Media Manager mysteries

Last month I used Media Manager for the first time to copy and consolidate a couple projects to external drives. The first one work fine. Then, later in the day, I tried to do the second one. This time, upon opening Media Manager, I noticed that instead of there being two green media bars (one representing the original media, the 2nd for the smaller amount to be copied), only the top green bar was there. Not worrying about it, I proceeded.

But then as the process started, I noticed that instead of a single progress bar like usual, I was seening a separate progress bar go by (quickly) for each clip -- and some of them had minus percentage values, ie: -20%, etc. Panicked that this might mean it was deleting my original media, I cancelled.

It turned out that it was not deleting anything, but I sure don't have a clue what any of this means.

So I trashed prefs, shut down the computer, and tried again later, and all was fine.

Cut to last night, when I went to Media Manager for a new project. Once again, only one of the two green bars was visible. So I trashed prefs again, and did all the usual restarts, etc....but this time it will not appear normal no matter what I do.

One further clue. When I check the box for handles, a very small piece of the 2nd green bar will appear, ie: just for the gig or so the handles would add. But the approx. 15 gigs the consolidated project would require remain invisible.

Does anyone have any idea what's going on here?

I'm using FCP 4.5 on a dual 2.0 G5.

Thanks.

i've never seen that, either.
normally people complain that they get too much green bar

the only time i've ever seen no second bar was when i was in "Create Offline" mode.
then instead of the bar, you get "n/a" written

here's a crazy idea:
maybe there is no media other than render files?
do you have the "include render files" box ticked?

does the 15gigs of original media seem about right?

i just re-visited your earlier posts.
you have a very strange Media Manager there, Jeff.
did you ever get to the bottom of what was going on back then?
was it a simple preference trash that fixed it, or something else?

i wonder if there's some issue with your media drive
although that would have reared it;s head while you were cutting, i guess.


cheers,
nick

Yeah, the preference trash seemed to do the trick on my old problem.

But not this time.

I am in "copy" mode. There is no 2nd bar. But if I roll over it, it will display (in text) how much media will be required for the consolidated version (although it's twice as much as is needed).

I'd be happy to ignore that and proceed if the 2nd issue didn't rear its head as well, the strange per-clip progress bars with negative % readings.

Not sure I know what you mean by "no media." I have nearly 500gigs of orginally captured media spread between my internal and external drives. From that I cut a 60 minute film, around 15 gigs including renders. But not only is the 2nd green bar invisible, and doesn't change whether I have the render box checked or unchecked -- but it also doesn't change whether I change from "copy" to "move" to "existing" -- BUT -- if I go to "recompress" then the 2nd bar appears, the same length as the first.

Got to get a MM'd verison on a F/W drive for an online session. What a nightmare.

"Not sure I know what you mean by "no media.""

it's possible to have no media other than your render files.
if the whole show was rendered, you'd be able to view it and play it just from the renders,
but an MM would have nothing to copy.

anyway, that;s not the case.

how about general Mac Maintenance procedures? (not FCP)
run Mac Janitor
[personalpages.tds.net]
Repair Permissions.

then get drastic:
re-install FCP?

OR:
ignore it!
what happens when you run the MM?
i know it *looks* weird in FCP,
but does the media get copied & trimmed?

ANOTHER Q:
do you get a second bar if you don't delete unused?


nick

Hmm... the "no media" think kind of makes sense, as just before trying the Media Manage, I'd rendered the entire sequence. And if I remember correctly, the last time I successfully rant MM, the sequence was not rendered. But I don't really get it, as the media is of course still on my hard drive.

I'll run MacJanitor and Repair Permissions, but really don't want to reinstall FCP until after this projects is off the system. I'm running 4.5, but that's a result of an old disc version, upgraded by a newer disc/version, then a download upgrade on top of that. Feels like too much room for error till this project is done. Then I'm buying FCP 5.

No, the only time a 2nd bar appears is in "Recompress" mode.

I have not let it do its thing to complettion so I don't know what will happen. Those negative %'s just give me too much concern to let it rip. But maybe I'll have to.

Thanks, Nick

before letting it rip,
if it was me, i'd copy a few files to a new folder,
change the manes somehow to avoid any possible confusion with the originals
(add an X to the name or something)
bring them into FCP,
cut them up.
them try the spooky MM and see what happens.

if you had al your media on an external i'd say just take it all to the online, or to someone else's system and do the MM.

you could get another external and just copy all the internal media across.
take the 2 externals to the online

NEW IDEA:
i wonder if your project or sequnce has some corruption?
copy the seq to a new project and try from there.
or
copy all in the seq to a new one and try


good luck,
nick