Guide

How to back up client videos after approval

Back up a client video the day it is approved, not when the project wraps. Keep three copies on two kinds of storage with one offsite, the 3-2-1 rule. File the approved master in that client's folder on a drive you own, and send the client their copy. Then delete the review files you no longer need.

Updated October 21, 2026. The backup rule below comes from a US government guide, linked in the text.

Why approval is the moment to back up

Before approval a cut changes every day, so backing it up is mostly wasted space. After approval it stops changing. It becomes the file a client asks for again in six months, or in three years for a new ad or an anniversary edit. That is the copy that has to survive a dead drive, a stolen laptop or a cancelled subscription.

The trouble is timing. The yes usually lands on a busy day, in an email or a text, and the master sits in an export folder until somebody remembers to move it. Most lost client files are not lost in a crash. They are lost because nobody filed them the day they were approved.

The 3-2-1 rule, for client video

The rule is in the Data Backup Options guide from CISA, the US cybersecurity agency: keep 3 copies of any important file, 1 primary and 2 backups, on 2 different media types, with 1 copy stored offsite. For a videographer it maps like this.

• 3 copies. The master on your edit drive, a copy on a drive you own outside the edit machine, and the client's own copy.
• 2 kinds of storage. For example a local drive and a cloud drive. Two folders on the same disk count as one copy, because one failure takes both.
• 1 offsite. A cloud drive counts. So does the copy you hand the client, as long as it is the full master and not a review file.

Step by step, the day a cut is approved

1. Confirm what was approved. Write down the version, for example v3, next to the client's yes. If the yes came by text, ask for it on the review page so it sits with the cut.
2. Export the master once. Use the delivery settings you quoted, not your review settings. Name it with the client, the project and the version, for example harbor-launch_v3_master, so the name still makes sense in two years.
3. File it in the client's folder on a drive you own. One folder per client, one folder per project inside it. Same names every time, so you find it later without searching.
4. Make the second copy on different storage. If the first copy is on a local drive, the second goes to a cloud drive, or the other way around.
5. Send the client their copy. A download link to the full master, or a copy straight into their own drive. Ask them to confirm it opened.
6. Write it down. One line in your project notes: what was delivered, where both copies live and the date. This is the line you search for when the client calls in a year.
7. Clear the review files. Review copies, old versions and proxies can go once the master is filed twice. They are what fills your storage, not the masters.

What to keep and what to let go

How long you keep raw footage is a business decision. Put the number in your quote so the client knows it before the shoot.

Mistakes that cost the file

• Two folders on one disk. It looks like a backup until that disk fails and takes both.
• Backing up the review copy. It is smaller, so it is tempting. It is also not what the client paid for.
• Waiting for the end of the project. Approvals come in one at a time. File each one the day it lands, or the last ones get skipped.
• A name only you understand. final_FINAL_v2 means nothing in a year. Client, project, version, every time.

How it works in Proofbin

Proofbin is a pipeline, not a storage locker. Your files are meant to live on a drive you own, and approval is what moves them there.

• Approval starts the copy. When a client approves a cut, Proofbin copies it to the Google Drive folder you picked for that client, at the size you delivered it, by the next morning.
• The client can bring their own drive. From their portal link, with no account, a client can connect their own Google Drive or Notion, and their approved cuts are filed there.
• Older work catches up. Connect a drive today and the cuts you already approved in Proofbin are copied too.
• It works in the free trial. You can run the whole flow with one real job during the trial.

That covers two of your three copies with nobody downloading and uploading by hand, one on your drive and one with the client. The third copy is the master on your edit drive, which you already have.

Questions