save and Project Backups turned on, you can have peace of mind that your work is being continuously saved. However, you should still manually save your project periodically, especially before making any major changes.

Project File Management Best Practices

Now that you know where Resolve saves your projects by default, how to change that location, and how to enable automatic backups, let‘s go over some best practices for keeping your project files organized:

1. Use descriptive project names
When creating a new project, give it a clear, descriptive name that includes the client or project name, date, and version number. For example: ClientName_ProjectName_YYMMDD_vX.

2. Organize projects into folders
If you work on multiple projects, organize them into separate folders by client or project name. You can do this either in your file browser or by creating "Project Folders" in the Resolve Project Manager.

3. Keep all project files together
In addition to the main .drp project file, Resolve creates a folder of additional project files. Make sure to keep these files together in the same folder as the .drp file. If you move or rename the .drp file, rename the folder to match.

4. Use version numbers
If you need to make major changes to a project, first save a new version with an incremented version number in the file name. That way you can always go back to a previous version if needed.

5. Archive finished projects
When you‘re finished with a project, move the entire project folder (including the .drp file and folder of support files) to an archive folder or drive. This keeps your active projects folder clean and tidy.

6. Back up to multiple locations
In addition to setting up automatic backups in Resolve, you should also back up your project files to at least one other location, preferably cloud storage or an offsite hard drive. The more backups the better!

By following these best practices for organizing and managing your project files, you‘ll be able to find what you need quickly, avoid losing work, and collaborate with others more easily.

Recovering Unsaved or Lost Projects

Even with automatic backups enabled, sometimes an unsaved or lost project can still happen due to a crash, power outage, or accidentally closing Resolve without saving. If you find yourself in this situation, here are some places to check for recovering your project:

1. The backups folder specified in your Resolve System Preferences (as explained in the section above). Within this folder, open the "Projects" subfolder and then browse through the dated subfolders to find the most recent version of your project file.

2. The default save locations for each OS showed in the first section of this article. Check inside the "Projects" subfolder for any recovered or autosaved project files.

3. Your computer‘s built-in file recovery feature (e.g. Windows File History or macOS Time Machine). If you have file recovery enabled on your system, you may be able to retrieve a previous saved version of your project.

If none of those options work, you can try using third-party data recovery software to scan your drive for the missing files. However, this should be an absolute last resort as results are not guaranteed. The best protection is having a solid backup system in place to begin with.

Collaboration and Sharing Projects

If you need to collaborate with other editors or colorists, or share a project with a client for review, there are a few different ways to do that in Resolve:

1. Share the entire project folder
The simplest way to share a Resolve project is to just copy and send the entire project folder (including the .drp project file and any support files) to the other person. They‘ll need to import it into their Resolve Project Manager.

2. Export the project
You can also export your project as a more portable file to send to others:

• In the Project Manager, right-click on your project name and choose Export Project.
• Choose a name and destination for the exported file (which will have a .drp extension).
• The other person will need to double-click on the .drp file to import it into their Project Manager.

3. Use collaborative tools
With the Studio version of DaVinci Resolve, you can set up a database server for multiple users to access and work on projects simultaneously. It also includes built-in chat and timeline comparison tools for smoother collaboration.

However you choose to share projects, it‘s important for everyone to follow the same file management practices explained earlier to avoid confusion and missing files.

Archiving and Deleting Old Projects

To keep your project folders manageable and reclaim space on your drive, it‘s a good idea to periodically archive and delete old projects that you no longer need immediate access to. But before you start tossing project files left and right, here are a few important things to consider:

1. Make sure the project is completely finished and delivered to the client. Check that you have all the final exported deliverables.

2. If there‘s a chance the project might need to be revised in the future (e.g. a new version or sequel), keep it archived for a while before deleting permanently.

3. Always archive the entire uncompressed project folder, not just the .drp file. Move the folder to a separate archive drive or compress it into a .zip file.

4. Use a clear naming convention for archived projects that includes the original project file name and date archived. For example: ProjectFileName_YYMMDD.zip

5. Have a backup of the archived projects in another location before deleting from your computer. Never delete your only copy of a project!

To delete a project in Resolve, select it in the Project Manager and press the Delete key. Resolve will move the project file to your computer‘s trash but won‘t delete the actual media files used in the project. To completely remove a project and all its associated files, you‘ll need to manually delete the project folder from your computer.

Troubleshooting Missing Projects

If you open up DaVinci Resolve and don‘t see an expected project listed in the Project Manager, don‘t panic! There are a few possible reasons why this could happen:

1. The project was saved in a different database
If you have multiple databases set up (which is only possible in the Studio version of Resolve), make sure you have the correct one selected in the Project Manager. You can switch databases from the pop-up menu at the top of the window.

2. The project was saved in a different location
If the missing project was saved somewhere other than the default location, you‘ll need to add that location to Resolve‘s database list:

• In the Project Manager, click the gear icon and choose Add a New Location.
• Navigate to the folder where your project is saved and click Open.
• Your project should now appear in the Project Manager.

3. The project file was moved, renamed, or deleted
If you accidentally moved, renamed, or deleted the .drp project file, you‘ll need to track it down and move it back to the original location/name. If the project was deleted and emptied from the trash, you‘ll need to restore it from a backup.

4. The project database is corrupted
In rare cases, the Resolve project database itself can become corrupted, causing projects to disappear from the Project Manager. To fix this, you‘ll need to restore the database from a backup:

• Quit DaVinci Resolve.
• Navigate to your project database backups folder (set in System Preferences as explained earlier).
• Find the most recent database backup folder that contains your project(s).
• Copy that entire folder and paste it into the main DaVinci Resolve Projects folder, overwriting the existing database.
• Re-launch Resolve and your projects should reappear.

If none of the above solutions work, post a message on the Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve forum explaining your issue in detail. Chances are other users have run into a similar issue and can offer additional suggestions.

Conclusion

I know this was a lot of information to cover, but I hope this guide has given you a comprehensive understanding of where DaVinci Resolve saves your precious project files and how to effectively manage them. Just to recap, here are the key takeaways:

1. Know the default project save locations but customize them for better organization.
2. Always enable automatic backups in System Preferences.
3. Follow best practices for naming, organizing and versioning project files.
4. Regularly archive inactive projects and have multiple backups.
5. Use the troubleshooting steps if a project goes missing.

By putting these practices into place starting with your very first project, you‘ll build good habits that will save you time and stress in the future. Trust me, there‘s nothing worse than losing hours of hard work because of a misplaced project file!

If you have any other questions about DaVinci Resolve project management or any other part of the post-production workflow, feel free to leave a comment below. I‘m always happy to help out my fellow editors and colorists. Here‘s to your future projects never going missing again!