Clips will not relink even though they're there

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Level 1

8 points

Clips will not relink even though they're there

FCPX on a Macbook Pro, media on a thunderbolt raid drive.

I have a project using several different events to refer to and there are the clips in red with the yellow triangle warning sign on them. The ones that had the missing files designation have been reconnected successfully. The ones that were missing proxy files have had that done as well. Now there are clips that are red, with the yellow warning triangle, and can not be reconnected. I control click on clip in the project and it does refer back to the clip in the event. I control click onto the clip in the event, select reveal in finder and it does refer back to the proxy media in the finder. That proxy media has the original file back in the Originals folder. So all of the files are there but FCPX can't seem to recognize it.

One more tidbit: In the project when I hit play the audio, which is part of the video clip, plays just fine, there is not video playing. I have drag and dropped clips, that I re imported, onto the missing file in the project and that seems to work but I want to know what happened and how it became such a huge mess. It seems the only file that have this strange missing video behaviour are the ones that I have in use in the project. Event files not in the project seem to be fine.

Any clues would save me hours and hours. Thanks.

Posted on Feb 15, 2013 4:27 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,058 points

Feb 15, 2013 4:41 PM in response to patrickfifth

Are your playback preferences set to proxy?

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Answer 2

patrickfifth Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 15, 2013 7:45 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

I had changed that setting to original or optomized to see if that would make them reconnect, no it didn't. On your comment I've switched it back to proxy and still no go.

FCPX is also crashing very often now.

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Answer 3

Feb 16, 2013 6:15 AM in response to patrickfifth

There are many nasty bugs in regards to relinking media files in FCPx. Many things that have not been explored properly. (Normal for such a new software).... It would help (me) a great deal if were to describe the EXACT steps you took DURING relinking. And WHY you had to relink....

Without that it is more or less impossible to help you. I would have to guess. What you are experiencing is most likely a BUG (not necessarily though) and if you can provide detailed info about your steps to achieving the problem then you should post it here as well as sending it to FCPx Feedback. They (Apple) REALLY listens to it and they are really forthcoming in trying to solve problems.

General Rules for Relinking

1) DONT EVER relink while you are in Proxy Mode

2) If after relinking you are experiencing "Funny Stuff" >>> Temporarily move the contents of "Transcoded Media" of the event library in question outside of the event library... QUIT FCPx first... Then restart FCPx to check if the problem is gone. After than PUT BACK the contents.

IF you have had FCPx create high quality media for you, then after relinking you MUST CREATE it again(If you were relinking original media). Unless the file you are re-linking to is PR 422.

3) If other problems arise > Select the Event and from the File Menu "Delete Event Render Files" ALL

I had one instance where my employee had stabilized a few clips in After Effects... He knew no better and saved all his After Effects files i.e. MVI_9889.aep (Which is merely the project) into "Transcoded Media/High Quality Media" after doing so... FCPx thought that those .aep were movies (Even though he never added them to the event library) and displayed them with a RED icon stating that FCPx did not have the necessary plug-in to playback the movie....

Just one example of weird stuff going on with the media management....

Rule of thum.... DONT (unless no way out) mess witht ANYTHING inside the Projects or Events from the Finder.... ALWAYS do SUCH from within FCPx.

And if you find any anomalies - report step by step to FCPx Feedback what happens... So that we can get rid of those bugs

PS - another problem is when FCPx has created High Quality Media for you.... When you select YOUR clip in the event browser. You are actually selecting a PR422 files that FCPx created for you. If you re-link THAT file to another file, FCPx wont actully delete the PR422 file. And I have had numerous issues where it (FCPx) would get confused afterwards. And still USE the original PR422 file.. Just because it was there. I had to quit FCPx and physically delete the file via the Finder for FCPx to actully use the clip I had re-linked to....

I take that FCPx uses UUID (Unique User IDs) for each file... Becuase if you quit FCPx and swap one file that it is using with an exact copy of itself, FCPx will still throw a "Missing Media" icon. UUIDs are great in some scenarios and killers in others.

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Answer 4

patrickfifth Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 16, 2013 1:46 PM in response to Studio Engineer

First: Thank you so much for this detailed response.

I'm trying to recreate what caused this but apologize if I can't give it in detail, I'm not sure what happened and don't want to give misleading steps.

I've been doing major reorganization of events because I have both speciific events that all go to one project and then lot's of clips that were shot for stock footage purposes so my event library has those specific events and then events by quarter as in 2012Q4 that contains all loose clips shot in the fourth quarter of 2012.

I have been in proxy mode when relinking files but I'm sure I've gone all the way back to the original file when doing so. Was that a mistake? Should I have been going to the proxy media to relink? I understand now to change the prefs from proxy to original before relinking.

As I try to peice this together the one thing that is most notable is many, not all, clips that are in use in a project are affected, showing up red with the yellow ! symbol.

Currently for the effected event I duplicated the event at the finder level, changed the name, reopened FCPX and now the two of them sit side by side. I'm copying the affected files over to the new event and then re-attaching them to the project. Tedious for sure but the best I can come up with to get this done today.

Again, thanks for responding, I wish I had better notes as to what happened, I will be keeping better notes for the future.

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Answer 5

Feb 16, 2013 7:52 PM in response to patrickfifth

Hi,

1)1)1)1)1) ;-) .....

Dont ever try and re-link while in proxy mode. This COULD and most likely WILL end up in a Chernobyl-like disaster. Does NOT have to, though... Re-linkage in FCPx is a highly risky thing to do. It may work and it MAY/WILL induce very ODD behavior. To anyone reading this here thread... Prior to re-linkage --- ALWAYS back up your event library... Because Final Cut Pro can and will fast-ly become Final Cut Havoc.... I LOVE this app more than any other app that I have ever seen on a Mac but relinking files is about as dangerous and dangerous could be... YOU CAN salvage the issue... BUT trouble shooting is NEEDED badly... Meaning.... After failed linkage, you can re-link numerous times and get all back to normal... But first you need to know that you CAN get it back... And most don't. (but you can)... take the time and make sure you have it all backed up... Then do some testing (a days's worth) and you WILL figure out where the bugs are and where not...) then deal with that. Does THAT suck... YES... Big time -- But that IS the way it is....

Re Linkage in FCPx is VERY dangerous... But powerful if done right !!!

Problem is that neither Apple nor I or any other, can predict when powerful adopts dangerous !!!!!!

PS - To those of you in a re-linakge Limbo... I have had to re-link, op to 7 times to get my event lib back to normal...

FPCx seems to be infected with some kind of artificial intelligence... That even its programmers did NOT predict ;-)

Just keep repeating the process and try the 'impossible' (wish I could describe it better) and it WILL work...

PPS ---since years I beta test for a lot of companies but FCPx is the only app bringing forth BUGs that are simply impossible to re-create !

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