Version a large media folder with DVC and roll back with git checkout

Guide ID: art_01M6V62C789085HJEBKN2AADB8

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Guide title

Version a large media folder with DVC and roll back with git checkout

Coverage

For editors and sound designers whose audio, footage or training folders are too big for ordinary Git history. You end with a Git project that stores a small pointer file while the data sits in a cache and a remote folder. Based on the DVC Get Started page and not run; the folder example is an adaptation of the page's single-file one.

Example

A hypothetical folder of audio stems tracked, pushed to a local remote folder and later restored to an earlier version; nothing was run.

Useful starting points

• If a pull seems to do nothing, DVC skips it when the workspace, cache and remote already match.
• After checking out an earlier pointer file with Git, run the DVC checkout step, because Git only restores the pointer, not the data.
• Push the data before you rely on it for a rollback so the remote holds that version.