Missing 'Generators' and/or 'Titles'

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Level 1

112 points

Missing 'Generators' and/or 'Titles'

I just opened a one hour film that was never released. Cut in 2019. I want to master and release it now.

But I see a bunch of the generators/titles have gone 'off-line' for some reason. And I can't find them in FCPX's collection of 'Titles' and 'Generators', nor in 3rd party collections I've got: such as Ripple Training's 'Ripple Tools Complete' 'RT Helpers' 'RT Paths' 'RT Punch-Ins' or in my FCPEffects. This is what I see on the timeline - see attached. When I click the off-line clip there is nothing over in the inspector, and nothing that can be re-linked. I haven't deleted anything from Titles/Generators. There are both 'Line' and 'Circle' in the Ripple Tools Punch-Ins but not 'Circle Solid' or 'Line Solid'. I'm a bit at a loss. Maybe the RT plug-ins need to be updated?

Any ideas? It would be a big job to re-do everything (I can't remember where all the lines and circles go).

All ears, Ben

MacBook Pro (2017 – 2020)

Posted on Mar 31, 2023 8:27 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

terryb

Level 4

3,542 points

Mar 31, 2023 9:34 PM in response to Ben Low

You could export an XML of the project, open it in a text editor and search for the title. It should show the path where FCP expected it to be and maybe give you a hint as to what it is.

You could also email Ripple support and see if they have any suggestions.

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Answer 2

terryb

Level 4

3,542 points

Apr 1, 2023 2:31 PM in response to Ben Low

So it's looking for a motion template in the normal place but the parent folder names look like they are generated, like from an installer. What do you have in your ~/Movies/Motion Templates/Titles/ folder? Anything with long names like "B321256A-894A-420A-9E5F-F745819013D6" or "E5FC8CA8-095F-49F4-9251-1036966542A6" or "E5FC8CA8-095F-49F4-9251-1036966542A6.moti"?

Can you do a search on your drive and backup drives for these names?

"file:///Users/bengedlow/Movies/Motion%20Templates.localized/Titles.localized/B321256A-894A-420A-9E5F-F745819013D6.localized/E5FC8CA8-095F-49F4-9251-1036966542A6.localized/E5FC8CA8-095F-49F4-9251-1036966542A6.moti"

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Answer 3

Apr 2, 2023 2:39 AM in response to terryb

The names of the folders are clearly mangled in the XML. Motion Templates.localized became

Motion%20Templates.localized/Titles.localized/B321256A-894A-420A-9E5F-F745819013D6.localized

This suggests there was some corruption in the library database.

I’d start by do a file search in the Finder to see if somewhere inside your Motion Templates there anything called Line Solid.

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Answer 4

Apr 2, 2023 7:14 AM in response to Ben Low

It is very unlikely that reinstalling Motion would help, but it also won't hurt.

AFAICT, there is some corruption in the library. Also, it is likely that these titles are really missing.

One thing you could do:

1) Make a BACKUP of your library, and do the following on the backup

2) Quit FCP if it is running

3) In the Finder, control-click the library, Show Package Contents

4) Drag the CurrentVersion.flexolibrary file out of the package

5) Try opening the library in FCP. Any change?

6) Compare an XML exported after step 5 with the previous one. Still all those long names?

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Answer 5

Ben Low Author

Level 1

112 points

Apr 1, 2023 10:10 AM in response to terryb

Hey terryb ...

So I made an XML file. The result is a file titled: GlobalBEM MASTER 003.fxpxmld. It won't open in TextEdit. This is what I get (see attached screenshot 1). These are the choices I'm given (see screenshot 2). I tried using a Browser (Safari). I'm not sure of that .fxpxmld? Looks unfamiliar.

What am I missing here?

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Answer 6

Ben Low Author

Level 1

112 points

Apr 1, 2023 10:39 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Thank you Tom.

So here are two blocks of reference (terryb) of the missing plug-in. I have no idea how to read the XML regarding how this might give me more information why that plug-in is generating the big red square with the big white T and the yellow triangle with exclamation mark. Does this say something to you? (It's a one hour film so the XML is quite vast.)

1.

<media-rep kind="original-media" sig="83EE71C5CD0F2D99A26DE9CFEAA3DCB9" src="file:///Volumes/GlobalBEM/GlobalBEM/FCPX/Media/Final%20Cut%20Original%20Media/2019-11-28/Energy%20from%20sun.003.png">

2.

</mc-source>

</mc-clip>

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Answer 7

Ben Low Author

Level 1

112 points

Apr 2, 2023 7:05 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Thank you Luis ....

I searched all the folders in Motion Templates ... No 'Line Solid' anywhere. This is what the Titles folder has (see attached screenshot).

I'm wondering if I might re-install 'Motion'? I just trashed the Motion 5 preferences. Am going to see if I have the latest version installed, or how tricky a re-install would be. Will report back.

Ben

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Answer 8

terryb

Level 4

3,542 points

Apr 3, 2023 7:06 PM in response to Ben Low

Ben, curious if you've made any progress?

I've tried all sorts of hexadecimal calculators to see if I could convert the folder names into something that makes sense, but no luck. You can see that all three folders in the Line Solid title have 16 character pairs (a total of 32 letters or digits), with the second nested .localized folder and the .moti file having the same name. Sort of like Titles/DeveloperName/TitleName/TitleName.moti

I found a question about iPhone image names formatted like this, but unfortunately no answers.

long hexadecimal-based file names of iPho… - Apple Community

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Answer 9

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,867 points

Apr 1, 2023 10:21 AM in response to Ben Low

Show package contents and copy the.xml file from there. Open it in TextEdit.

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Answer 10

Ben Low Author

Level 1

112 points

Apr 2, 2023 7:45 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

You are brilliant Luis! I'm going to fry some breakfast eggs (sustenance), and pull up half a gallon of espresso (fuel) and take your advice this morning.

And will report back in an hour or so.

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Answer 11

Ben Low Author

Level 1

112 points

Apr 1, 2023 5:48 AM in response to terryb

Intriguing idea terryb. I'll try it. Though I did a lot of work with XML at Christmas and it was a foreign land to me, requiring a nature-guide to show the way.

I sent a note to Ripple. They're always lightening quick with answers. I'm holding my breath. But I'm not sure the issue has anything to do with their plug-ins yet. Thus your suggestion is super helpful. XML. Will report back when I find out anything. Thanks mucho!

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Answer 12

Ben Low Author

Level 1

112 points

Apr 1, 2023 2:59 PM in response to terryb

Here is a screenshot of the Titles folder (see attached). I can't find any of those strange names anywhere, on any drives. I know I didn't create anything with Motion for sure. And I never deleted any family of plug-ins. I've just been updating FCPX and the Apple operating system on a normal basis. I wish I'd run off a master way back then ... so I could see where all these lines and circles are supposed to go on the underlying image. I could just redo them. But I didn't. We paused the release just after I finished laying in the credits ... no mastering done.

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Missing 'Generators' and/or 'Titles'

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