[Jeff Kirkland]

I can’t really help with the why, but it’s been a recurring bug that’s affected a select few over the years. According to Apple, it was fixed in FCPX 10.4. Up until then, the best solution was to re-link the footage after import.

I suspect it’s a combination of FCPX and macOS not working together properly.

Just checking that all the IMacs are running the latest version of FCPX on High Sierra?

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Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer & Cinematographer
Hobart, Tasmania | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Jeff Kirkland]

The answer is that usually you’re ok and there shouldn’t be any re-linking but in reality, you need to test the archive as soon as it’s created because, in my experience at least, FCPX is very good at leaving things out and I never fully trust it to have archived things properly.

Open the FCPX library package in the Finder and check that all the media is actually there and not just an alias, waiting to make your life miserable later on.

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Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer & Cinematographer
Hobart, Tasmania | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Jeff Kirkland]

For what it’s worth, and this might be a little vague because it’s been a couple of years since I had to deal with it, error code 36 was related to the ._ invisible file associated with the file or directory in the Finder and most often occurs with files and directories created on a Windows machine, then copied to the Mac.

At the time, I found a utility that cleaned out the relevant ._ files and the error went away. Unhelpfully, I can’t remember what it was called though.

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Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer & Cinematographer
Hobart, Tasmania | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Jeff Kirkland]

What Mac are you editing on? From your description, just wondering if you’re hitting the limit of your computer’s GPU RAM or maybe some sort of throughput issue because of the number of clips.

My thought would be to either batch resize the videos before bringing them in to FCPX or to render the first 80 or so clips, then bring that new clip back in and add the rest. You might also try grouping some in a background clip and letting that background render. I think FCPX will keep using that background rendered version as a single clip until you make a change to the contents of the compound clip, which might ease the load a little.

I’ve never had it happen to me so just a few stabs in the dark…

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Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer & Cinematographer
Hobart, Tasmania | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Jeff Kirkland]

If you want to use that plug-in, you don’t really have much choice. The only real reason not to update is in case the new OS and your plugins, NLE, etc have incompatibilities but right now FCPX, the plugins and macOS High Sierra are as stable as they’re ever going to get so I can’t see a reason not to update mid-project.

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Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer & Cinematographer
Hobart, Tasmania | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Jeff Kirkland]

Sadly, no – cutting it up is your only option.

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Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer & Cinematographer
Hobart, Tasmania | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Jeff Kirkland]

Personally, it’s rare I’d pass the cost of that sort of time on to the client. It’s not their fault there was a bug in the software I chose, or I decided on a workflow that didn’t go as expected, or I’m not as smart as I think I am and had to learn something new to get the job done – so I don’t expect them to have to pay for things like that.

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Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer & Cinematographer
Hobart, Tasmania | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Jeff Kirkland]

You can either choose on of the other lower quality options or, if you have Compressor, you can create a custom preset with whatever settings you want. I personally tend to export a ProRes “Master File” then use the Handbrake app to convert that to MP4.

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Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer & Cinematographer
Hobart, Tasmania | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Jeff Kirkland]

Glad to hear you’ve got it working. That’s not something I’d have thought of.

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Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer & Cinematographer
Hobart, Tasmania | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Jeff Kirkland]

This all sounds really weird. You said the XML failed to import into Resolve – what was it’s problem with it?

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Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer & Cinematographer
Hobart, Tasmania | Twitter: @jeffkirkland