File Names on Export

[Chris Tompkins]

When you xport, you can create the name as you like.

Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC

[Scott Davis]

I am well aware of that. What I enter and what the file is labeled on the hard drive are two different things. I don’t enter the gobbledegook. FCP, QT, or the system is creating it. I am wondering if it due to it being such a long name? I also use a lot of underscores.

Scott Davis

[Jeremy Garchow]

Is this using the Batch Export feature by chance?

Yes, it has to do with long file names, but the name should change after the export is complete.

[Scott Davis]

No, just regular old Export Quicktime.

Scott Davis

[Tom Bucknall]

How long is the name?

[Oyvind Stiauren]

This has been a bug with FCP for a long time. What happens is that FCP makes a temporary file name during export of files with filenames over a certain length (I think it is 16 characters) and then re-names it after export is finished. But sometimes the re-naming is not done and the file ends up with the temporary name.

You can just re-name the file manually after the export is done, but there is one important thing you have to rememeber. FCP does not only re-name the file after exporting it. It also sets the reel number and timecode metadata in the same process. So whenever the re-naming process fails, the reel and timecode metadata is not set either. So this has to be done manually also.

—
Oyvind Stiauren
Post production supervisor, Colorist
Terminal

Mexico City

[Jeremy Garchow]

Great point. It’s very tricky, and not predictable.

[Scott Davis]

Ohhh. Maybe a good practice when I have an export with a long file name is to temporarily name it something shorter on export and then rename at the finder level once export is complete to maintain metadata integrity.

Scott Davis

[Oyvind Stiauren]

Ohhh. Maybe a good practice when I have an export with a long file name is to temporarily name it something shorter on export and then rename at the finder level once export is complete to maintain metadata integrity.

Yes, you’ll avoid that problem all together doing that.

—
Oyvind Stiauren
Post production supervisor, Colorist
Terminal

Mexico City

[Andrew Grantham]

Reviving an old thread, I know, but the suggested remedy for this issue is incorrect. The file length is not at fault.

I just successfully exported a file, then tried to export the file again after a slight revision. The only difference in the new filename was an incremented number at the end.

Here are the filenames I attempted to save:

Interview – Guinea Pig final1.mov
Interview – Guinea Pig final2.mov

And here is what ended up on my HD:

Interview – Guinea Pig final1.mov
Interview – Guinea Pi#987E9.mov

So it would seem it’s not the length. It also can’t be the export or sequence settings since these were unchanged.

My vote is that it’s still a bug (as of FCP v 7.0.3 running on 10.7.3).