Mountain Lion/FCPX not reading AVCHD “PRIVATE” folder correctly

[Alex Baird]

Not exactly your situation, but I can’t see the contents of private folder in finder.

I can open the private folder with finder, but then have to right click and “show package contents” on the AVCHD folder, then repeat for the BDMV, then open the stream folder to get to the mts files.

Not sure what the issue is that causes this. Someone on the apple FCPX forums suggested it might be a misformed or hidden name in the file directory that ML/FCPX doesn’t like.

-Alex-

[Christopher Grosso]

Actually Alex what you describe is the exact same thing that we are experiencing. Seems that since the upgrade to Mountain Lion OSX reads the PRIVATE folder different.
There has to be some way within FCPX to read AVCHD files again, since it worked flawlessly before, and we can’t be the only ones having this issue on FCPX with Mountain Lion….really need an answer on this one.

—
Produce | Shoot | Edit
Take Two Visual Media
https://www.take2vm.com

[Christopher Grosso]

Ok looks like importing from “camera archive” works. Don’t know why, I could have swore it didn’t work a few hours ago. All is well again, go about your work.

—
Produce | Shoot | Edit
Take Two Visual Media
https://www.take2vm.com

[Claude Lyneis]

Sounds irritating. Maybe I will wait awhile on Mountain Lion. Does it allow you to copy the AVCHD folder from your camera flash card onto your hard drive? That is how I keep a backup of the original.

[Parker Fawson, jr]

I just updated to Mountain Lion and have found that it DOES NOT allow you to copy info from an SD card (ex. AVCHD media) from your camera flash card onto your hard drive, or any other external. Something in the PRIVATE folder comes up with no access or something and I get an “error 36” stating that I do not have permissions.

I have tried using disk utility to simply create a disk image for backup… same issue.
Tried copying from both card reader & camera to external… same issue.,
Tried copying from both card reader & camera to desktop, then to external drive… same issue.
Attempted to add read/write permissions to all contents…. same issue.
Tried copying from Camera… same issue.
Tried copying from card reader… same issue.

Used FCP 7 to Log and Transfer, which worked ok (noticed some banding similar to issues with reading video over network with a bad connection, which is a little nerve-racking), but like every other video professional, I want a backup of the original card data and this just isn’t working fluidly yet. Any suggestions?

This new “packaging” thing they are trying to do seems to be creating nightmares for everyone online… IF you have a solution I would love to hear it!!!!

[Luc Novovitch]

“I just updated to Mountain Lion and have found that it DOES NOT allow you to copy info from an SD card (ex. AVCHD media)”

It may depend on the origin of the file (?). I just uploaded some files from an SD card, shot with a Sony NX5U. Mountain Lion shows one file named PRIVATE. But right-clicking on it and and choosing Show Package Contents gives a choice between a file names AVCHD and a folder named SONY. Again right-click on AVCHD, Show Packages Contents brings a file named BDMV. Right click and Show Package Contents bring a series of files and folders, and this time no need to right click again. The last folder on the list is STREAM, and the mts files are in there. Drag and drop to copy.
But again, it’s not acceptable, since they’re already at 10.8.1, and it’s really a waste of time to have to right-click on files to finally been able to transfer files x-time the number of cards.

L

[Luc Novovitch]

It seems it really boils down to Mountain Lion qualifying the AVCHD file as a file instead of a folder. I did a simple test; I put an SD card in my card reader, then renamed AVCHD using any name (I used a), and it became a folder with the file BDMV, which I renamed b, and it became a folder with all the files we’re looking for inside.
Still not a ‘the’ solution, but we may tell that to Apple, and it should be an easy fix to implement for these bright guys…

L

[Parker Fawson, jr]

Luc, you are a life saver!! Simply changing the folder name worked great for me. Definitely an issue with Mountain Lion that needs to be rectified. Thanks again for your help. I will sing praises to your name….

-P

Parker’s System Profile:

– 2010 Mac PRO (8-Core)
– 2 x 2.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
– 32 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC
– 2 x ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB
– OS X 10.8.1

[Luca Cococcetta]

but if you rename the folders you can’t ingest in final cut x!

anyone has a different trick? I can’t import from folders on a ubuntu server, but I can ingest from a folder on my mac pro hd… strange!

[John Koczera]

An Applescript has been written here:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/19111053#19111053

and I did a movie of a working example here:
https://youtu.be/nZlTzddiEOk

It’s not the best answer, but at least it’s easier than clicking ‘Show Package Contents’ a bunch of times.

jk