Reconnect Media File Name Missing

I am digitizing, logging and working all on separate drives. Usually I can open a project I get from a logger and simply reconnect the media to that stored on my editing drive. Sometimes, though, the file name is missing in the reconnect window. The only recourse I have is to reconnect files one at a time.

1. What makes this happen.
2. Is there a way to prevent this from happening in the future.
3. Is there a more automatic way to reconnect if the file name is missing in the reconnect window.

I am running OS10.5.6 on 2x Quad Core 3GHz.
I have FCP 6.0.5.
The drives are primarily FW800 with plenty of capacity left. I also have an eSATA drive that I am not yet using in this workflow.
The footage is DVCProHD 720p24.

Thanks guys,

Hans

I still occasionally have this issue. What is generally the cause of it is a PERMISSIONS issue...you don't have some odd permission access on that drive. Repair permissions SOMETIMES works. But not always.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

Permissions were blamed in another post. I repaired my system disk permissions and verified my media drive. No luck.

Do you know how to prevent this from happening in the future?

Don't reconnect. Manually drag the clips from the finder level into the project.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

Footage was logged in FCP. Dragging from finder level would lose the loggers work.

Have you checked the permissions of the files? Find one and do a "get info". At the bottom of the window you can see and change the permissions.

-Vance

What happens if you export an XML of the project file? Same issue?


www.derekmok.com

"Footage was logged in FCP. Dragging from finder level would lose the loggers work."

but only if there was any work other than simple in/outs.


nick

I am having this problem now. I've seen this before and while I'm usually just able to find the files manually, this time I cannot because there's simply too many. I can't re-import because they're being used throughout a rather large sequence.

I can't imagine that it was a permissions issue- given that all offline clips were appearing with full names just minutes prior. Has anyone found the cause/fix for this?

I know it's got to be pretty common since it's happened to me on a number of occasions... I just can't work around it right this time.

"Has anyone found the cause/fix for this?"

it has happend to me when a drive has gone accidently removed / switched off.
a re-start has fixed in those cases.

i haven't heard of anyone defining exactly what the problem is.

if your project was fine a few minutes ago,
try an autosaved version

there is a new tool that could help from Video Toolshed
[www.videotoolshed.com]
it can reconnect clips based on their reel# and TC alone.
could be your salvation.


nick

Okay- So I think now I can offer some insight. I did get around the problem just by relinking things manually (big hassle)- but found another project with the same problem this morning.... only this time EVERYTHING was; " is missing

Alright, stay with me here;
As some of my other recent posts have chronicled, there seems to be a string of bad G-Drive Qs out there. I, of course, have managed to purchase 3 of these delinquents within the last 3 months. One of these drives had the media for my current project.. it began to fail intermittently until it was finally useless on Friday. My client had a backup copy of this whole drive which I received this morning - I opened up my project file getting the usual "Offline" dialogs- except this time none of it could be relinked - only a single line item appeared; " is missing, and it wouldn't even tell me the names of the clips!

So I started looking deeper.
In my browser, I enabled the "Source" column by control-clicking; "show source"- and a column appeared with row after row of;

" is missing
" is missing
" is missing...

Ah-Ha!!! So it's not an issue with the relinking process... but an issue with xml data in my project itself!!!

Fortunately (and unfortunately)- because of my constant problems with these drives, I had my autosave set to every 5 minutes. I restored the most recent autosave - my project came up... of course all offline, but the "source" column now had the correct file path listed!

1TB_5a: SCRATCH: Capture Scratch: AOTM :0002PZ.mov
1TB_5a: SCRATCH: Capture Scratch: AOTM :0003W9.mov... etc.

(Noting that this file path also INCLUDES the name of the master clip -so this must be all that FCP has to go on when reconnecting media!)

It looks like when the original drive finally failed- I accidentally saved my project AFTER the drive went down in all my frustration- thus saving a version with all the media paths severed... reverting to the last good save, an autosave from less then 5 minutes previous brought up the project with the source paths intact! Reconnecting from here worked as expected!

So I'll have to concur with Nick - when a drive is moved or shut off (or fails)- and you save your project AFTER that, it can sever the file paths to your original footage (which INCLUDES the master file name) - thus FCP cannot recognize the media without being pointed directly at it... clip by clip.

BTW - Nick, I did try that video toolshed - it was choking on some of my media but it does seem like it might have otherwise worked. Thanks!