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Folder Structure

The standard file structure for project related files for caching purposes is as follows:

  • <project_folder>/proxy/ for the clips that have been generated

  • <project_folder>/thumbs/ for thumbnails of all used clips

  • <project_folder>/titles/ default location for the title clips saved outside the project file

  • <project_folder>/.backup/ for your project's automatic backups. These directories can be deleted if not required anymore (for example for saving space on the harddrive). Kdenlive will create backup files again when you load the project the next time but only from that point forward.

Warning The /titles/ directory is the default directory for saved .kdenlivetitle title files. Make sure that you did not save any important files in there before deleting it.

Hint As already pointed out in the Quick Start, it is recommended to use a different folder in your file system for each project.

You define the location of the project folder in the Project Settings.

Source clips can be located anywhere. Still, here are some thoughts about their location:

  • Material (images, clips, audio) that is used for one project only can be put into a subdirectory of the project folder as well. This keeps all important files together, and searching for the files takes less time.

  • Material that is used by multiple projects is convenient when kept together. Think about your video collection the same way as your photo collection.

You can find some examples on artgrid, owc, and awesomecontentcreator.

Tip You can check the file usage for your project via the project files tab and the cached data tab in the project settings. *[RGB]: Red, Green, Blue *[VFX]: Visual Effects *[feathering]: Smoothing or blurring the edges of a feature *[LFO]: Low-Frequency Oscillation *[dB]: decibel *[LUFS]: Loudness Units Full Scale *[AI]: Artificial Intelligence *[LLM]: Large Language Model *[HSV]: Hue, Saturation, Value *[SOP/Sat]: S(lope), O(ffset), P(ower) / SATuration *[CDL]: Color Decision List *[HSL]: Hue, Saturation, Lightness - Using HSL color space is useful for subtle color changes *[px]: pixel *[hh:mm:ss:ff]: hours:minutes:seconds:frames *[Hz]: Hertz *[CIE]: Commission internationale de l'éclairage, French for International Commission on Illumination *[DCI]: Digital Cinema Initiative *[nadir]: direction pointing directly below a particular location *[OS]: Operating System *[decibel]: Unit of measurement (dB) for sound levels *[clipping]: A form of distortion that limits a signal once it exceeds a threshold *[Spectrogram]: Visual representation of the spectrum of frequencies of a signal as it varies with time *[prevent clipping]: Dynamic range compression (DRC)is an audio signal processing operation that reduces the volume of loud sounds or amplifies quiet sounds, thus reducing or compressing an audio signal's dynamic range. *[SNR]: Signal-to-Noise Ratio *[dbFS]: Decibels relative to full scale *[QHD]: Quad-HD *[UHD]: Ultra High Definition