John Howarth
Level 1 (45 points)

Q: Autosave does not keep links to media

Whenever I need to go to autosave to retrieve an earlier version of a project, I have to reconnect all the footage.  This is in FCP7 (to which I have upgraded only recently - I recall that in FCP6 this was never the case).  Sometimes the links are so broken that I am unable to reconnect at all, and I have to workaround by for instance taking the unlinked sequence I have been working on from the autosaved project, copying it back into the main project, and reconnecting that sequence manually, clip by clip, thereby retaining the links to all the other sequences and the source footage which are still as expected in the main project.

 

Let me say that this usually follows some kind of FCP crash or freeze, but I have discovered that even without a crash, the autosaved projects do not retain all the links.

 

I don't think this is how it's meant to be, so what can have gone wrong?

Posted on Oct 22, 2015 10:13 AM

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John Howarth

Q: Autosave does not keep links to media

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  • by dinaharnott,

    dinaharnott dinaharnott Oct 23, 2015 1:45 PM in response to John Howarth
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 23, 2015 1:45 PM in response to John Howarth

    I have been having the same problem so I'd love to know what the solution is.

     

    Some other posts I found suggest  renaming the autosave project with the same name as the original (without the time stamp). Someone else used a quick fix of opening the original project and the autosave project side by side and then copied and pasted the latest sequence from the autosave into the main project and was able to relink.

     

    I haven't tried either of these yet but maybe they'll help.

  • by dinaharnott,

    dinaharnott dinaharnott Oct 23, 2015 1:49 PM in response to dinaharnott
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 23, 2015 1:49 PM in response to dinaharnott

    It does seem to be about the name, I just found this:

     

    Bret WilliamsRe: FCP 7 Autosaves go offline and then can't reconnect to media

    by Bret Williams on Mar 4, 2013 at 3:27:15 pm

     

    Originally, autosaves only existed on their own, but people couldn't see to grasp the idea that the project name is paramount in keeping things neat and tidy in FCP legacy, and that before opening the autosave they optimally should move it to the project folder, name the old version something else, and then rename the autosave the same name the older version had, THEN open it. Moving it keeps the directory structure in tact, and renaming it will keep your capture scratch in tact, and keep you from having a mess of autosaves of an auto save.

     

    Or to alleviate all that mess, use the restore function, which was introduced 7 or 8 years ago to make life simpler.

  • by dinaharnott,

    dinaharnott dinaharnott Oct 23, 2015 2:09 PM in response to John Howarth
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 23, 2015 2:09 PM in response to John Howarth

    It seems to be about the name, I just found this:

     

    Bret WilliamsRe: FCP 7 Autosaves go offline and then can't reconnect to media

    by Bret Williams on Mar 4, 2013 at 3:27:15 pm

     

    Originally, autosaves only existed on their own, but people couldn't see to grasp the idea that the project name is paramount in keeping things neat and tidy in FCP legacy, and that before opening the autosave they optimally should move it to the project folder, name the old version something else, and then rename the autosave the same name the older version had, THEN open it. Moving it keeps the directory structure in tact, and renaming it will keep your capture scratch in tact, and keep you from having a mess of autosaves of an auto save.

     

    Or to alleviate all that mess, use the restore function, which was introduced 7 or 8 years ago to make life simpler

  • by John Howarth,

    John Howarth John Howarth Oct 23, 2015 3:15 PM in response to dinaharnott
    Level 1 (45 points)
    Oct 23, 2015 3:15 PM in response to dinaharnott

    Thanks for your reply, and it's interesting that you have experienced the same problem.  Thanks for digging up the C Cow post.

     

    I've just tried all the methods outlined in Bret Williams' post: I renamed the main Project and moved it somewhere else, I took an autosave file and renamed it as the Main Project and moved it to the Main Project's original folder.  I opened the project, but it was not linked.  So then I took a copy of the Main Project, renamed it as the Main Project, opened it, and so far so good - it was correctly linked.  I then used Restore from the File menu to open an autosave filet.  The project then opened that autosaved file, but it was unlinked.  I tried both these methods with multiple autosave files.  So neither of these suggestions work for me, although I'm sure Bret had the best intentions when he suggested them.

     

    When I installed this version of FCP, the first issue I had was that I could not access the help menu.  I had to write something into Terminal (found on this forum) which made that work.  Maybe there's another little detail lurking somewhere that never got installed to cause this current problem.

  • by dinaharnott,

    dinaharnott dinaharnott Oct 23, 2015 7:42 PM in response to John Howarth
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 23, 2015 7:42 PM in response to John Howarth

    OK I still need to give these methods a try.

    But renaming the autiosave as the main project seems to have worked?

    Maybe there is a glitch in your installation.

    I'll see how it goes when I try.

  • by John Howarth,

    John Howarth John Howarth Oct 24, 2015 3:03 AM in response to dinaharnott
    Level 1 (45 points)
    Oct 24, 2015 3:03 AM in response to dinaharnott

    No, renaming the autosave as the main project did not work.  Even when I moved that renamed autosave to the same folder that the main project was originally in, it still did not work.

  • by dinaharnott,

    dinaharnott dinaharnott Oct 24, 2015 4:43 AM in response to John Howarth
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 24, 2015 4:43 AM in response to John Howarth

    Nope didn't work for me either!

    Have you found a solution yet?

  • by John Howarth,

    John Howarth John Howarth Oct 24, 2015 4:52 AM in response to dinaharnott
    Level 1 (45 points)
    Oct 24, 2015 4:52 AM in response to dinaharnott

    No!

     

    My next effort will be to install FCP7 onto my laptop, running Yosemite.  Currently I still have FCP6 there (which works perfectly, contrary to Apple's suggestion that it will not work, although Compressor which comes with that suite, FCS2, does not work properly).  Let's see if it's still broken there.  It may take me a little time to do that, but I'll let you know.

  • by dinaharnott,

    dinaharnott dinaharnott Oct 26, 2015 5:13 AM in response to John Howarth
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 26, 2015 5:13 AM in response to John Howarth

    Any luck yet?

    No I've noticed that when I reconnect my audio is out of synch.!

  • by John Howarth,

    John Howarth John Howarth Oct 31, 2015 8:01 AM in response to dinaharnott
    Level 1 (45 points)
    Oct 31, 2015 8:01 AM in response to dinaharnott

    No luck yet - I'm somewhat reluctant to put FCP7 onto the laptop till I've got this problem solved.

     

    Further observations:  although all the links to the footage are broken, links to graphics files and to free-standing audio files (in this case mp3 files) remain good.  It's inly the ProRes footage that doesn't link.

     

    I've now looked back over some previous projects completed over the last three years or so.  I haven't checked every one, but the ones I have checked all exhibit the same problem - except for one project, chronologically somewhere in the middle there, which behaves perfectly and all the autosaves link correctly.  That project is on the same drive as other projects which don't work correctly - I can't figure out what is unique about that project.  Now, curiouser and curiouser - autosaves created today from those old projects (whose old autosaves will not connect) do link correctly.  What's going on?  The current project, of course, still fails to create autosaves which will link to the footage.