missing media BUG

Hi!
I have run into a clear bug - I CHANGED NOTHING, yet suddenly FCPX says a few files are 'missing'.
When I select 'show in finder' - FCPX correctly locates the files in the finder.

• Deleting and reimporting does not fix it
• Deleting file, restarting mac and reimporting file does not fix it
• Deleting and redoing proxies does not fix it
• Deleting prefs does not do it

Anyone fixed this?

Hi Lukeyo. Not sure it is a bug but definitely weird. I had a similar issue before but it was fixed with the preferences reset and renaming files.

Have you tried to create a new Library with the same footage, a new fresh project and copy and paste the old project in the new library?

Just an idea. I did that before in Motion with some weird behaviour and it worked for me.

Please post screenshots of what you're seeing. There are different warning icons.

Not practical on a project this size, thanks

Hey thanks Tom I have tried like 10 times to insert a screenshot, its the white file icon on red, yellow alert bottom left and 'Missing File'

lukeyo wrote:

...FCPX says a few files are 'missing'.
When I select 'show in finder' - FCPX correctly locates the files in the finder. Anyone fixed this?

What if you select one of the missing clips in FCP, then do File>Relink Files>Original Media, and point to the location of the media file (which was shown in Finder). Does it relink? If not what is the error?

Hi the same thing happens.

I've got a few questions:
- What version of FCPX / macOS?
- Does the problem show up in both the browser and timeline?
- Does anything change if you disable any/all effects on the clip(s)?

I came to this discussion being that I ran into a similar problem yesterday and have yet to find a solution of my missing file error.

1. While editing, a clip went offline all of a sudden.
2. Shift-F reveals it in the event and the icon does not have the yield sign on it, but it's still missing.
3. Reveal in Finder points to the working Quicktime video file in the Finder
4. Relinking to the file as original or proxy doesn't change the missing file status.
5. Trashing the file from inside FCP and reimporting still imports it as a missing file.
6. Adding it to a new library or project in that library doesn't change it as a missing file.
7. Deleting preferences didn't have any impact either.

The only thing I can think of to do next is recreate the proxy from the original Red R3D file.
It is a completedQuicktime movie that plays in Quicktime player.

Final Cut Pro 10.6.4

Solution for me that I just found after my previous post. I actually just kept on editing around the missing file for now, but in the process selected the culprit clip in the browser and looked at its status in the inspector. In the info tab next to the frame size and frame rate it said "optimized" which seemed strange since I didn't have any optimized clips in my library; only originals and proxies.

I deleted the optimized clip media using the File menu sub menu "Delete Generated Clip Files".
After this, the clip reverted to the proxy and it was updated everywhere in my timeline and no longer missing.

This doesn't explain why it went offline in the middle of editing nor why I couldn't the Quicktime video file to a new library or project without it being still labeled as missing, but it did fix this particular problem.

tangierc wrote:

...original Red R3D file...only originals and proxies...This doesn't explain why it went offline in the middle of editing nor why I couldn't the Quicktime video file to a new library or project without it being still labeled as missing, but it did fix this particular problem.

Have the R3D files been renamed? In general they should not be renamed but if you follow a specific procedure it will supposedly work. We do that on our 8k R3D files but it is finicky. It is very easy to have a situation like you describe. 

We don't use proxies because we edit on M1 Max or M1 Ultra machines, but have seen this using only original R3D media. I didn't have time to deeply investigate it, just fixed the problem by deleting and re-importing the R3D clip, then wrote a warning email to our post production team.

For those not using R3D material, each clip from a RED camera is recorded as a group of file segments in a folder. That goes back to the original FAT/FAT32 4GB file size limit, so each segment is around 2GB. There is a naming convention for each segment and the corresponding folder that must be maintained. Within FCP the RED Workflow plugin transparently stitches those together and provides the illusion of a single clip.

FCP has two separate address resolution mechanisms for media files: pathname lookup and inode lookup. If the file has been renamed or moved elsewhere on the disk volume it will use the inode to find it then transparently rebuild the path to that media file. It's unclear to me how that process would work with RED's segmented files within a same-named folder. 

Hi Joe. No R3D files were renamed. They're on a completely different drive altogether which wasn't connected at the time this happened. I've never seen a clip just go offline for no apparent reason ever. I was using a drive with all of the proxies linked and working, then suddenly a clip simply went into "missing file" status while editing, but was working just fine for a while before that. I didn't change the playback mode (proxy, original, or proxy preferred) either when this happened being that I had no reason to. I only had proxies on the drive to work with. Somehow the status of this clip being changed to optimized made all of the difference. When I identified that in the inspector, I deleted that generated file and all was well again without any relinking. Yet no library would let me bring that one clip in and work before hand which is troubling because the clip was fine in the Finder, and FCP globally saw the clip as problematic rather than isolating the incident to the library.

The proxies I am using I created using FCP transcoding the original R3D files. I did this because a few weeks ago I discovered that the in-camera made ProRes LT files that I would have used as proxies were not frame accurate with the original which is a big problem when working in a proxy to original workflow, preparing for color in Resolve, and for post sound. This is something I need to address with a contact at RED directly.

FYI I had a similar problem yesterday ("Missing Media" warning even though I relinked to the correct Original Media files multiple times). I too had the unusual appearance of "Optimized Media" that we never made.

Long story short, the 'Delete Generated Library Files -> Opt Media etc fixed the original media linking issue.

Thanks for the help, this one was a real head scratcher!

Thanks so much Tangierc. Just had the same problem with two projects where all of the video footage was showing as missing. I managed to re link the audio but the video wasn't having it. Highlighting each clip then deleting generated clip file>delete optimised media did the trick. Think the problem was caused by the external SSD becoming full. You star!