[Joe Marler]

You have two different issues: (1) Atomos A/V sync issue and (2) FCPX use of sync clips not multicam clips.

My doc team has many Atomos recorders and we’ve never seen this. We use both Sound Devices and Zoom F8 recorders.

However — a 4-8 frame sync issue on some Atomos recorders is commonly discussed, not just by FCPX users. Maybe other Atomos users could comment with their experiences.

Here is an interesting video discussing this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ug6B3-RF04

Problem #2 is using a sync clip not a multicam clip. It is generally better to use a MC clip, even when only having one video and external audio source. One reason is MC clip ranges in the timeline continuously inherit the properties of the parent clip in the Event Browser. Thus if you edit 50 clip ranges from a long MC clip into the timeline then discover the color or audio sync is off, you can simply open the parent MC clip, fix that, and all 50 sub-clips in the timeline will inherit this. Sync clips don’t exist in a parent/child relationship so this isn’t possible with them.

You can also selectively re-sync an existing MC clip, add angles, add audio sources, etc.

This is discussed in this Frame.io blog post by T. Payton: https://blog.frame.io/2016/10/06/6-ways-to-maximize-multicam-fcpx/

The proper practice is batch label all clips from each camera or recorder in the Inspector with a specific camera name or angle name, sync the multicam, then open the MC clip and check the sync (beginning, middle end), then in the Event Browser mark favorites and keyword ranges in the MC clip, then insert those in the timeline. Do not put the original parent clips in the timeline. To help avoid this mark the parent clips “rejected” and run the Browser in “Hide Rejected” mode.

FCPX does not do sync drift correction like PluralEyes. If you have very long takes it is conceivable the sync could drift if the camera timebase is poor. Check whether the MC clip is consistently off the same # of frames or just at the beginning, or middle.

Once multiple MC clip ranges are in the timeline, you can still open the parent MC clip in the Event Browser and change color or re-sync the audio. All child clips in the timeline should inherit those changes.

Note if you create a project snapshot, that breaks the parent/child relationship for that snapshot project. Subsequently editing that snapshot means you cannot then change the parent MC clip and have the snapshot project inherit those changes. If you want that use “duplicate project” instead of “create snapshot project”.

Lastly, a good way to ensure sync in a stop/start shooting environment is using Tentacle Sync devices. There are other products but we use these and they work very well: https://tentaclesync.com

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[Joe Marler]

I haven’t seen a repeatable case on a single ProRes output file, and I always have TM running.

However when I’ve used the new 10.4.4 feature to batch export many (as in 500+) ProRes clips from the Event Browser, sometimes a few don’t get exported. I haven’t had time to pursue that.

Is there any commonality, such as they are on the same hub, same Thunderbolt string, or any on a NAS?

[Joe Marler]

What version of FCPX and what hardware? If this is 100 mbps 4k XAVC-S, I have imported about 100 terabytes of this content for various documentaries over the past few years, although from the A6500, A7R2, A7R3 and A73. However I think the codec is identical.

The only crash during import I ever had was a couple of years ago which was due to a certain .M4A audio file being in the import folder when using the FCPX import dialog, not the drag-and-drop method. This was difficult to perceive because there was a small but variable delay in the crash. You could sometimes click on a video file, then it would crash, which gave the impression it was that file. In actuality was was the .M4A file in the import folder. That file was not apparently corrupt or damaged.

Since the import dialog remembers the last folder location, every subsequent import attempt would crash upon launching the dialog or almost immediately thereafter. You couldn’t navigate to a different folder — it would usually crash when enumerating the files in the import folder. In my case the solution was to identify and remove that iTunes .M4A file. I vaguely recollect other people had this with different files, not just .M4A.

I haven’t seen this recently, but on the outside chance your case is related, try removing all files from the import folder, then start FCPX and point the import dialog at another folder, preferably an empty one. It will remember that and you can proceed with import tests. Then move all your files back to the original import folder.

You could also try importing the “problem” file via drag-and-drop and see what happens.

If that doesn’t work, reset FCPX preferences (item 11 in this list): https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203477

Also make sure you have installed the latest version of Apple Pro Video Formats. Starting with Mojave this is done via System Preferences>Software Update.

Unless you have copied the .MP4 files out of the XAVC-S folder tree it will copy those to the library (or designated storage location) during import. If you are short on disk space on that volume or if that drive has any problem that could destabilize FCPX.

If your FCPX import preferences are set to create optimized or proxy media, it might be crashing during the transcode phase. If enabled try importing without transcoding.

If your media or library is on a NAS, try an import test where that is on directly attached storage.

If that doesn’t work there is an undocumented menu to verify and repair project integrity. However media import and project access are two different things, so I wouldn’t expect a corrupt project to cause crash during import. Nonetheless, to reach this select the project, then press OPT key while selecting the Clip menu>Verify and Repair Project. I suggest making a file-level backup of your library before doing this.

It also wouldn’t hurt to run Disk Utility First Aid on all volumes, also build Spotlight indexes on all volumes:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201716

If it still crashes, post the stack trace of the crashing thread.

[Joe Marler]

On FCPX 10.4.6 I don’t see an option to move an event between libraries, only copy an event. On my system the move menu option is greyed out. Using CMD and drag/drop makes the + (copy) graphic go away but upon mouse release the event just blinks away indicating a “no move”.

I recommend you copy the event across libraries, verify it’s at the destination, then delete the original event within the source library. When you delete the original event, the media files within the managed library are deleted and temporarily placed within a _Trash folder inside the library. Upon FCPX restart that temp folder is deleted.

Make sure all your hard drives are formatted HFS+ (Mac OS Journaled), not exFAT or anything else.

[Joe Marler]

[Mark Suszko] “You can also save space by telling FCPX to leave the source files wherever they are, and not import them into the library… only, I find this to be risky, since it makes it more possible that the connections to the originals might get lost at some point. “

In my experience FCPX regular media links on an HFS+ volume are very reliable. In addition to storing pathnames to those files in SQL tables inside the library, it also stores the inode of each file as a backup locator.

You can shut down FCPX, rename each media file, then move each media file to a different folder on that disk, then open the library package and delete all symbolic links to those files, then when FCPX restarts it will automatically and transparently use inode lookup to find each renamed/relocated media file and rebuild the path pointers and symlinks to those files.

This unfortunately does not work for proxies, only regular media. It only works within a single disk volume, but for a changed or renamed volume FCPX can scan the entire volume and relink those.

Of course the media files could just plain get lost or accidentally discarded, in that case nothing will help.

[Joe Marler]

[Oliver Peters] “this media is on a NAS volume mounted as SMB. “

That might be it. The below article implies possible sorting changes during file enumeration on SMB with various versions of macOS. There was an optimization after High Sierra 10.12 which might affect this.

It would be interesting to discuss this with other FCPX users on NAS systems and see what their experience is.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT208209

[Joe Marler]

[Tangier Clarke] “I’d really like FCP X to have more robust copy/merge features with other options to keep what you want, get rid of what you don’t need..”

Have you looked at Merge X: https://www.merge.software

Merge X cannot yet merge timeline edits, however the developers are working on this. The below video is in Spanish but with English subtitles. The developer discusses this at 11:30: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbIpe9PqN8E&vl=en

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[Joe Marler]

[Tangier Clarke] ” I have yet to solve the FCP X problem of duplicate clips and projects when dealing with moving or copying events via FCP X menu items or exporting/ importing XMLs.”

I know two situations which can cause spurious duplicates and mis-linked files.

(1) If the original media had duplicate filenames, even if those were kept in separate folders. This creates a “name space collision” since FCPX sometimes places those files or symlinks within the same folder.

FCPX tries to solve this by appending a “uniquifier” suffix (fcp1), etc. to the file or symlink. However it doesn’t work right in all cases, such as when loading an XML.

The XML dialog gives you two options: replace or keep both. Even if you say replace it may still create a duplicate clip. I filed this as a bug with Apple about two years ago.

Our solution is rename all files before ingest so they are globally unique by appending a 5-digit incrementing serial number. We use the 3rd party tool “A Better Finder Rename”: https://www.publicspace.net/ABetterFinderRename/index.html

Besides the bug, it’s a better practice to have unique filenames anyway, whether achieved in camera or as part of the offload.

(2) Duplicates can happen if drag/dropping projects, clips or multicams between libraries. In some cases the media links can go to the wrong file. The solution is never drag these items “bare” between libraries — only do so within a transfer event.

Sam Mestman discusses this from 06:30 to 11:00 in the below video, but you may want to watch Sam’s whole talk from 02:00 to 11:00. He demonstrates this on a Lumaforge NAS but it’s not unique to a NAS.

I don’t know why this isn’t part of any formal documentation or tutorial.

https://hazu.io/pixelcorps/fcvug-7

[Joe Marler]

So in the import media window, you click on the column heading to sort by name and it doesn’t maintain that after restart or a random period of time?

On my iMac Pro running macOS 10.14.6 and FCPX 10.4.6, if I do File>Import>Media and click on a column heading to change the sort order, it seems to persist after FCPX restart.

This also persists if I switch libraries, which implies the sort order is not stored there.

[Joe Marler]

I wrote to Apple a couple of years ago requesting this. FCPX is a database-oriented product – in fact the persistent data store uses SQLite. All edits, metadata and media links are stored in SQL tables. Yet in some ways it has less query capability than Finder. At least Finder has Boolean search terms and ability to nest multiple ANY and ALL terms in a stack of search criteria.

It’s a valid request that the FCPX UI support more advanced query methods. Doing an AND or “intersection” search via clicking on multiple keyword collections is one obvious way.