So you finished a cut, you want to back the project up or hand it to another editor, and you go looking for the project file… and there isn’t one. No .drp sitting in your project folder, nothing next to your media. Welcome to the number one “wait, what?” moment for every editor coming to DaVinci Resolve from Premiere Pro.
Here’s the short version: Resolve doesn’t save projects as loose files. Every project lives inside a project library (a database), which by default is a folder buried in your user directory. This post is the full reference for where all of it lives… the project library, individual project files, the render cache, gallery stills, optimized media, backups, and the PostgreSQL setups studios run. Bookmark it, because none of these paths are anywhere you’d think to look.
And once you know where Resolve keeps its own stuff, the next step is organizing everything around it. That’s a separate post: a project folder structure designed for DaVinci Resolve.
TLDR
If you just want the paths, here they are. Everything below the table explains what these folders are and how to move, back up, or relocate them.
| What you’re looking for | Default location |
|---|---|
| Project library (macOS) | ~/Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/Resolve Disk Database/ |
| Project library (Windows) | C:\Users\ |
| Project library (Linux) | ~/.local/share/DaVinciResolve/Resolve Disk Database/ |
| A single project’s database | …/Resolve Disk Database/Resolve Projects/Users/guest/Projects/ |
| Portable project file (.drp) | Nowhere, until you export one: Project Manager → right-click the project → Export Project |
| Render cache | Hidden CacheClip folder at the root of your first Media Storage volume |
| Gallery stills | Hidden .gallery folder, same volume |
| Optimized media | OptimizedMedia folder, same volume |
Why you can’t find a “project file”
Premiere, Final Cut, and Avid all hand you a file you can see: a .prproj, a library bundle, a bin folder. Resolve took the database route instead. Every project you create gets stored as a record inside a project library, and the default library (“Resolve Disk Database”) is just a folder structure Resolve manages on your system drive. You open projects through the Project Manager, not through Finder or Explorer, and Resolve reads and writes the database behind the scenes.
This design is why Resolve’s collaboration features work the way they do, and it’s also why “just double-click the project file” is not a thing here. When you want a single portable file, you export one: in the Project Manager, right-click a project and choose Export Project. That gives you a .drp file (DaVinci Resolve Project) you can email, archive, or drop into a job folder. One warning that saves people real pain: a .drp contains your timelines, edits, grades, and settings… not your media. On the receiving end, Resolve relinks to the footage, so the footage has to travel separately.
Default project library paths by OS
These are the current default locations, unchanged through Resolve 21.0.3. Same structure inside on every platform.
macOS
~/Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/Resolve Disk Database/
The user Library folder is hidden by default. Fastest way in: Finder → Go menu → hold Option and “Library” appears, or hit Cmd+Shift+G and paste the path.
Windows
C:\Users\
AppData is hidden too; paste the path into the Explorer address bar or enable hidden items in the View menu. One legacy note: old Resolve installs kept the database under C:\ProgramData\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Support\Resolve Disk Database\ instead. If you’re digging through a machine that ran Resolve years ago and the Roaming path comes up empty, check ProgramData before declaring the projects gone.
Linux
~/.local/share/DaVinciResolve/Resolve Disk Database/
Hidden dotfolder, so ls -a or enable hidden files in your file manager. Linux is the platform every other guide skips, which is a strange choice given how many grading workstations run it.
What’s inside
Drill down and each project gets its own folder:
…/Resolve Disk Database/Resolve Projects/Users/guest/Projects/
Inside that folder sits Project.db, which is the closest thing Resolve has to “the project file,” plus a Batch Renders folder holding XML files for that project’s render queue jobs. Don’t rename or shuffle anything in here while Resolve is running… the app expects this structure exactly as it wrote it.
“Database” vs. “project library”: same thing, new name
If you’ve read older tutorials that say “project database” and newer ones that say “project library,” nothing moved. Resolve 18 renamed the feature: the manual chapter that was “Project Databases” through Resolve 17 became “Project Libraries” from 18 on, and the Project Manager UI followed. On disk, the folder is still called “Resolve Disk Database” and library backups still use the .diskdb format, which is why the two terms keep floating around together. Search results for either word land you in the same place, and everything in this post applies under both names, current through Resolve 21.
Cache, gallery stills, and optimized media
Most guides stop at the project library, but the working data follows a different rule, and it’s the rule that fills up drives. These folders don’t live at fixed OS paths. They default to the first volume listed under Preferences → Media Storage. If your first Media Storage volume is your system drive, that’s where gigabytes of cache end up; if it’s your media RAID, they land there instead.
| Data | Default folder | Change it at |
|---|---|---|
| Render cache | Hidden CacheClip folder at the root of the first Media Storage volume | Project Settings → Master Settings → Working Folders → Cache files location |
| Gallery stills | Hidden .gallery folder, same volume (stills save as DPX) | Working Folders → Gallery stills location |
| Optimized media | OptimizedMedia folder, same volume | Working Folders → Optimized media location |
| Proxy media you generate | User-configurable | Working Folders → Proxy generation location |
Two practical notes. First, CacheClip and .gallery are hidden folders, so when your drive mysteriously fills up mid-project, this is where to look. Second, the Working Folders settings are per-project, which means you can point a heavy job’s cache at a fast scratch SSD without touching anything else. Cache is disposable; Resolve rebuilds it. Gallery stills with your reference grades are not, so know which folder you’re deleting before you clean house.
Backups: two different systems, and only one is automatic
Resolve has two separate backup mechanisms, and mixing them up is how people end up saying “I thought I had backups” with a straight face.
Project backups are rolling snapshots of the project you’re working on. Turn them on at Preferences → User → Project Save and Load, set the intervals, and point the backup location somewhere you’ll remember. Once enabled, this runs on its own and it’s what saves you when a project corrupts or you need to rewind past your undo history.
Project library backups cover the entire library, every project in it, in one .diskdb file. This one is manual: in the Project Manager, show the project libraries sidebar, select your library, and hit the backup icon. Resolve will never do this for you on a schedule. If your whole editing history lives in one disk database (for most freelancers, it does), put a recurring reminder on your calendar, or go low-tech and copy the whole Resolve Disk Database folder to another drive with Resolve closed. Both work.
Where those backups should ultimately end up, and what’s worth keeping long-term, is its own topic: archiving projects without losing your mind covers the drive, cloud, and LTO side of it.
If you work at a shop where multiple people open the same projects, you’re not on a disk database. You’re on a network project library, which is a PostgreSQL database, and this is the one case where there is no folder to find. The projects live inside the database server itself, not in files you can browse in Finder or Explorer.
The piece that runs it is the DaVinci Resolve Project Server, a separate download from Resolve itself. Under the hood it’s a bundled PostgreSQL server with a Blackmagic control app on top, and it handles creating, backing up, and restoring the shared libraries. Backups go through the Project Server’s own backup controls, and just like the local library backup, there’s no built-in scheduler. Studios either back up on a manual cadence or script their own automated PostgreSQL dumps. If a client’s projects live on a Project Server, know who owns that backup job, because “the server has it” is not a backup plan.
Moving a project to another machine
Now that you know where everything lives, here’s which method to use when it needs to live somewhere else.
| Method | What travels | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
Export a .drp | One project: timelines, edits, grades, settings. No media. | Handing off a single project, archiving with the job folder, emailing a cut |
Copy the whole Resolve Disk Database folder | Every project in the library, full fidelity | Migrating to a new machine, whole-library backup |
| Copy one project’s folder between machines | That project’s Project.db and batch renders | Quick single-project move between machines you control |
The .drp is the right default for handoffs: small, portable, and it doesn’t care where the destination’s library lives. Copying the library folder (or a single project folder into another machine’s Projects directory, with Resolve closed on both ends) preserves everything as-is. One version rule applies to all of these: Resolve upgrades projects when a newer version opens them, and there’s no going back down. Moving from your Resolve 18 machine to a Resolve 21 machine is fine; the reverse is not. Match versions, or move upward only.
And whichever method you use, remember the media travels separately. Which is exactly why a predictable folder structure matters so much in Resolve: relinking is painless when the footage sits in the same structure on both machines. That’s the whole idea behind my Resolve project folder structure, and if you’re on Premiere instead, the NLE-agnostic version does the same job.
In conclusion
And that’s it! Resolve keeps projects in a library, not loose files: find it in Application Support on Mac, AppData\Roaming on Windows, ~/.local/share on Linux. Export a .drp when a project needs to travel, watch the hidden cache folders on your first Media Storage volume, and remember that library backups only happen when you make them happen. If a path here stops matching what a future Resolve version does, leave a comment and I’ll update the reference.
