Tips for Speeding Up Avid Media Composer

Christian Jhonson posted a link to this Avid Knowledge base article on The Avid Editors of Facebook page. Really nice tips and tweaks here for speeding up Avid Media Composer. Thank you Christian for turning me on to them, now I'm going to share them with all our customers and blog readers ;-)

Avid Knowledge Base: Ways to speed up Avid Media Composer 7.0 bin save, load, switching between applications and startup

Here are some optimization tips for Media Composer 7.0 and higher Last Updated : April 26, 2016 Products Affected : Media_Composer, NewsCutter, Symphony http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/troubleshooting/Ways-to-speed-up-Media-Composer-7-0-bin-save-load-switching-between-applications-and-startup Does the Editor feel slow when saving or opening the bins? Is it slow during start-up? Does it feel slower when switching between the editor and another software, then back again? AMA Management: When you AMA link to media the Editor Creates PMR and MDB databases in the following folders: Windows: C:\Users\Public\Documents\Avid Media Composer\AMA Management Mac: HD/Users/Shared/AvidMediaComposer/AMA Management If you have AMA linked to a slow storage or a 3rd Party network share that doesn't respond, or is slow to respond, then the editor can become very slow as it gets stuck checking all the links, making sure that the source files are still there. This is dependent on the size and number of links you have. A quick way to fix this: (Step 1) Exit the Editor, rename the "AMA Management" folder to "AMA Management-old" thus hiding it from the editor. The "AMA Management" folder will be re-created. The link to AMA Media are still stored in all the bins, you will not un-link any AMA material by renaming the "AMA Management" folder, however Media Tool won't list the AMA media. If you are working in a shared environment with multiple editors, then you could consider turning this feature off by using a console command. The “AMA Management” folder is local to one editor, and not usable for others in the shared environment. Disable the AMA Management: (Step 2) Start the Editor Open any project Select Tools -> Console (or press Ctrl-6 or Command-6) Type the following in the bottom field ManageAMA off The next time you start the editor it won’t create databases locally on the client, the setting will stick until you enable it again, with the console command “ManageAMA on”. Unity Attic: When working in a shared environment and the projects are stored on the ISIS, then every now and then you need to do some cleaning of the “Unity Attic” folder, so you don’t end up with thousands of bin-backups as this also can slow down the editor. Note - The Avid editor will create a folder on every workspace on the ISIS where you save projects to. For example: \\ISIS\Workspace1\Unity Attic\ \\ISIS\Workspace2\Unity Attic\ Check the properties of the “Unity Attic” folders every now and then, and if you have tens of thousands of files in the Unity Attic then I would recommend cleaning out the Attic. To archive the Unity Attic: Exit the editor Rename folders from “Unity Attic” -> “Unity Attic Old” Zip the “Unity Attic Old” folder to save space on the ISIS, and in case you need it, then you still have the backup bins in the zip file. The editor will re-create the "Unity Attic" and save new backups of your bins when restarted.