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Need Help Reconnecting Media
One of my assistants captured some files for me, but unfortunately, named the files using the ‘/’ character. This has apparently reaked havoc on FCP, as we try to open it up, all the files appear with the red slash, saying the files are offline. I have tried to reconnect the media to the files, but it just doesn’t work.
I tried renaming all the source clips by removing the ‘/’ from the name (i.e. “name/tape” was changed to “nametape”) but FCP seems to want to find the original file names with the slash ‘/’ in the title. I went into the logging info screen, to change all the original reel names, and source names, but that still didn’t work.
Finally, even with FCP shut down, if I do a ‘get info’ on one of the source video files, even though it is renamed, it still seems to think there is a missing ‘/’ from the name. (if that makes sense)
The strange thing is this file worked several times, but now all of the sudden doesn’t want to work.
Any ideas? I’m afraid I’m at the point where even recapturing might now work because it expects the files to be named with the ‘/’ in it…
Thanks!
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13 Replies
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The backslash isn’t a problem at all, we use it all the time here. You removing it from the file names is definitely a problem. Now you will have to manually point FCP to each file by turning off “Matched Name Only.” Simply file by file point FCP to the correct media for each clip.
It sounds like the media was captured on a different drive and then you need to manually point FCP to the first file. After pointing out the first file, FCP should have reconnected automatically the rest of them.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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I was wondering about the backslash, because it worked originally…the file has always been on the same drive…I just moved the drive, and all the contents, from one computer, to another,…now it works on neither computer…
with that said, I tried reconnecting to the original files, but it said the files didn’t exist. So I renamed them, thinking it had a problem with the name…after doing that,…it still didn’t work.
Here are the steps I just tried:
— Right Click Offline File, select Reconnect Media
— In “Reconnect Files” window, i select ‘Locate’, and point to the newly named file.
— I select the correct file, and select ‘Choose’
— I get a dialog saying “The movie file cannot be found. Without this file, the movie cannot play properly” The file it is referring to is a subfile of the main one. For example, the main clip name is Tape1Event1-v, and the because I did a timecode detect, it broke it up into multiple files(Tape1Event1-v-1, Tape1Event1-v-2, etc…) I select the ‘Search’ feature, and point to the corresponding v-1 file, and then v-2, etc until I’ve gone through them all.
— I then get a “File Attribute Mismatch” window with the error:“Some attributes of one or more of the files you have chosen do not match the attributes of the original. This may cause problems within the sequences that are dependent on them. The attributes that differed are as follows: -Reel Would you like to try to connect them again?”
— I just select ‘continue’ as ‘Try Again’ doesn’t seem to do anything.
— The “Reconnect Files’ window now shows the files in the ‘Files Located’ section.
— I select “Connect”, but then get the following errors:“The file does not have proper content to reconnect to “Name” clip in sequence “SequenceName”. Click “OK” to make this item independent and go to the next clip or “Cancel” to skip all clips from this file.
— I select “OK” but get the same error for several sequences. At the end of it all, the file is still offline.
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Walter,
It is not a great idea to encourage the use of “special characters” as file naming conventions, and it is frowned upon in the industry for good reason. While you may get away with it in FCP, many systems will reject any file name or reel number containing any of the most commonly used special characters. In fact, even the FCP manual states the following on page 38:
Avoiding Special Characters
The most conservative filenaming conventions provide the most cross-platform
compatibility. This means that your filenames will work in different operating systems,
such as Windows, Mac OS X and other Unix operating systems, and Mac OS 9. You also
need to consider filenaming when you transfer files via the Internet, where you can never
be certain what computer platform your files may be stored on, even if temporarily.
Most special characters should be avoided. Here are some suggested conservative
filenaming guidelines for maximum cross-platform compatibility:Avoid
File separators : (colon)
/ (forward-slash)
\ (backward-slash)
You cannot use colons (:) in the
names of files and folders
because Mac OS 9 (Classic) uses
this character to separate
directories in pathnames. In
addition, some applications may
not allow you to use slashes (/)
in the names of items.
These characters are directory
separators for Mac OS 9,
Mac OS X, and DOS (Windows)
respectively.
Special characters not included
in your native alphabet
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[David Roth Weiss] “Walter,
It is not a great idea to encourage the use of “special characters” as file naming conventions, and it is frowned upon in the industry for good reason. While you may get away with it in FCP, many systems will reject any file name or reel number containing any of the most commonly used special characters.”
I’ve never heard of this being “frowned upon” by the industry that I’ve been a part of going on 17 years now, with the last 11 on NLE’s. The only issue we’ve run into with “Special Characters” is using Final Touch HD which does not currently recognize certain “illegal characters” from it’s development in Unix.
Media 100, Avid and FCP we’ve use colons, periods, backslashes, hyphens, quotes, etc…. Just about every key on the keyboard has been used in file names and I’ve never seen it cause an issue in any of our FCP projects.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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[belsokar] “”Some attributes of one or more of the files you have chosen do not match the attributes of the original. This may cause problems within the sequences that are dependent on them. The attributes that differed are as follows: -Reel Would you like to try to connect them again?””
That’s interesting. The clips are associated with the wrong tape. I get this error when I conform other people’s projects because I always capture audio even if the original clip was video only. So I’ll get the “some attributes are different” error because thay all contain audio, but I just let it go with no issues.
Now you’re saying someone else captured this project on this system and now FCP can’t reconnect the media, even after you re-named everything in an attempt to get it to work.
What happens if you double click the clips into Quicktime? Do they play? It almost sounds to me like something was very wrong with the original capture process because I find it interesting that FCP is telling you the clips are associated with the wrong tape.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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[walter biscardi] “I’ve never heard of this being “frowned upon” by the industry that I’ve been a part of going on 17 years now, with the last 11 on NLE’s. The only issue we’ve run into with “Special Characters” is using Final Touch HD which does not currently recognize certain “illegal characters” from it’s development in Unix. “
Walter,
I’ve got to agree with DRW on this one… you’re really risking a meltdown by using “Special Characters” in filenames. Why do it? This is a simple, easy step that can be taken to eliminate one possible trouble point.
I’m guessing that you’ve been lucky in your experience over the last 17yrs. I have always been extremely conservative with filenames, clip names etc. This is no place to take chances, especially since the consequences far outweigh any benefits from using a special character.
Normal characters good. Special characters bad!
Mark
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[Mark Raudonis] “I’ve got to agree with DRW on this one… you’re really risking a meltdown by using “Special Characters” in filenames.”
I work with quite a few Avid editors and other Final Cut Pro editors who cut corporate and broadcast on a regular basis. I’ve never heard any of them discuss the need to stay away from special characters nor do they shy away from using those characters.
Media 100 didn’t have an issue with them. Avid doesn’t have an issue with them. In my experience Final Cut Pro hasn’t had an issue with them. Like I said, I’ve never heard of anyone having any issues with the use of the characters in file names.
Heck even using Avid OMF’s to bring projects into Final Cut Pro with the Automatic Duck doesn’t have any issues with special characters and you’re talking about 30 episodes with literally thousands of clips in just the past year alone.
The issue at hand in this thread does not sound like it has anything to do with the backslash as he error message refers to the Reel name which has nothing to do with a special character. It sounds like something was performed incorrectly during capture or there was a crash during capture which affected the entire project getting corrupted.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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[walter biscardi] “Media 100, Avid and FCP we’ve use colons, periods, backslashes, hyphens, quotes, etc…. Just about every key on the keyboard has been used in file names and I’ve never seen it cause an issue in any of our FCP projects.”
Walter,
This is an industry standard that goes back much farther than your 17-years, and much farther than non- linear editing. The fact that you are not aware of these industry standards does not negate the fact they are standards nonetheless.
Its not just me, Mark, and Apple saying this, nor is it based upon our own anecdotal evidence, which is the basis of your argument. The Apple manual clearly explains why conservative file naming procedures without “special characters” are best adopted, and anyone who expects to interface seamlesly in this global industry should make a habit of adhering to these standards. You’re free to use use whatever procedures you want, but, you should be aware of the standards and the reasons they exist before encouraging others on the forum to use other conventions.
DRW (over 34 years professional experience)
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From the days of manually debugging FORTRAN code in my college days, I learned to be very, very careful with any input that goes into computer programs.
If you want the computer to be your helpful friend, you have to think like one…
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“Now you’re saying someone else captured this project on this system and now FCP can’t reconnect the media, even after you re-named everything in an attempt to get it to work.”
>> Yes….very strange…
“What happens if you double click the clips into Quicktime? Do they play? It almost sounds to me like something was very wrong with the original capture process because I find it interesting that FCP is telling you the clips are associated with the wrong tape.”
>> When I click on the now modified file (name has been changed), I get the following error:
“The movie file “Name1/Event1-v-1″ cannot be found. Without this file, the movie cannot play properly”
Keep in mind that the “Name1/Event1-v-1” filename it references is the original filename of the subclips. I have since renamed everything to the new name without the backslash ‘/’. That seems to be the central issue, is that, somewhere, it doesn’t want to remove the ‘/’ from the filename, so it doesn’t want to recognize the entire file.
Example of filenames again:
Original:
Name1/Event1-v
Name1/Event1-v-1
name1/Event1-v-2
etc…New Files:
Name1Event1-v
Name1Event1-v-1
Name1Event1-v-2
etc…So even though I’m double clicking on the Name1Event1-v file, it still is looking for the Name1/Event1-v-1 subfile. I have even tried renaming the sub clips back with the ‘/’, but it will not allow me to. I get the following error:
“The Name Name1/Event1-v-1 cannot be used. Try using another name, with fewer characters or no punctuation marks.”
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