An archive packages a project into files you can store, move, and restore later - your insurance against lost drives and your vehicle for handing a project to another system. Archiving well at the end of a job is what makes a revision six months later painless.
What a Lightworks archive contains
A Lightworks archive is created from the Export panel (format: Lightworks archive) or the project's Archive action. You choose what goes in:
- Logs and media - the complete project: bins, sequences, settings, and the media files.
- Logs only - just the project data. Far smaller, but restoring needs access to the media separately.
With media included, you can further choose whether to copy local media (copied/converted files), linked files, and generated proxies into the archive. An If archive exists option controls whether a new archive is created, or an existing one is overwritten or updated - updating an existing archive is the quick way to keep a rolling backup as work progresses.
Archives run as background tasks, so you can keep working while one is written; watch progress on the Tasks page.
Note: If some media is offline when you archive, Lightworks warns you that those files were not included. Bring the media online and update the archive for full coverage.
Restoring an archive
Restore from the Project Browser: choose the archive and Lightworks rebuilds the project - bins, sequences, and (if archived) media. If the original project still exists on the system, you're offered a restore to a new project instead, so a restore never silently overwrites live work.
Restoring deleted items inside a project
Separately from archives, deleting clips or sequences from a project doesn't have to be final: the Project Browser's Restore Items function recovers deleted logs. Deleted logs can be restored this way - deleted media files cannot, so treat media deletion with respect (see Media management).
An archiving strategy that works
- Archive at milestones - picture lock, delivery, and any risky reorganisation - not just at the end.
- Include media in the final archive. Logs-only archives are useful mid-project, but a delivery archive should stand alone.
- Store archives in more than one place - a local drive plus off-site or cloud storage.
- Test the restore. An archive you've never restored is a hope, not a backup. Restore a spot-check project on another machine before you wipe source drives.
- Keep the masters with the archive - the exported deliverables belong alongside the project that made them (see Professional delivery).