Sudden and brutal general unlink issue...

It's possible that the drive is not faulty at all, but that does not really matter. You never should work on a drive that has less than 10% of its total capacity available. So freeing more space certainly is a good thing for now and for the future

I am not familiar with that error code you got. I certain would delete that image sequence from your drive if QT cannot open it anyway.

It's getting very late here in Belgium, so I have to sign off. I will give you some more steps you can try when you have freed up more space on your drive.

Good to hear the original clips are playing fine, now we can try a force-relink to see if that helps.

Launch FCP X and open the problematic Library. Select the library and make sure you are in Thumbnail view (NOT in List view). Look at the first missing clip you see in the clip browser and make a note of its name.

Then open a new Finder window and drag the original clip with the same name from the external drive into the clip browser. Does the clip replace the unlinked clip or does it just add a new clip to the clip browser next to the unlinked clip?

If dragging the original media into the clip browser relinks the missing clips you can start dragging groups of clips back into the browser to relink all the media.

If this does not work you can try the next step:

Select your Library and export a Library XML.
Then create a new Library on your system drive and import the XML into it.
Do the clips reconnect to the original media, or can you at least relink them now?

- Ronny

Good morning in Belgium,

I spent my childhood in a place called Rhode-st-Genese...

Anyhow, the issue was not solved, and it was solved!
Not solved in as much as we will never know what happened, but solved because I was able - using your system of putting original clips into the library browser - to relink, in small groups. It took a while, but at least it is done.
So thank you for that!
Also your system to 'force relink' might be very interesting for the future: the software I used to convert RAW files into video prores, was, I discovered, very bad. I have now re-converted all video files to much better quality.
Of course, fcpx will not reckognise those new files, as they will vary in some ways. So maybe your idea about the XML export might be a way to 'force' fcpx to accept the clips with the same name (and length).

Best wishes and thanks,

Ivan

p.s. in fact, this forum has been so much help in the past, that I am going to include it into the credits of my film that comes out soon!

Hi Ivan,
Glad to hear you are able to relink the files and to move forward. Fantastic!
Just a couple of things.

I was reflecting on how amazing it is that this forum involves people from around the world. You in Argentina, Ronny from Belgium and me from southern California, USA. Wow, what an age to live in. We tend to take it for granted now, but WOW!

Hope you remember to Karma Ronny, he gives a lot to the community.

The -8084 error code is a file copy error. It can be triggered by corrupted files, no hdd space and for other reasons. It could also explain why the un-linking from a drive too full. Error codes are not very specific, just general feedback. If it was triggered by the system attempting to update the directory, having not enough space to make the changes, it could have corrupted that file. That may have led to loosing where files are on the disk. Ronny's way to re-link is great.

Having the drive formatted to NTFS may be adding to the problem.
This error code can also be linked to permission issues on the drive or files.

There are ways to help prevent this error. First is to keep free space on the drive. As Ronny says "AT LEAST"; really better 15-25%, free space. Macs are pretty good at defragmenting the disk, but they need space to do so. As the disk gets full, the data ends up all over the place and the OS has to keep track of it. Fragmented data means higher overhead for the OS and slower read/write times.

You can use Disk Utility to erase free space, this just cleans up the random bits stuck on the magnetic drive, it is a little more powerful than simply letting the OS do the maintenance. Given that you do not have a solid project back-up, I would wait till the project is exported. There are some other things you can do, but as long as the computer is working, I would wait. I am very cautious about other peoples data.

Speaking of backing up, given the cost of drives in Argentina, can you borrow a drive for the next 30 days?
Would hate to see you lose what you have going, looks very interesting, thanks for sharing. If you can, then you would have a proper back up of the current state of your project, and you could reformat the borrowed drive to Mac and then transfer the files. Macs really work better under their own native formats. Given that you just have the raw footage as back-up, even with XMLs and FCP library back-ups, not sure it would rebuild project if your current drive goes south.

I also have a very limited budget. Your comments about the costs in Argentina is just one of the amazing things about having a world wide web experience. 300% mark-ups, high VATs, makes me appreciate, though I complain, the privilege I enjoy here.

Glad you are on the path to resolving this issue. As I said earlier, you are in good hands with Ronny's help. (Ronny, not trying to step on toes here, appreciate the systemic approach and have learned lots of things from you, Thanks)

Hope this helps, Greg

















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Ivan,

Yes I know Rode-St. Genèse, it's a nice place in the green belt around Brussels. Funny indeed how small this world has become

Great to hear you have been able to relink the media now. No matter what was the real cause of the problem, Greg is correct that you absolutely need to avoid working on a near-full drive. And yes, 15 to 20% free space is really recommended. At least this experience has made you free up some space, that's always good. Greg's tip about hiring a spare backup drive until this project is finished is a good idea. Your project looks interesting, I would really hate you losing your work in the last rush to the finish.

Keep up the good work and please keep us updated on your projects. That trailer certainly looks very promising!!

Greg, thank you for the info on the error code. You are right, we all learn from each other here.

- Ronny

Hi Greg and Ronny,

I'm not really sure what 'Karma' is here, but by all means!

I remember the beautiful Foret de Soigne...

Part of the prob with this country (and by extension problem I have) is that not only is everything very expensive, but there are very little imports. For instance I cannot get a disc these days here of more than 1TB...

I mean... to make my films, I have to go out of the country, and come back in strapping a camera to my body!
(is that a mkiii in your pocket?)., If they find it... it's a massive amount to pay, so risky.

In any case problem solved for now, so many thanks again!

Ivan

Ivan,
After midnight here so off to bed.
Karma is the + or - by Ronny's name to say thank you for taking the time to help.
I should have mentioned that the "System Log" will also provide some help in diagnosing issues. You should see a "failed" call out for an operation that leads to what happened.
I like to use Onyx (Free) from Titanium software for a GUI access. (Logs)
Link…
www.titanium.free.fr/downloadonyx.php

Onyx runs Apple routines so is pretty safe to use. Allows you to run various maintenance functions via a graphic interface.
Nice work Ivan, Good night, Greg