My absolute pleasure - thanks so much for reaching out to me to get some help with it AND inspiring me to make a video that can be a resource for other FCP editors! 🙌🤘🔪🥦
I was literally having a panic attack when I stumbled on your video. Bro... you just made my night with this information. I can't thank you enough for making this content. Thank you so much. Subscribe ... CHECK!
One of the things that I recommend is that you always isolate the footage, graphics, everything you use in a production, into one folder... A Production folder... I put my library, and all media for that library into that production folder... I organize all the footage, stock media, sound effect, B-roll, stills, everything is in there... I also never import any asset into the Library itself... Assets that are part of the OS itself are copied there too.. I never assume that an asset will be part of the OS in the future... If I have assets that need to be converted or optimized, I do that before I bring them into a Library, and I store all that external to the Library... That ways the Library stays as lean as possible... Longer projects can be chopped up into multiple Libraries, say scenes for a feature, with special effects and elements... everything about a Project, or Project part, in one folder... That way I can link the library to that Production folder and even if I move the Production folder to a different drive the links won't be broken... If the links do get broken, re-linking is simplified by only going to one place on one drive to re-link everything... I also never have more than one production in a Library...
For simple projects, I store everything in the Projects; for more complicated ones, I leave it in place, which can net what you described. The "only" problem I am still running into with Library-stored project media is "losing" a plug-in for some reason or other. That can get really complicated to fix.
Totally understand this approach, and I think it’s definitely a strong choice in certain situations. And yeah, when a plug-in gets lost it can be a real nightmare 😱 Gonna have to do a video in the near future about the benefits of storing media in the Library.
As an assistant editor, I would always disconnect all my "current" drives and only plugin the backup drive(on a seperate computer even) and open up the timeline to make sure everything made it safely to the backup drive. then and only then, would we delete the media off the current drives. we just made that a part of the backup process. no matter how organized we are, one offline file would come up every so often and we'd catch it and back it up. we would hardly go back to a backup drive, but when we did, and before we started to check our backups, it was a nightmare to find a file that wouldn't relink and it was always in the section that we needed lol.
since you are only using your backups for the occasional broll pull. have you considered doing text less masters for your youtube videos? I've been exporting a seperate file along side the file that gets uploaded. the textless file I will turn off any text, music, sfx and voiceover. I just have natural sound and video. I also export the invidividual stems (music only, voiceover only, sfx only, etc) this makes it easy to pull any broll from in the future and no danger of it having music underneath or embedded text that might not be relevant to the new video I am making. I do this for my cooking channel (seperatate account) and I am always pulling broll shots of past cooks and this approach is a lot easier than pulling up the full project from archive. this step is also super easy because I give roles to all my layers....yaaay roles!
Some solid workflow advice here - definitely all the stuff I did when I was post-supervisor at a local production company. Not as absolutely necessary in my RUclips post workflow, but in this instance your workflow would have prevented me from having a missing PNG file. I might have to make a video about the specifics of this workflow, especially including font files and an XML when you're archiving a project.
Hi Matthew: Thanks for this helpful video! I follow the steps and they all seems to be just as you said, but after all the steps, everything is still missing. I moved this library from a local drive to my Synology storage server and I cannot get it to relink. Any ideas? Thanks!
hey i currently ran into the same situation was just done editing at a saving point to work on later and so when i checked it said that and it works perfectly but i cant seem to relink it nothing is wrong with the footage just not sure it locates it w no problem a big head scratcher
Hi Matthew, great video. I relinked the videos. But when I close the movie and reopen it. I need to relink everything again which is of course time consuming. How can I ensure I don’t need to relink it every time? Thanks
any tips for adjustment layers? I’ve found they don’t work even when the project is on an external drive and moving it from a MacBook to a Mac Studio - the media links up fine, but adjustment layers are broken with no obvious way to relink them. I’ve tried duplicating the Motion templates at the same locations on each machine; does’t help.
Hey! I found your video looking for a solution to a problem I'm having regarding how Final Cut handles media. I'm co-editing a small documentary but I'm working on Premiere Pro and the other editor on Final Cut. The final edit is going to depend on me but when he sent me the XMLs (using third party software to get it) the path to the original file location and folders is changed for a FinalCut-specific folder that seem's to suggest the program is working with copies. Do you know how to change this so I don't have to search individualy for each clip on 7 days shooting without reference of where it was located in the first place? Thanks a lot, and great videos!
Is the Final Cut Pro editor storing all of the media *_inside_* the Final Cut Pro Library file or is their media stored in Finder? Are they editing with proxy media that's stored inside the Final Cut Pro Library while the original camera files are stored in Finder?
We both the same copies and folder structure on two separate external hard drives, but i believe he is editing withing his FCP library, so I'm guessing when he imported the files he made this selection. Is there a way to change it mid-edit to "files on place"? I don't think he is using proxies but might be using optimized media@@matthewTobrien
@@jorgehuerta4353 I would ask the other editor to copy everything to another drive and then on that drive delete the original and optimized media out of the Final Cut Library (right-click in Finder, “Show Package Contents”, find all original/optimized media and delete it) and then open the Library. If it shows all media as missing, relink to original camera files in Finder and then export the XML, convert for Premiere, etc. Make sure they ONLY do this with a copied version of the entire project that’s on a completely separate drive - not their main working project or its backup. Leave all that untouched. That’s what I’d do to try to get you an XML that makes your life in Premiere much easier.
I have lost access to all my Libraries, I bought a new Macbook Pro and updated fcp to (10.8) from 10.6, I then returned the new Mac and started using my old Macbook Pro with the highest Version I can get(10.6). Now my FCP Library's that were updated to (10.8) I can not access because I have 10.6. Any advice ??? I really just like to find some kind of FCP Classes or Tutoring if you know of any ??
I’m concerned about something. If I create proxy files in DaVinci Resolve and then start editing in FCPX, after I finish, I want to replace the proxy files with the original ones. However, it gives me an error message saying, “file could not be relinked….”
In my case it doesn't allow me to import the missing files because it doesn't recognize them as identical. In practice it is as if I wanted to reconnect two different files but they are not the same. What can I do? What could be the problem? Yesterday I was working on this project without any problems. I turned off the PC around 6pm and now, when I reopen the project, it tells me that the files are missing and it can't reconnect them. Please Help!
So glad this was helpful! Make sure your data is backed up, though! A friend just had a drive freak out and he was lucky to get it to connect and off-load the data.
I did all this & it says file could not be relinked . The original file had audio but the new file doesn’t. Relinked files must have the same media type and simple audio
@@matthewTobrien I’m sorry I’m lost . Because I believe when I went to save it it asked if I want to save over something that already that name . For example I named it ep5 & it asked do you want to over this that already has that name . I clicked yes than this happened
If you overwrite the existing file with a new file and that files doesn't have the same length, audio attributes, video resolution, frame rate, etc. it won't let you relink to that new file even if the filename is the same. You'll have to re-import the file.
@@totbmedia So sorry for the frustrations you’ve been experiencing but the way that I learned about this too was by messing it up a bunch and finally figuring it out.
Matthew i have a question to you, is there some alternative option as adjustment layer for color correction setup above timeline , but for audio ? Many thank for this tutorial 🤜
Hi Matthew, your friend Francis here. Matthew, I’m wondering if you might be able to give me a little bit of help? My motion, VFX plug-ins, and some of my Pixlr film studio plug-ins are not showing up in my effects or transition browsers. I’m wondering if you have a simple solution to my problem. I know you’re a busy guy, so anything you can do will be most appreciated. Keep up the good work and keep chopping that broccoli. 😊 by the way, I am running Final Cut Pro version 10.6.10. 😢
Sorry to hear this, Francis! That's frustrating. Have you tried reinstalling the plugins entirely? I saw your comment on my MotionVFX Short about using the Reinstall (Repair) option in the mInstaller app. Pixel Film Studios plug-ins may require you to re-download and install to overcome the issue unless something in FCP 10.6.10 broke something with their plug-ins. Keep me posted!
Hi Matthew, quick update… I was able to contact pixel Phil Studios live chat, and they were able to resolve the issue for me. Thanks for being there though.😀👍
@@matthewTobrien hi Matthew, thanks for responding and yes everything‘s up and running now. Thanks for reaching out and saying hi. Hope you have a great Tuesday.😁
Hm, because of the issues like these, I’ve chosen to import all footage in to the library. Then I can even delete the originals in many cases, because I’d be doing a backup of that library anyway. Yes, I’m then locking the original footage to the library, it’s not searchable …
@@matthewTobrien it’s looking for the footage within the fcpx container file (pink square) which can’t be opened via the relink process. It’s so annoying!
@theunifiedfield. You can open the Library icon by right-clicking and choosing “Show Package Contents”. Perhaps navigating there will allow you to relink?
This was so helpful!! Appreciate you Matthew!!!! 🙏🏼
My absolute pleasure - thanks so much for reaching out to me to get some help with it AND inspiring me to make a video that can be a resource for other FCP editors! 🙌🤘🔪🥦
Thanks for your calm and clear way of expressing things
Matthew, thanks a lot. You've saved me many future headaches. I've added this video to my "Video Editing" playlist here on RUclips.
Love it - definitely a solid resource when you're relinking missing media!
I was literally having a panic attack when I stumbled on your video. Bro... you just made my night with this information. I can't thank you enough for making this content. Thank you so much. Subscribe ... CHECK!
So glad this video rescued you! And welcome to the channel!
I think you do a great job overall. Honest, clear, good conversational style, solid command of the technology. Thumbs Up!
One of the things that I recommend is that you always isolate the footage, graphics, everything you use in a production, into one folder... A Production folder...
I put my library, and all media for that library into that production folder... I organize all the footage, stock media, sound effect, B-roll, stills, everything is in there... I also never import any asset into the Library itself... Assets that are part of the OS itself are copied there too.. I never assume that an asset will be part of the OS in the future...
If I have assets that need to be converted or optimized, I do that before I bring them into a Library, and I store all that external to the Library... That ways the Library stays as lean as possible... Longer projects can be chopped up into multiple Libraries, say scenes for a feature, with special effects and elements... everything about a Project, or Project part, in one folder...
That way I can link the library to that Production folder and even if I move the Production folder to a different drive the links won't be broken... If the links do get broken, re-linking is simplified by only going to one place on one drive to re-link everything...
I also never have more than one production in a Library...
Solid workflow, Peter. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you so much for your help, you help me a lot to learn Final Cut Pro x, I really appreciate it
You're so welcome, Leon!
For simple projects, I store everything in the Projects; for more complicated ones, I leave it in place, which can net what you described. The "only" problem I am still running into with Library-stored project media is "losing" a plug-in for some reason or other. That can get really complicated to fix.
Totally understand this approach, and I think it’s definitely a strong choice in certain situations. And yeah, when a plug-in gets lost it can be a real nightmare 😱
Gonna have to do a video in the near future about the benefits of storing media in the Library.
Thank you SOOOOOOO much!!!! You literally saved me!!!
That was the plan all along with this video!
As an assistant editor, I would always disconnect all my "current" drives and only plugin the backup drive(on a seperate computer even) and open up the timeline to make sure everything made it safely to the backup drive. then and only then, would we delete the media off the current drives. we just made that a part of the backup process. no matter how organized we are, one offline file would come up every so often and we'd catch it and back it up. we would hardly go back to a backup drive, but when we did, and before we started to check our backups, it was a nightmare to find a file that wouldn't relink and it was always in the section that we needed lol.
since you are only using your backups for the occasional broll pull. have you considered doing text less masters for your youtube videos? I've been exporting a seperate file along side the file that gets uploaded. the textless file I will turn off any text, music, sfx and voiceover. I just have natural sound and video. I also export the invidividual stems (music only, voiceover only, sfx only, etc) this makes it easy to pull any broll from in the future and no danger of it having music underneath or embedded text that might not be relevant to the new video I am making. I do this for my cooking channel (seperatate account) and I am always pulling broll shots of past cooks and this approach is a lot easier than pulling up the full project from archive. this step is also super easy because I give roles to all my layers....yaaay roles!
Some solid workflow advice here - definitely all the stuff I did when I was post-supervisor at a local production company. Not as absolutely necessary in my RUclips post workflow, but in this instance your workflow would have prevented me from having a missing PNG file. I might have to make a video about the specifics of this workflow, especially including font files and an XML when you're archiving a project.
Hi Matthew: Thanks for this helpful video! I follow the steps and they all seems to be just as you said, but after all the steps, everything is still missing. I moved this library from a local drive to my Synology storage server and I cannot get it to relink. Any ideas? Thanks!
Great video, super helpful.
hey i currently ran into the same situation was just done editing at a saving point to work on later and so when i checked it said that and it works perfectly but i cant seem to relink it nothing is wrong with the footage just not sure it locates it w no problem a big head scratcher
Hi Matthew, great video. I relinked the videos. But when I close the movie and reopen it. I need to relink everything again which is of course time consuming. How can I ensure I don’t need to relink it every time?
Thanks
Are you editing from an external hard drive or the drive inside your Mac?
@@matthewTobrien yes my Final Cut Pro movies are all on an External Hard Drive.
any tips for adjustment layers? I’ve found they don’t work even when the project is on an external drive and moving it from a MacBook to a Mac Studio - the media links up fine, but adjustment layers are broken with no obvious way to relink them. I’ve tried duplicating the Motion templates at the same locations on each machine; does’t help.
Great video buddy!!! 👍🏻
Thank you!!!
Hey! I found your video looking for a solution to a problem I'm having regarding how Final Cut handles media. I'm co-editing a small documentary but I'm working on Premiere Pro and the other editor on Final Cut. The final edit is going to depend on me but when he sent me the XMLs (using third party software to get it) the path to the original file location and folders is changed for a FinalCut-specific folder that seem's to suggest the program is working with copies. Do you know how to change this so I don't have to search individualy for each clip on 7 days shooting without reference of where it was located in the first place? Thanks a lot, and great videos!
Is the Final Cut Pro editor storing all of the media *_inside_* the Final Cut Pro Library file or is their media stored in Finder? Are they editing with proxy media that's stored inside the Final Cut Pro Library while the original camera files are stored in Finder?
We both the same copies and folder structure on two separate external hard drives, but i believe he is editing withing his FCP library, so I'm guessing when he imported the files he made this selection. Is there a way to change it mid-edit to "files on place"? I don't think he is using proxies but might be using optimized media@@matthewTobrien
@@jorgehuerta4353 I would ask the other editor to copy everything to another drive and then on that drive delete the original and optimized media out of the Final Cut Library (right-click in Finder, “Show Package Contents”, find all original/optimized media and delete it) and then open the Library. If it shows all media as missing, relink to original camera files in Finder and then export the XML, convert for Premiere, etc.
Make sure they ONLY do this with a copied version of the entire project that’s on a completely separate drive - not their main working project or its backup. Leave all that untouched.
That’s what I’d do to try to get you an XML that makes your life in Premiere much easier.
@@matthewTobrien Perfect, we'll try that. Thanks a lot! and I will report back with results. Really appreciate it
I have lost access to all my Libraries, I bought a new Macbook Pro and updated fcp to (10.8) from 10.6, I then returned the new Mac and started using my old Macbook Pro with the highest Version I can get(10.6).
Now my FCP Library's that were updated to (10.8) I can not access because I have 10.6.
Any advice ??? I really just like to find some kind of FCP Classes or Tutoring if you know of any ??
Hello bro
Plz which version of Mac Studio do you have?
M1 Max (base config) with 32GB of unified memory and 2TB SSD
Any tips for packaging proxy media to send to an offsite editor? I’ve had wayyy too many issues in the past.
I’m concerned about something. If I create proxy files in DaVinci Resolve and then start editing in FCPX, after I finish, I want to replace the proxy files with the original ones. However, it gives me an error message saying, “file could not be relinked….”
Fantastic, thanks!
In my case it doesn't allow me to import the missing files because it doesn't recognize them as identical. In practice it is as if I wanted to reconnect two different files but they are not the same. What can I do? What could be the problem?
Yesterday I was working on this project without any problems. I turned off the PC around 6pm and now, when I reopen the project, it tells me that the files are missing and it can't reconnect them. Please Help!
Bro this helped so much thank you - I spent 5 days working on a video and almost lost it 🥲
So glad this was helpful! Make sure your data is backed up, though! A friend just had a drive freak out and he was lucky to get it to connect and off-load the data.
@@matthewTobrienthank you! I am definitely gonna be double backing up everything especially after tonight
I did all this & it says file could not be relinked . The original file had audio but the new file doesn’t. Relinked files must have the same media type and simple audio
That is correct. You can’t just relink to any old file. Has to be an exact match.
@@matthewTobrien I’m sorry I’m lost . Because I believe when I went to save it it asked if I want to save over something that already that name . For example I named it ep5 & it asked do you want to over this that already has that name . I clicked yes than this happened
If you overwrite the existing file with a new file and that files doesn't have the same length, audio attributes, video resolution, frame rate, etc. it won't let you relink to that new file even if the filename is the same. You'll have to re-import the file.
@@matthewTobrien thanks by the way I definitely got a better understanding of it & I just started over like 3x & finally saved it 😂
@@totbmedia So sorry for the frustrations you’ve been experiencing but the way that I learned about this too was by messing it up a bunch and finally figuring it out.
Matthew i have a question to you, is there some alternative option as adjustment layer for color correction setup above timeline , but for audio ? Many thank for this tutorial 🤜
FCPX say me no files is missing but i have the error message on a file
thanks a lot
Thank you. A useful video.
Thank you
Hi Matthew, your friend Francis here. Matthew, I’m wondering if you might be able to give me a little bit of help? My motion, VFX plug-ins, and some of my Pixlr film studio plug-ins are not showing up in my effects or transition browsers. I’m wondering if you have a simple solution to my problem. I know you’re a busy guy, so anything you can do will be most appreciated. Keep up the good work and keep chopping that broccoli. 😊 by the way, I am running Final Cut Pro version 10.6.10. 😢
Sorry to hear this, Francis! That's frustrating. Have you tried reinstalling the plugins entirely? I saw your comment on my MotionVFX Short about using the Reinstall (Repair) option in the mInstaller app. Pixel Film Studios plug-ins may require you to re-download and install to overcome the issue unless something in FCP 10.6.10 broke something with their plug-ins. Keep me posted!
Hi Matthew, quick update… I was able to contact pixel Phil Studios live chat, and they were able to resolve the issue for me. Thanks for being there though.😀👍
@@matthewTobrien hi Matthew, thanks for responding and yes everything‘s up and running now. Thanks for reaching out and saying hi. Hope you have a great Tuesday.😁
@@matthewTobrien just one last thing I want to say Matthew, I sure get nervous when I see there’s an update for Final Cut Pro nowadays😖
@stevensonrf I know… it’s no fun. But I’m here on the front lines trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t!
Hm, because of the issues like these, I’ve chosen to import all footage in to the library. Then I can even delete the originals in many cases, because I’d be doing a backup of that library anyway. Yes, I’m then locking the original footage to the library, it’s not searchable …
❤️❤️
Didn't work for me. I hate FCPX.
Do you get an error message when you try to relink? What happens after you follow my steps?
@@matthewTobrien it’s looking for the footage within the fcpx container file (pink square) which can’t be opened via the relink process. It’s so annoying!
@theunifiedfield. You can open the Library icon by right-clicking and choosing “Show Package Contents”. Perhaps navigating there will allow you to relink?
It really is crazy how RUclips has replaced printed manuals and college. 😁😁👌🏼
It really is...
Search ’file could not be relinked. relinked file must have the same media type and similar audio as original files…..?????