Using Object Mount with DaVinci Resolve

This guide walks you through the best setup for using Object Mount with DaVinci Resolve, along with a few optional tweaks and performance tips that may help smooth things out depending on your system and workflow.

Recommended Settings (Per Project)

After opening or importing your Resolve project, please check the following:

1. From the top menu bar, go to: Preferences > System > Media Storage

2. Add your Object Mount volume as a Media Storage Location:

   • The Object Mount volume should not be first in the list.
   • Resolve uses the top location for gallery stills and cache files, so keep this separate.

3. Disable Direct I/O for the Object Mount path:

   • This helps ensure better compatibility and smoother read/write behavior.

Optional Performance Tweaks

These settings aren’t required, but can improve responsiveness or playback performance — especially on larger projects or when working over cloud storage.

Playback and Caching:

• Playback > Render Cache → Set to Smart
• Playback > Timeline Proxy Resolution → Set to Half or Quarter
• Playback > Proxy Handling → Set to Prefer Proxies
• Playback > Use Optimized Media if Available → Enable

Preview Panels and Navigation:

• In the Edit tab:

  • Use the Timeline View Options (top-left of the timeline)
    • Set Thumbnail View to Thumbnail or None
    • Disable Display Audio Waveform

• In the Media tab:

  • Switch Timelines panel to List View (top right)
  • Open the overflow menu:
    • Disable Film Strip
    • Disable Audio Waveforms

• In Media Storage, switching from Thumbnail View to List View can also help when browsing through folders on Object Mount volumes.

Monitoring Performance

Because of how Object Mount optimizes transfers, the built-in file copy progress indicators (in Finder or File Explorer) may not accurately reflect what’s happening behind the scenes.

For a better view of performance:

• On macOS: Open Activity Monitor > Network tab
• On Windows: Go to Task Manager > Performance > Network

If Object Mount is saturating the network connection — that’s a good sign! It’s doing what it’s designed to do.

Transfers may still appear idle in the UI, but they are active “under the hood”.