FCP X media offline

[Rick Lang]

Boris, I wonder if the Consolidate Project Media will actually do the trick since it can be used in your situation where you have already used clips in the project. If you’re lucky, instead of saying it can’t find the media, I hope it pops up the Finder for you to point to the media! Let us know if it works…

https://help.apple.com/finalcutpro/mac/10.0/#verc1fad5d0

Rick Lang

iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB

[Boris Jansch]

Thanks Rich, I’ll add my story to the ever growing list of gripes that Apple will hopefully resolve soonish. Reconnecting media is such a basic, it blows my mind that this function has been overlooked, particularly as most of us professional editors won’t be familiar with the idiosyncrasies that media connections based on meta data can throw up.

FCPX is a lot of fun and it has definitely got my creative juices flowing again but I’ll be switching to CS5.5 regrettably because I work with a lot of 5D and I can’t risk losing an edit and I don’t have time to transcode it all for FCP7.

Many thanks,

Boris J.

[Oliver Peters]

Everything you do in the events library browser within FCP X is actively working with the REAL media. Processes can be destructive. When you open a file in some apps, like Premiere Pro, some metadata is rewritten by the other application. This causes FCP X to now see it as a different file. Therefore your clip becomes offline because there is a mismatch. FCP X has no “reconnect media” function. Sometimes, you can reconnect successfully by deleting the offline clip in the broswer completely. Then re-import the file and it may relink in the Project (timeline).

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Adam Trojan]

LOL!

[Kevin Patrick]

First, I’ll tell what someone suggested to me that almost worked. Then I’ll ramble about my experience.

I was told to do the following:

In the Event Browser, select the clip that has the Modified File issue.
Choose Open In Timeline.
Then, re-import the clip into the Event Browser.
(you should now have two versions of the same clip, one that works, one that doesn’t)
Select the newly imported clip and Overwrite the bad clip that you just Opened In The Timeline.
(obviously, not the timeline where you’ve done all your work with the bad clip)
This might fix your issue. Meaning, FCPX might have “re-connected” the file.

For me, this didn’t fix the issue. All the work I did on the clip in my Timeline still had the Modified File issue. But, when I looked at the media in the Event Browser, most but not all of the clip came back. The first 4:42 of the clip had the Modified File issue, the rest was fine. But, it didn’t fix anything on the Timeline I had worked on.

Now, the rest of this post talks about what I have done/tried to fix the issue.

Here’s what I’ve found out:

You can only use File > Import > Re-import From Camera Archive … if you not only imported from a camera, but you also created an archive. I imported a file from a hard driver.

You can re-import, but that only provides you with another copy of the clip. A good copy. But it won’t replace all the work you’ve done with the bad (Modified File) clip. As in, there is no way to re-link a clip.

You can select the project in the Project Browser, click on the inspector and choose Modify Event References. I have no idea what this is supposed to do, but it won’t find and/or re-link your clip. In my case, it simply told me that the media cannot be found.

In the Event Browser, I clipped on the bad clip and choose Reveal in Finder. It takes me to the Original Media directory where I can see the Alias for the clip. (I did not copy/move the clip when I imported it). In Finder, I choose Find Original and it finds the file, right where it’s been the entire time. As far as I know, I never touched this clip outside of FPCX. I never renamed it. I never moved. I never took the RAID array off line. Nothing that I can recall.

Since the error message refers to the fact that the file was modified (and I have no idea how it was modified) I tried to reproduce the issue. I imported a new copy of the file that’s supposedly Modified. So I have a new copy that works just fine. I quit FPCX. Opened up both FPC7 and PP, imported the clip into both, color corrected the clip in both, saved and quit both. Opened up FCPX and everything was fine. So neither FCP7 nor PP caused the issue.

Apple support suggested I remove the FCP Cache and Preferences. I did. No change. The did confirm what I think we all know. That FCPX has no re-link media command. Their suggestion was to re-import the clip. I told them that in FPCX terms “re-import” should actually be called “start all over, you’ve lost all your work and there’s nothing that can be done”. Apparently, they don’t have the same humorous view on life as I do.

Then I tried Time Machine. Per the Apple support person’s suggestion, I use TM to restore the Event Folder with the issue. Not the entire FCPX Events folder, just the sub folder unique to this issue. TM took me back to several different versions, but none of the recovered versions brought me back to the point in time where the clip was fine. Also, each time I recovered a version of the Event, I not only kept both, I moved the previous one out onto the desktop. No help from Time Machine.

Then I thought that Consolidate Media might fix my issue. The media that I’m having the issue with is on an external RAID array. So maybe if I told FCPX to consolidate (or copy) the media it might somehow re-link it. First, I decided to test the feature. I created a new Event, imported a clip, but kept it on the same RAID array. I checked to make sure the clip did have an Alias for it in the Original Media folder, and it did. I then highlighted the Project and choose Consolidate Media. A dialog popped up telling me that there is nothing to consolidate, since all my media is already on one disk. It appears that this feature is broken. The user manual clearly states this feature is used when your media is on another drive than your Events folder. Which it is. But for some reason FCPX does not think so. But I did try and consolidate the media on the project with the issue and I got the same result. Nothing to consolidate, since. Even though I had re-imported the clip again, choosing not to copy it. The Original Media folder shows two clips, both Aliases. Both Alias links work just fine.

Then I came across this Macworld link.

https://www.macworld.com/article/160725/2011/06/fcpx_quirks.html

This article describes the issue I’m having. It states …

Modified: June 27, 2011
Article: TS3816

symptoms
Editing a clip after using the command “Open in the timeline” of events in the browser modifies the original media.

products Affected
Final Cut Pro X
resolution
If Final Cut Pro X has not been restarted, the Undo command to restore the original multimedia content. To undo changes, click Edit and select Undo.

If Final Cut Pro X is restarted after making the change, you must re-import the clip to restore the original. To do this, mount the camera or the camera file and import the clip again. This creates a new clip in the browser events.

So, it appears Apple is aware that FCPX can modify your media to the point you will have an issue. Undo should fix it, if you don’t quit FCPX first. If you quit, then it can’t be fixed.

What’s more interesting is the fact that the Apple Support Document (TS3816) is no longer on Apple’s English (or US) site. If you click the link, you’ll get the “We’re sorry, we can’t find the article you’re looking for” message. But, it is still on the German and Spanish sites. At least it was this morning.

I assume Apple will fix this issue. But, with no way to re-link media, you will loose lots of work if this happens. And apparently it will. By the way, this issue is listed in the FCPX user manual under Solutions To Common Media Management Issues. So, they know the issue is common. Too bad they don’t have a fix for it.

Kevin

[Luca Viterbo]

Today I had the same problem and found this thread.
Obviously you have solved or you no longer need advise, but i found something that doesn’t solve your problem but is a tip not to fall in. I hope not saying something banal.

The problem when using media that FCP X link to, with other apps is the fact, like someone said, of the “Last Modified” problem, so the metadata related to.

I’ve had your same problem using a Quicktime file in After Effects, saving the project in AE, and so lost the link immediately in FCP X. So i tried with another QT, but before do this I set the “Sharing & Permission” of this file to “Read only”, and this solve my problem, I can use it in AE or whatever apps and FCP X mantain all links.

I think this can only solve QT problems, or movie in general, because I usually don’t need to write to a movie file itself. In my opinion it doesn’t works with other assets like graphics or audio (psd, png, audio) where maybe you have to update regularly the file.

[Kevin Patrick]

I believe some of the following discussions that came about back then pointed to the modification of the metadata. If another application touched the metadata of the the, FCP X would then tag the file as Modified. Which I suppose is true. Unfortunately, there’s no ability to re-link media. Hopefully Apple will add that in the next release. There are a fair amount of people who need this feature. I sent Apple feedback on this back in July.

I suppose setting the permissions of the file to Read only, when FCP X is not running might address this issue. Kind of a cumbersome work around though.

[Theo Carter]

I had to relink clips in the browser and also re reference in the timeline. I did this by clicking on the timeline before it was actually loaded. On the right side there is a screen showing the missing files and at the bottom of that it gives you the option to reference to a different location. I changed this and my files appeared in my timeline again.