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Restore from Backup almost total fail
Fortunately, this doesn’t happen on a regular basis. But, I had a corrupted library file. And the restore from backup did not work the way it was supposed to.
With my corrupted library file, when I attempted to open it, it would crash immediately. I attempted to open a backup file. Since, all my media is external from the library I had to relink everything. The relink failed because it only relinked half, the other half it claimed had the wrong audio sample rate or some such thing, which of course was not true.
So, I went to an older manual backup I had on another hard drive. I opened that library file. Then to update it to the recent changes that had been done I opened from a backup. Even with a working library file, now about 95% of the clips were not relinked. I didn’t want to go through the arduous process of relinking all my files again, just to be disappointed in failure.
So I copied the project from the backup into the working older version of the library. Fortunately it found the correct media and I just had a handful of files to relink then.
Number 1: Is this really the restore process Apple imagines you have to go through? Let’s be honest, the FCP X backup is only minimally effective.
Number 2: Had I not had a manual backup, I would have been SOL, with possibly no way to restore my project. At least not without hours of work. -
9 Replies
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Do you know what caused the Library to become corrupt in the first place?
Noah
FCPWORKS – FCPX Workflow
Call Box Training -
What happened to the original file, and do you have time machine?
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You know, I recently did a random test of the process before writing a post, and found the same thing. I was having to relink EVERYTHING. Something has changed. The files in my case were a mixture of external and internal (but to a backup they’re all external – either in a folder or in the “corrupt”(in your case) package).
It is supposed to consolidate package files into the new library when opened, via hard links so it doesn’t take up any extra space. The previous few tests I did with the release of 10.1 were perfect. I think something may have broken at some point. At least for some situations. Or my system.
Currently I’m looking at a deeper test and when I try to restore a healthy project I’m working on, with a mixture of internal and external files, absolutely nothing is relinked from a backup from yesterday minus two or 3 mp3 sfx files. Many of the project files are simply prores files rendered out from Motion or AE that are external. Nothing was even optimized or proxied. To relink the external files are easy enough, but so many are internal and are still living in the package, and Apple doesn’t give you access to relink to the old package/library without a workaround.
Bottom line, this will save your butt in an emergency, but it’s broken. At least compared to how it worked a year ago. Or something is screwed up with my system. Only difference from a year ago being a clean install of Yosemite.
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My library is stored in a sparse bundle on a server. Unfortunately, that’s the only way I’ve figured out to manage library files so multiple workstations can access them and the media. I got a message like, “cannot save changes”, something like that. I’m not sure exactly what happened.
For me that’s neither here nor there. S*** happens. The point of backups is you should be able to restore a project from them. That was not the case. I don’t know if I need to think about an alternative way of backing up. I’d be happy to ditch sparse bundles, but don’t really have any better ideas to centrally store library files.
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[Brett Sherman] “I got a message like, “cannot save changes”, something like that. I’m not sure exactly what happened.”
Usually that indicates some sort of read/write error, or some sort of volume permissions problem.
Backups are an extremely trimmed down version of the Library. X attempts to rebuild the links if it can find the media. If it can’t find the media, it leaves things unlinked. I know all of that sounds obvious, but if everything needs to be relinked, it seems to point to a greater problem. The media may have changed somehow. Did a person somehow inject XMP metadata in to the files with an older version of Ae or Pr?
Also, I’d suggest putting a time machine backup on every machine, and then send X backups to your local drive. This keeps the backups off of the shared drive, and on individual machines, and then those machines get time machine backups.
Another backup to export a Library XML at the end of every session.
I’ve had great luck with FCPX backups and time machine backups.
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Nothing in the media changed as evidenced by the manual backup version opening fine with the same media.
For attempt one which was just opening a backup file directly:
I understand that backups require relinking. So I started relinking. But it failed. Only 50% of the clips relinked. I’d even get a clip with the same camera on the same day that would relink next to one that would not. Perhaps I could have dragged all the media files into the project and it would have relinked that way. I didn’t try it since I wanted a faster route.For attempt two, which was to get an older working version of the library and opening a backup with that library:
My understanding is that if you have a library open and you select “Open from backup” it should not require relinking. In my case almost everything was unlinked.Finally attempt three worked. Grab the project I was working on in the backup library with all media unlinked. Drag it into the older working library.
I have a time machine running on the machine, and backups are always stored on the local computer. So I could have pulled a backup off the time machine. Maybe I’ll try it for posterity. Somehow I think it’s going to have the same issue.
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[Brett Sherman] “Nothing in the media changed as evidenced by the manual backup version opening fine with the same media.”
That’s right. Apologies, I missed that.
[Brett Sherman] “I understand that backups require relinking. So I started relinking. But it failed. “
I don’t think backups always require relinking, that’s what I’m getting at. It seems to point to a great problem. If you exported an XML of the unlinked library, the whole thing, and made a new library, does the footage relink?
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[Jeremy Garchow] ”
I don’t think backups always require relinking”I thought for externally stored media it always required relinking. At least I’m sure it used to be like that. Backups do not save the “alias” files that are stored in the library when using external media. Am I wrong about this?
I’m just not sure what the bigger problem could be. This was a fairly large library – over 2,000 clips. Is it possible the backup works well for smaller libraries, but at some point fails with larger ones?
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[Brett Sherman] “Am I wrong about this?”
No you are not, but X will attempt to relink if it can find the media and rebuild the links. If it can’t find it, it will not relink.
For some reason, you newer library has some bad information somewhere, since your old library will relink to the same media.
I don’t have any experience with sparse bundles, so I don’t know if that has an effect on what is happening.
Does an XML relink?
Have you reached in to the library and have you seen any “_temp” files?
Have you looked to see if there were any bad links in the Event folders?
Some people (and make you dupe the library before trying this) even have luck deleting the flexolibrary file and letting that rebuild on launch.
The initial warning you received, though, seems telling. It usually means that X can’t write to the library, which perhaps indicates some sort of permissions or throughput error, or that X was prevented from overwriting anything and locked it all down with read only.
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