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Relink Issue
My RAID went down for some reason and the current project I’m working on lost all of it’s footage.
I have restored from back up, but since I transcoded on import, FCP is seeing QT movies but my original footage is in it’s original forms, whether it’s from a Sony, Canon or Panasonic. (don’t ask why? I didn’t shoot it and it drives me crazy). Anyway, I cannot relink. Won’t find the QT movie (because it’s gone when the drive went down). And then when I find the original, it’s not a name match so it isn’t a compatible file.
Do I need to transcode all footage to QT through Compressor first? Can I delete in the “Footage” Event folder and re-import? Help please!
matt
FCP 10.2.3
OS 10.11.3
Mac Pro (Trashcan)
3.5 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon E5 -
16 Replies
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Are you sure FCP X didn’t simply rewrap the camera files to QuickTime .MOV wrappers using the import window? If you did that you are probably in luck.
You don’t want to transcode the footage. It’s not evidently clear that when FCP X imports the footage it’s not actually transcoding, it’s just wrapping them into QT .MOV containers.
If you did initially ingest via the import window here is what you can try to get back up and running:
– The easy option would be to import the original camera footage directly to a copy of the library with the missing clips via the import window. Just make sure you make a copy of the library first. The reason I recommend the below methods is sometimes they will link media where other methods have failed.
OR:
– Create a new library and import the camera files again via the import window to a single event.
– Once the files are imported you can try relinking them or you can copy the event to your old library with the missing files and it should repopulate the missing clips.
Good luck!
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[Matt Soble] “I have restored from back up, but since I transcoded on import, FCP is seeing QT movies but my original footage is in it’s original forms, whether it’s from a Sony, Canon or Panasonic. (don’t ask why? I didn’t shoot it and it drives me crazy). Anyway, I cannot relink.”
You say you “transcoded on import” – which can have a specific meaning in FCP X workflows.
Does this mean you let X do the transcodes inside the App? Or did you (or someone else) use third party software to transcode before importing into X? This has big implications on whether your original workflow is recoverable.
And follow Darren’s advice. He knows his stuff.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
If it was optimized upon import and if it was not lost when the raid crashed you should be able to find the footage in the finder and actually play the QT files. If you can and FCP X is just not seeing the footage, then either use the relink feature in FC or simply reimport the files by navigating to where they are located after command I. It is always a good idea to make a copy of your card files and store them in a different location than your library just in case the library gets corrupted.
I think it would help Darren and Bill and others here if you took some screen shots of the current state within FC and another of your expanded file structure int the finder. Don;t change anything in the finder just take a screen shot to see what state its in.
In case you don’t know how
command-shift 4 then lasso the image you want to capture.
then click the camera icon in the header of your post and follow the prompts to add the screen grab in your post.
Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.
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Open the import window, add the original camera cards to the “Favorties” section of the sidebar. Close the import window, and chose File > Import > Reimport from Camera/archive.
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yes, assuming there is a Camera/archive.
Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.
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He said the footage “is in its original forms”.
Adding the folders to the favorites list will allow a reimport.
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Was not real clear to me what he meant by original form. I prefer to make a finder copy of a media card rather than using FC’s archive.
What is the difference in behavior between adding to favorites list and not. Reimporting has always worked for me to relink files. Whether that is navigating relink to the “original media folder” in the finder or reimporting/optimizing a media card copy. What does favorites do differently? I had always assumed favorites was just a FCP X way of doing the legacy equivalent of Log and Transfer.
Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.
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I don’t use archives either. I simply put card folders on the storage.
Sometimes, if X doesn’t know where the original card folders are located (if they were imported from a different drive/location), and when you go to reimport, X gives no warning or suggestions as to what to do. The only way to show FCPX where they are is to add the card folders to the favorites. Once that’s complete, the “Reimport” option works.
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What I’ve done is just reimport the cards. And this is very rare. Usually I just need to to point the import interface to the folder that contains the original media folder that for whatever reason lost the link to the library/event that needs to reference those files.
Maybe you can suggest something for a particular reoccurring situation when it does mostly loose the links.
If I copy a folder with an entire project (legacy use of the word) to another drive and I open the library from that other drive, it no longer knows where the media is located. I assume it has metadata that points to the first drive that the project was created on. How then do you do a back up to other drives without running into this problem? Its not a huge concern since I have never failed at relinking the media by a simple reimport. But it’s still annoying and you always hope that a real loss hasn’t happened. Maybe a clone rather than a copy would do the trick?
On important projects I’ll check my back up just to make sure all is well. This is when I run into to this missing media messages. What’s strange: it’s not 100%. Some media shows in the events, some don’t. I do not store my media in the library. I use external folders for media/cache/FC backups. Reason being I feel libraries are yet another container that can get corrupted. If it does, all content is unreadable.
Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.
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Sometimes there’s a grey bar on the footage in the import window. This means that FCPX has already imported the footage, and simply won’t let you import if the media is offline. Adding the footage to favorites fixed this relationship and let’s you reimport (or you have to start a new library, import the footage, and then relink the first library to the second import which I think has been mentioned here).
I try not to rewrap anything these days, I mostly skip the import window and drag and drop straight in to the Browser.
Here’s a video I made over a year ago demonstrating the technique:
https://reels.creativecow.net/film/avchdreimport
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