Save, autosave, and revert projects in Motion

It’s wise to save early and often as you work on your project. In addition to preserving your work for future use, Motion’s save commands can be used in other ways to manage the development of your project. For example, if you want to keep your current composition but create a variant version, use the Save As command. If you want to gather all media used in a Motion project into a single folder, use the Collect Media option when you save. There are also commands that let you revert to a previously saved version of your project.

Save a project

In Motion, choose File > Save (or press Command-S).
If the project has not been saved, a save dialog appears.
Note: If the project has been saved, the project file is updated without opening a dialog.
Enter a name into the Save As field, choose a save location on your computer or storage device, then click Save.

Save a duplicate of a project

In Motion, choose File > Save As (or press Shift-Command-S).
In the dialog that appears, enter a name in the Save As field, choose a save location on your computer or storage device, then click Save.

Save a project and collect all project media into a folder

When saving a project, you can have Motion copy all media files used in the project into a single folder, making portability and backup easier.

In Motion, choose File > Save As (or press Shift-Command-S).
In the dialog that appears, click the Collect Media pop-up menu, then choose Copy to Folder.
If you want to collect all media files in your project, including those not used in the current composition, select Include Unused Media.
Enter a new name for the file in Save As field, choose a save location on your computer or storage device, then click Save.
Motion creates a folder with the name specified in the Save As field and places two items in the folder:
- A project file with the same name as the folder
- A folder named “Media” containing all media files used in the project
Important: When using the Save As command, use a name that’s different from the name of any previously saved versions of the same project. Otherwise, you run the risk of overwriting a version of the project that you want to keep.

Revert a project to the last saved version

The Revert to Saved command discards all changes you’ve made to a project since the last time you saved it.

Note: You can also use the application’s unlimited undo feature to achieve the same purpose in incremental steps. For more information on the Undo command, see Edit menu in Motion.

In Motion, choose File > Revert to Saved.
Important: This command cannot be undone.

Autosave projects to a specific storage location

By default, Motion automatically saves backups of your project at set intervals. In the Cache pane of Motion Preferences, you can specify how frequently projects are autosaved, as well as the storage location of the autosaved project files. Autosaved project files are time- and date-stamped.

In Motion, choose Motion > Preferences (or press Command-Comma).
Click Cache.
In the Autosave area, select Use Autosave Vault (if it’s not already selected).
By default, the Autosave Vault folder is located in your /Users/username/Movies/Motion Projects/ folder.
If you want to set a different location for the Autosave Vault folder, click Choose, select a new location, then click Choose.

Revert to an autosaved project

If you’ve been using the autosave feature to back up your project, you can revert your project to an earlier autosaved version.

In Motion, choose File > Restore from Autosave.
In the dialog that appears, click the pop-up menu, then choose a saved project.
The autosaved project opens in a new project window.

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Motion User Guide