Missing FIN file

I have a problem where everytime I launch "any" project in final cut it keeps prompting me with
"searching for "Sequence 1-FIN-00000001", then another message: The movie file "Sequence 1-FIN-00000001" cannot be found. Without this file, the movie cannot play properly.

After canceling through about 2 or 3 of these it finally opens up the project.

Anybody know why and how I can get rid of this nuisance?

Thanks,
George P

Cheers!

George P

Obviously Final Cut is trying to open a reference movie with a missing resource. But you say it happens whenever you open ANY Final Cut project? That's peculiar.

Have you tried cleaning out your render folder, just in case? You'll have to rerender all your timelines, but it's a small price to pay.

Easiest solution to that is use render manager to trash your render files and then re-render your movie. a FIN file is a render file. I believe FIN is an acronym for "Friggen Innocuous Nuisance."

Michael Horton
-------------------

>Obviously Final Cut is trying to open a reference movie with a missing resource.

As Mike mentioned, a FIN file is a render file. Actually, keeping in line with cinematic terms, it's probably french, which would mean "the end".

1. If you're using reference movies in your edit, DON'T! They become useless once the rendered files are deleted or moved. Make sure you only use self-contained movies.



www.strypesinpost.com

as everyone is pointing out, this FIN file is in a reference movie you exported, and then brought back into FCP.

trashing the renders wont make FCP any the wiser about this,
and could cause you more problems if you have other reference movies in there.


if you have the sequences you originally exported close to hand,
it would be a good idea to re-export them as SELF CONTAINED movies.


nick

OK. How do we know this is a QT reference that I would have imported? It is something I've done in the past as a last resort (worked better than the nested sequence if I remember), but not something I've done for quite a while. Are we assuming because it has the "Sequence 1" in the name that it is a reference? Makes sense. I just don't remember having imported a reference any time in the last 6 months. But, I'll have to dig through my various project bins and see what I can dig up. Thanks for everyone's thoughts on this.

Cheers!

Geo P.

>How do we know this is a QT reference that I would have imported?

from this message: "Without this file, the movie cannot play properly."



www.strypesinpost.com

"Are we assuming because it has the "Sequence 1" in the name that it is a reference? "


no, we assume this because of the warnngs you got.
you get exactly those warnings when a ref movie cant find one or more of it's component files.


"Sequence 1" and FIN indicate a render file.


reference movies can be identified by the fact that they are often relatively SMALL,
and, if made from a sequence, they wont have a reel# (unless you added one after you made it and brought it back into FCP)


so in your browser, sort by REEL, and have the size column open.

still cant guarantee you'll find them easily

i always try to add REF to the name of the export if it's not self contained for this reason.



nick

>i always try to add REF to the name of the export if it's not self contained for this reason.

Good tip, Nick.

The size of reference movies can vary. Quicktime is a versatile container. It allows you to either store the clips in the file itself, or reference clips found elsewhere on the drive, or a combination of both. And yes, they can be hard to recognize after that.



www.strypesinpost.com

Thanks. That all makes sense. And good idea sorting by reel. Time to go hunting.

Cheers!

Geo P

it sounds like it is looking for a rendered file. you can reset the scratch disk location and/or delete your render folder and re-render.

> it sounds like it is looking for a rendered file. you can reset the scratch disk location and/or delete
> your render folder and re-render.

A simple missing render file will give a different warning message -- FCP's own "Media Offline" warning. The warning above isn't FCP's, it's QuickTime's warning; you will get that message even with FCP not launched, if you tried to open a reference movie file in QuickTime Player.

If a render file is missing from a reference movie file, that movie file can't be rescued -- unless, perhaps, you have that exact render file with the exact name backed up somewhere. Even then, I've never seen a successful attempt at reconnecting a reference movie to a render file (that could simply be because I don't ever use reference movies in an edit...and backing up render files tends to be a waste of drive space). So re-rendering probably won't help.

And resetting the Scratch Disk will only affect the disk location of future renders and captures, not pre-existing render files.


www.derekmok.com

I agree. If you've lost a render file in a dependent non self contained movie, you're toast. You're just wasting time hunting for the file, really.

Not to worry. I'm not missing anything that I need. It's just the nuisance of the error coming up everytime I launch fcp.

I guess it could also be a reference movie that I might have exported for use in Motion. Sometimes I bring in the .motn file instead of exporting a movie from Motion. But, it seems like then I would have the red slash through the clip in my fcp bin . . .

As soon as I get the project I'm working out the door I'm gonna hunt this sucker down. Thanks for everyone's help.

Cheers!

Geo.

OK. I'm back with my, still, unresolved reference file issue. Thanks to all who chimed in last time around. I do appreciate your time helping me think through this. Nevertheless . . .

These two reference files continue to haunt me. The thing is, I get the repeated "missing" warning whenever I first launch FCP. It doesn't matter that the names on these missing refs refer to a particular project. Whenever I launch I get this annoyance, no matter what project I'm opening. Once I'm in FCP I can open any other project including the one that the reference files would have originated from and there are no warnings. There's something in the launch. Is this something that could have become part of the prefs?

Geo

Hmm. I wonder if this is some sort of corruption to do with files associated with the default start up set.

Have you trashed preferences yet? I'm taking a punt and thinking that some standard component has gotten a bit lost.

Try this : How Do I Trash My Preferences?

Quote

you can reset the scratch disk location and/or delete your render folder and re-render.

I wouldn't trash the entire Render folder and / or relocate Scratch Disks - very bad idea. The Render folder holds renders for all FCP projects on your computer. You will screw up any other reference movies in other projects. Could create a huge sh!tstorm nightmare.

Mike hit it...use the Render Manager to clean render files out on a per-project basis and Jude hit it...trash your preferences!

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Let me rule out something simpler first: Do you have "Open last project on application launch" checked in your FCP User Preferences? If you do, turn it off. Now launch FCP from the Applications folder, without opening any project files. Do you still get that warning?


www.derekmok.com

That sounds like a winner, D.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Well, I really though you guys were on to something. First, I tried Derek's idea of turning off my "Open last project on application launch" in user preferences. Sadly, it still was looking for the FIN files on launch. Then I tried trashing my preferences. Still, it begged for those two FIN files. Is there anyway that this could be linked to my Kona LHe - having something to do with some initial display element that the Kona is wanting from its preferences? If this is a Quicktime warning maybe I should trash the Quicktime prefs?

Cheers!

George P

strange. It looks for render files even without loading up any projects?



www.strypesinpost.com

i think that's possible.

didn't Andreas suggest that there could be some MOTION TEMPLATES saved in the favourites?

trashing prefs, however, would have fixed that issue.

George, are you opening FCP by clicking on a PROJECT FILE?


nick

Nick.

I do both. And, of course, as Derek had suggested I tried turning off "Open last project on application launch" in user preferences, too. But all of these FCP launchings evoke these missing FIN file warnings. For some reason, it's always twice for each of the two files. Again, once in the software I can open any additional project without any warnings.

Cheers!

George P

OK. It's got to be to do with some standard kit....

What about this - find all the folders marked 'contant frames' and delete them. This will force rebuild them. There shouldn't be any danger in deleting these files, so worth a shot.

Jude.

Thanks for that very interesting suggestion. But, apparently the upgrade from 6.0.4 to 6.0.5 that I did this morning before I saw your email fixed the problem. (I'm a little disappointed that I don't get to try that one.) Fixed for now anyway. Maybe the upgrade process resets those.

But, since you brought it up, what are "constant frames"?

Cheers!

George P

The "Constant Frames" folder contains data and information about still images or image generators that FCP can easily reach/retreive.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.