DaVinci Resolve is one of the few programs that are not file based. What I mean by that is that we don't save projects as files on the hard drive – at least this functionality is not exposed to the user directly. Resolve manages all that by itself and organizes all the projects in one place which is accessible from the UI window within the application.
We can export and import projects as files, we can backup projects and the whole project libraries. But what about automated backups?
PostgreSQL and Disk Database
There are two types of project databases in DaVinci Resolve. The first one is based on the PostgreSQL database and the second one is just disk based database.
When we go with option one then all the information is stored behind PostgreSQL interface and we don't have direct access to all the files. Backup options are limited and to make sure everything is protected we need to backup the whole PostgreSQL database.
However, when we pick the Disk Database, we are in a much better situation. We can pick a custom directory and all the files related to the particular project will be saved there. We can manually copy the directory or use automated backup systems to do the incremental backup of our projects. We can even create Disk Database inside our Dropbox folder and keep the projects in the cloud.
CAUTION
Keeping the database in the cloud might cause some serious problems when we open the projects on multiple machines at the same time – this model is not designed to be used this way. If you decide to use DropBox as your backup solution be very careful and never open your Resolve projects from multiple machines at the same time.
The directory tree that is created by Resolve looks more or less like this and can be accessed by any file browser:
New Disk Database
To create a new Disk Database click the dropdown button and select Database:
The next window contains a list of all your databases. You can backup and restore them as well as create a new one.
If you pick the Disk Database type you can select a custom directory to place the projects.
The default location for disk databases in Resolve is:
/Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/Resolve Disk Database/
Summary
Using the file structure on the hard disk allows us to quickly restore the backups made by Time Machine or any other automatic backup tool like Carbon Copy Cloner (which I use).
