Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
I have imported some iMovie projects. Some were old Hi8 home movies. In iMovie I had used the file name to correct the date "clip-yyyy-mm-dd hh;mm;ss" but FCP X has grouped them by import date. I cannot find an option to change the date of a clip like in iMovie. Anyone know how so my 1994 clips sort correctly in the events section?
Having same issue - anyone got any ideas?
Also having the same issue, Does anyone know how to do this?
Whats about sorting by name since the name contains the date.
Could you add a note (with the date/time or whatever, perhaps?) and then sort by the note column?
I have found the answer.
The answer is their is no way in FCP X to change the date. FCP X is using the date created value of the file. No other meta data is used.
So to fix your dates you have to change the creation date of the file. Hopefully like iMovie they will add this feature (change clip date) to it in the future.
Currently these are the only ways I know how to change the file date:
You can use TOUCH command in terminal. It's easy enough for a few files (google it for more info), but not so much for a lot like I have.
There is an app in the app store for mac called FIle Date Changer 5. It has a nice UI and is easy to change the date. It's $5.
After you change the date FCP X will sort it correctly in the events. This is only an issue when you capture non-date media like Hi-8 or capture cards. Anything with a time stamp like DV or HDV FCP X will modify the date created to be the date of the video.
***** but works for now. By the time they add the feature I'll have already changed all my media. I doubt they'll add it since is a transitional issue. It goes away on it's own over time.
After I change the date I cannot get FCPX to resort it into the correct date. I have tried closing and reopening the software among other things and it does not work. Is there something that I am missing?
Maybe delete the clip from the event, then touch the original source,
touch -t 200308091134.01 clip0001.mov
Then re-import it?
Unofrtunately touch only changes access and modification date, not the create date. So this technique does not work.
In the past I have written simple perl scripts to do it.
" It goes away on it's own over time."
Unfortunately it doesn't. We always end up having to recover files from somewhere that has an incorrect date. Like sometimes copying a file to a FAT32 USB disk, and finding that the create date is the copied date. So we do need the ability in FCPX to change the dates.
OK I have experimented with all the date changing, including Touch, perl MacOSX::File::Info (which has a problem on the Lion) and File Date Changer 5.
If I change the date, the date that now appears in the event library is updated as expected. In this case I was setting something to 2007-03-16. And it now successfully shows "16/03/2007" (Australian).
BUT... The event still groups in 2008/August - I ungroup all the clips, restart, regroup all the clips and it stays in 2008/August. I expect that FCPX is keeping a database of these locations for performance, and there does not seem to be a way to change it.
Very frustrating.
If you have no metadata, and at your own risk ! You can delete CurrentVersion.fcpevent, reload FCPX and click on the event (that will be in todays date). It will be empty, and it has created a new DB file. Exit and restart FCPX. Yes you have to do it twice. Now it is updated, in the right place and content restored. You can do this to a group of media. Obviously a tool that updates the DB file would be better.
The thing is that FCPX somehow uses the same date that can be found my opening the file in Quicktime Pro 7 and looking into Annotations in Movie Inspector. I used a free tool to modify the creation date of the files (http://freeware.the-meiers.org). This did change the creation date from the perspective of Finder, but the Quicktime Annotation remained unchainged. I had to manualy delete the respective annotation in Quicktime and then re-import the file into FCPX in order to see the updated creation date. Quite a time consuming task if you have 1000 files at hand.
P.S. the Automator action for setting movie annotation seems not to work for me as it doesn't clear the Creation Date annotation.
MPMeyer wrote:
Maybe delete the clip from the event, then touch the original source,
touch -t 200308091134.01 clip0001.mov
Then re-import it?
Using touch worked perfectly for me ... no need to re-import. Revealed the clip (audio only in my case) in Finder, touched it, re-opened FCPX. Event Library did not refresh itself (have seen this often) - so changing view and changing back again sorted correctly. (The date in the clip Info panel showed exactly the values used in touch.)
Thanks for the helpful tip.... I only remembered the default touch behavior (current date/time).
Cheers,
Karl
FCPX 10.0.3 now has the ability to change the clip date/time.
Modify, Adjust Content Created Date and Time ...
scottp@dd.com.au wrote:
BUT... The event still groups in 2008/August - I ungroup all the clips, restart, regroup all the clips and it stays in 2008/August. I expect that FCPX is keeping a database of these locations for performance, and there does not seem to be a way to change it.
Very frustrating.
This is REALLY frustrating indeed to not be able to have Events sort by the desired date, vs the import date. tried your tip of deleting the fcpevent file. It was created again by FCPX, but still showed the wrong date... not the date of the event clips (which were changed fine using the Modify > Adjust Date/Time command).
My clips are old Hi-8 footage. Not an issue with any new digital footage.
How can we change the date that FCPX uses for the Event itself (vs the clips)? I just tested the re-import tip, and that seems to work - new event is created using the timestamp of the revised-dated media files. So, that's a workaround I'll use for now ... but shouldn't there be an easier way... to just change the Event date?
Thanks all!
Karl
Change date of clip?
