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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25 replies

May 18, 2023 1:01 AM in response to joema

I don't understand why FCP would persistently show "Missing File", yet right-click on that red thumbnail and selecting "Reveal in Finder" would work. Yes! exactly this! boggles my mind too...

Disk structures seem to be in order. 1 of the drives is directly connected to the Mac via usb-c. The other is on a hub (with NO other usb devices on it) because I need to go USB-A to USB-C because apple chose not to make any other connections on this ons. They both use the cable that came with the drive (as both drives are brand new). I have been using this hub with multiple drives for about 3 years now, never ran into something like this.

May 15, 2023 1:20 PM in response to RichardNL2023

Owh yeah: FCPX did not have full drive access. Amended that, did not change anything.

May 15, 2023 1:31 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Tried it, with GPCL-01-Waterloo in this instance

It finds it, and says it's a match

But then still says missing file (but Lower right corner you can see it does say the original is available)

May 15, 2023 1:33 PM in response to RichardNL2023

Additionally: When I press " reveal in finder" on the inspector for this file, this is what pops up.

May 15, 2023 3:18 PM in response to Davis_

Both are in journald format

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,780 points

May 16, 2023 3:54 PM in response to Davis_

Wow. Thanks Davis. I don’t think that should happen, but I guess it’sa “feature.”

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,780 points

May 16, 2023 4:06 PM in response to Davis_

I’ve never tried it either. It would never occur to me.

May 18, 2023 1:03 AM in response to RichardNL2023

Disk first aid on both disks doesn't find anything weird either as far as I can see

Davis_

Level 2

219 points

May 18, 2023 8:10 AM in response to RichardNL2023

Hey, thanks for letting us know your findings. I'm sure it will help others. Cheers.

joema

Level 4

1,155 points

May 16, 2023 5:20 PM in response to RichardNL2023

As already stated, if both drives are HFS+ or APFS (or a combination), you should be able to dismount the media drive, unplug it, reverse that sequence and the library on SSD should automatically relink. If that doesn't work manual relink should work.

If somehow the 8TB drive volume name got changed, then auto relink will not work. The inode and pathname to each media file includes the volume name, and changing the volume name (accidentally or any other way) will prevent the relink.

However manual relink (in bulk) should work -- IF every media file has a unique filename. If there are duplicate filenames among the folder tree, I don't think manual bulk relink will be reliable. In that case, the only thing FCP knows is the filename and the file parameters. If there is a descriptive pathname that differentiates two duplicate filenames file like /Saturday Concert/First Act, it has no idea about that. If it finds another file with the same name, it will fail a metadata compatibility check. This is a good example of why it's important to have globally unique media filenames.

In a case like this, the symbolic links (symlinks) in the library still have the pathname information for where FCP *thinks* the files are (or were). Unfortunately that cannot be displayed for multiple files using Finder or the FCP UI (I don't think. I vaguely recollect Tom mentioning some method but I can't remember it).

Using terminal you can go into the library to the EventName/Original Media folder and use these commands. In this example, the library name is FX6Export2 and is located in the user's /Movies folder, and the Event name is A7S3Test.

cd ~/Movies/FX6Export2.fcpbundle/A7S3Test/Original\ Media

ls -l

To list the symlinks and their target location. You can also do 'ls -l > symlink.txt', where symlink.txt is a filename you provide. You can examine that with Finder, TextEdit, etc, and search for filenames. Example of output in the above case, where the original media file name is JDM0899.mp4, when imported with "leave files in place" FCP creates a symlink which is a small placeholder file that points to the final location of that file.

lrwxr-xr-x 1 josephmarler staff 64 May 16 11:00 JDM0899.mp4 -> /Volumes/16TB_SSD/A7S3_TestClips/PRIVATE/M4ROOT/CLIP/JDM0899.MP4

lrwxr-xr-x 1 josephmarler staff 64 May 16 11:00 JDM0900.mp4 -> /Volumes/16TB_SSD/A7S3_TestClips/PRIVATE/M4ROOT/CLIP/JDM0900.MP4

lrwxr-xr-x 1 josephmarler staff 64 May 16 11:00 JDM0901.mp4 -> /Volumes/16TB_SSD/A7S3_TestClips/PRIVATE/M4ROOT/CLIP/JDM0901.MP4

If the link is good you can examine it in Finder, but (ironically) if there's a problem and you *really* want to see where the symlink points, Finder will not show that. You must use terminal or some other tool. There are some 3rd-party MacOS file managers that allow display and manipulation of symlinks. As a side note, Finder calls symlinks "aliases" but that is incorrect terminology -- it is a symlink.

The FCP relink dialog will show you the symlink target in grey letters at the bottom of the pane -- IF relinking a single file. It will not show you hundreds of symlink targets.

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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)