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Final Cut Pro Missing files, relinking doesn't work, FCP knows where they are, still displays the error (not a missing effect)

So, started a new, pretty big project (for me), with 12 camera angles. I made proxies of everything. Mass storage is on an 8Tb HDD, library, events, and projects are on a fast 2Tb SSD. Both external.

Workflow:

I made proxies 12,5% prores of every video. These are in the FCP Library file on the SSD. I then disconnected the HDD with the originals, and went to working on the proxy files. Made Multicams with various files and made an edit for the first song (it is an abba concert).

Reconnected the HDD, switched to original media to make a first export and see if it looked any good. Almost all files except 2 camera angles, showed up as missing.

I tried relinking the files. At first they did not show up in missing files list, so relinked all. No effect
I tried deleting a camera in the media list and reimporting it. FCP says it imports it, but that file never showed up in media list again....
I tried making a new multicam for a different song, but with the HDD attached. That seemed to work fine, and let me switch back to original with only 2 image streams missing (they were shared with the first edit, so that might be the issue).
When I press " reveal in finder" FCPX goes straight to the correct folder.
When I look at the inspector, FCPX shows me 3 green dots, for all files accounted for....
It still is convinced it is missing the file....

There are NO effects on the video files yet (except some file have been cropped or realigned, but not all)

I have tried different " missing files " solutions and threads, but all seem to be: relink and you are good. Somehow that doesn't work here. Hoping someone knows what is up here and can help before we have to start all over (and have to be permanently afraid of it going wrong again).

Screenshots for clarification. If there are any questions, or troubleshooting I should do, I am willing to try almost anything.

Above: Timeline in original

Above: FCPX clearly showing he knows where my stuff is

Above: Works fine in proxy still

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 13.3

Posted on May 15, 2023 1:13 PM

Top-ranking reply

RichardNL2023 Author

Level 1

6 points

Posted on May 18, 2023 7:54 AM

We got it!

Problem = fixed (sort of) and we know (or think we know) what caused it.

So, we went into the library folder, and had a look at the proxy media, optimized media and symlink files. We removed all the symlinks (or at least the public link files that point to the correct file). Nothing changed, FCP would make new links as soon as we restarted FCPX, still convinced it knew where the files were. We then had a look at the "optimized media". Weird that we had optimized media, we did not ask FCPX to make that, it just decided to, on its own. When opening a 28GB optimized media file, we got a very high res picture of the "missing media" warning... which had a runtime of several minutes. Somehow, FCPX was convinced this WAS the optimized media it was looking for. So, it did relink properly, it did not miss anything, but the file it was pointing to.... was a missing media picture....

We deleted all the "optimized media", forcing FCPX to look back at the original media location, which fixed the problem (after restarting FCPX).

What we think happened:

There is a toggle in FCPX

What we think happened: This toggle is ON by default. Due to the high volume and mass of video files in this project, my MacBook is frequently on overnight, making proxies or rendering stuff. At some point during this edit, FCPX must have been going about making optimized media, while the HDD was NOT connected, thus missing the needed files. It does not do this on import (as we had that checked out), but does do it when using stuff in the multicam.

In my trial runs with connecting and disconnecting libraries and drives, I think we never gave it time to background render optimized media, thus everything worked fine. Had we tested overnight, I think we might have reproduced the problem.

So, going forward:

We unchecked this box, so no optimized media for Multicam files
We will keep both SSD and HDD connected during overnight renders and as much as possible during edits
We will still start over on a new library, as I abused this one so much I just wanna make sure

But we at least saved the project!! :)

Thanks Tom, Davis and Joema for the support. Hoping this lengthy reply will serve someone running into the same unwanted "feature"

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Final Cut Pro Missing files, relinking doesn't work, FCP knows where they are, still displays the error (not a missing effect)

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