Q: Ingest new version with old version archived

"Don't do that?" (Don't overwrite an asset with a newer version?)

Not trying to be flippant, just wondering if that's advisable and if there's some other workflow you should consider.

Sounds like you are creating the "new version" of the assets on the same device the the old version is on. This would definitely create a problem. When you do this Final Cut Server won't prompt or alert that you are overwriting a new asset because the "old version's" primary representation / orginal file is offline.

However, when you restored the "old version", it restored on top of the "new version".

The best advice that I can give is try looking at a device type of "Content Base". This device type allows for file with duplicate file names to co-exhist on the same device because Final Cut Server stores these assets in a unique hierarchy.

Hope this Helps.


Nicholas Stokes
XPlatform Consulting

There are two basic paradigms that you can use to interact with Final Cut Server files.

One is to let the filesystem be the master. With this, the original files are sitting in the filesystem, and anyone with permissions can mess with them. FCSvr can see changes (via scans) and update itself accordingly. File names must be unique for anything stored in the same directory.

The second method is to let FCSvr be the master. In this, you don't mess with the filesystem--all file interactions are done indirectly like through watchers, uploads, and archiving/restoring. File names must be unique, unless you create the device as a contentbase device type.

Each method can make sense at different times. Generally the second is the safer approach, but the first makes sense like for FCP capture scratch folders and production scans.

If you upload an asset directly to the FCSvr client application, it will provide you with a dialog box to prevent you from overwriting an existing file if there's a name conflict and it's not a contentbase device. (Nick, it will prompt you even if the old file is archived.)

If you choose to overwrite, the original asset will be deleted and any archive device instance will be orphaned. If that's what you're doing, I don't understand your issue since you told it to overwrite.

But if you've mixed paradigms by going behind FCSvr's back (via the Finder or Terminal) to copy a new media file into a place that FCSvr knew was reserved by an archived file and would have prevented had you done it through the client app, then you're asking for trouble.

Your solution options are: use unique names for files, store them in subfolders that are scanned, or store them in contentbase devices. For the first two you can use the project name or number to help make the file names/folder names unique.

I know this may sound weird but may be you can restore the old version first then add the new version and last archive the new file again.
Thats why I don't use version in FCS, more problems than solutions

Best regards