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Quicktip Reconnecting Offline Clips
So FCP X doesn’t tell you the location of offline media? Not true, just takes some hunting.
Select the footage, choose info from the inspector and then choose “show file status” from the gear icon drop down.
It will show the file location, then hover over it and a quick tip will show the location, like this:
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T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque -
3 Replies
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Yes, but it doesn’t help with reconnecting the clip if FCX doesn’t want to do it. Am I right?
I’ve found that even if FCX seems to know where the file is, if something significant has changed, it’s GAME OVER.
So I did a little test. I imported a clip into FCX, without having it copy the media to the event folder. The location in the info box points to the link to the original media. If I move the original file, the link follows it. That’s good.
If I change the name of the original clip, the link still follows it. It doesn’t go offline.
Still good.
I made a copy of the file and deleted the original. When I reopened FCX, it was naturally offline. The location in the info box in FCX still showed the file in the event folder (which was a link to the original material). I “revealed in finder” the offline clip, and it took me to the alias. When I double-clicked the alias it gave me the option of fixing the alias. I fixed it by taking it to the copy of the deleted clip I made. Now the alias is fixed (I can double-click the alias in the event folder and it plays in quicktime), but it’s still offline in FCX.
Now this is interesting: I closed FCX, I opened the event folder on my hard drive, replaced that alias with the duplicated media file I had made for safety, giving it the same name as the original link. Opened FCX and it’s back online.
It might be enough to put the original media back in the event folder. I’m praying that we’ll stop the conjecturing, and that Apple will give us a way to force a relink.
I think the only thing we can do now, is make sure we keep copies of the original media, in case something changes to corrupt the delicate linkages, and we can use time machine to make sure our project folder is backed up every 10 minutes, so we can go back in and pull out an older version of the project should the worst happen.
I now need to get back to work.
And how was that pastors conference in Juarez?
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I’m calling it FCX. They took the “pro” out, so I will too.
I’ll reconsider after the first upgrade.Mark Morache
Avid/Xpri/FCP7/FCX
Evening Magazine,Seattle, WA
blogging at https://fcpx.wordpress.com -
[Mark Morache] “Now this is interesting: I closed FCX, I opened the event folder on my hard drive, replaced that alias with the duplicated media file I had made for safety, giving it the same name as the original link. Opened FCX and it’s back online. It might be enough to put the original media back in the event folder.”
One thing I’ve found out is that you can simply place an optimized file (like a ProRes clip) into an event folder at the Finder level – without importing via FCP X – and it shows up in the FCP X Event Browser when you next launch the application. Ironically, Avid has been going in the opposite direction with AMA.
It seems to point to the fact that if you work with files that are linked in place – meaning, you’ve imported without actually importing or copying media (you are using aliases) – that things start to get a bit more dangerous within FCP X. This would make a lot of sense, since Apple seems to have taken a more Avid-style approach to media management than in the past. That’s in an effort to be more robust.
We may all find out that using aliases is the wrong way to work, unless these files are otherwise, completely untouched by the OS or any other application.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Your exactly right, I named the post incorrectly. I should read “Quicktip Locating the path of Offline Clips” or something like that.
Where this helped out was yesterday is I had was a very large project that was offlined in iMovie and I had several offline stills called the same file name. I didn’t use it to reconnect but rather located the files and then re-edit them in to the sequence.
By the way, the event command “Organize Project Files” is pretty fantastic for preventing all the offline problems.
I seem to recall something about FCP X assigning a unique ID to each clip in an event and it therefore counting offline if it doesn’t find that ID.
Pastor Conference – Thanks for noticing. I assume it was great and glorifying to God, but I don’t speak Spanish so I am waiting to get the translations done. 😉
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T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque
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