Is "Consolidate Media ..." Broken?

If you have one Event on one disc how is it on multiple discs?

TOnyTOny

Hey 1 Open Loop

From the manual:

Consolidate a project’s media files

In the course of creating a project in Final Cut Pro, you might use media from a variety of locations, including your local computer and external storage devices. If the media used in the project is located on multiple hard disks, you can consolidate all the media used in the project on the same hard disk as the project.

You note:

But when I try to consolidate the media, FCPX thinks the media is in the FCPX Event directory.

I'm wondering if its possible you've got your Final Cut Events directory mixed up with your Final Cut Projects directory? If the project is also on the external drive, as is all the media, then the error message you're recieving may seem to make more sense.

Cheers

Andy

Good find.

Just for intersets sake / more info, did you also test to see if the Consolidate function still gives the same error when you add additional media (from the same external drive) to the project? Just wondering if its an issue specific to a single clip project? Also did you try using different external drives? Just in case its something specific to your disc?

I'll try to reproduce on my own system as well.

Thanks for teh heads up.

Andy

Maybe what your looking for is File> Organize Event files.

You can read about it here (at bottom of page)

http://help.apple.com/finalcutpro/mac/10.0/#ver392f50c2

TOnyTOny

I was just leaving feedback with Apple that it seem that reimport doesn't work.

Let Apple know at http://www.apple.com/feedback/finalcutpro.html

TOnyTOny

Hi,

As far as I can understand the references to Consolidate Media in the Help file, it can be used to bring multiple media clips stored on multiple disks onto one disk. As the file you are attempting to consolidate is already on one disk the behaviour your seeing is correct. The entry in the Help file is

2. Control-click the project to select it, and choose Consolidate Project Media from the shortcut menu.

If a window appears stating that there is nothing to consolidate, all of your media files are already consolidated and located on one disk.

Alastair.

Consolidate Media will put it all in one place. Organize Event files will copy media that has been referenced to the event file.

From the Manual:

Copy all external media files used by an Event to its Event folder

1. Select the Event in the Event Library.
2. Choose File > Organize Event Files.
3. In the window that appears, click Continue.Final Cut Pro duplicates the media files and places the copy in the Final Cut Events folder on your computer.

TOnyTOny

Hi,

Can you confirm that you have more than one media file, on different disks, being used in the same project? As I understand it, it shouldn't matter if the media is referenced or not. What does matter is that their is multiple media files distributed across multiple disks. Consolidate will then copy or move the media onto the disk which contains the project.

Try importing a new media clip located on the same disk as the one that holds your project and see if Consolidate will now behave as you expect it to.

Alastair.

I'm afraid you're using the wrong tool for the job - Consolidate Media isn't intended to resolve aliases. That's what Organize Event Files is for, as The TonyTony has already pointed out. Here's the relevant bit from the manual (http://help.apple.com/finalcutpro/mac/10.0/#ver392f50c2):

If you import files with this checkbox deselected, you can still copy the files at a later time to the Final Cut Events folder using the Organize Event Files command.

Consolidate Media doesn't care about how many aliases you have or how many drives they're on - they all look like one file. In other words, Consolidate can tell the difference between you and your siblings and call a family reunion, but it can't tell the difference between you and your clone. Only the Organize Event Files command can collapse all the "clones" down to a single file.