(This article was first written as an update to my book: Final Cut Pro X – Making the Transition. However, this update was never published.)
[ Updated: July, 2014, with new features from the 10.1.2 FCP X update
Dec. 21, 2014, with the new Locate behavior. ]
One of the biggest frustrations with the initial version of Final Cut Pro was that if you lost the connection with your media, you were out of luck, as you couldn’t reconnect to it. Now, with the 10.0.3 update, you can. Here’s how.
Sigh… You open Final Cut Pro and, suddenly, you’re seeing red in the Event Browser.
Or, you open a project and red indicators glare at you from the Timeline.
These red indicators (which flag clips that are “off-line”) can be caused by:
With the exception of accidentally switching to Proxy files – which you can fix by going back to Preferences > Editing and changing the preference setting back to Original/Optimized media – the rest of these problems can be solved by relinking.
NOTE: The key rule for working with media in Final Cut Pro X is that once you import media, don’t move it or rename it. Let FCP X (or Event Manager X, which is a separate utility) do all your media management.
In the case of moving a folder, quit Final Cut, move the folder back into the Final Cut Events folder and restart FCP. Everything is all good again. The key is to quit FCP X before moving folders.
However, sometimes missing media is caused by renaming folders, turning off a hard disk, deleting the wrong data, or a host of other calamities. In which case, you need to reconnect the links in Final Cut to the correct media. Here’s how.
In either the Event Browser or the Timeline, select the clips that are off-line (red). Then, choose File > Reconnect Project Files. (If the off-line files are in the Event Browser, select the clips and choose File > Reconnect Event Files. This menu is context-sensitive.)
The Relink window appears with the missing clips listed at the top. If you want to reconnect ALL the selected clips, click the All radio button at the top. This is a good choice if you totally messed up reconnecting your clips and want to try again.This will relink both missing and online clips.
Most of the time, though, you’ll want to just click the Missing radio button to just reconnect the clips that are missing.
Unlike FCP 7, which has an automatic search built into the Reconnect dialog, with FCP X you need to find the clips manually. So, click the Locate All button.
Look in the lower third of this window; you may need to stretch it wider to see everything. FCP displays the path and file name of the missing file. This not only shows the file name, but the path of folders that held the clip. For me, looking at this path helps me find exactly the file I need a whole lot easier and faster. Remember, you need to match the missing file exactly, not just indicate the folder it is in.
When you find the missing file, click Choose.
When a missing file is relinked, it is displayed at the bottom of the Relink window. If other missing files are in the same folder, they will all be linked at the same time and displayed in the lower portion of this window.
Click the twirl-down arrow to the left of the number of files found to reveal all linked files.
If you mistakenly linked to the wrong file, select the incorrect file in this list and press Delete. The selected file(s) are disconnected and the unlinked clip goes back up to the top of this window so you can relink it to the correct file.
To minimize files becoming unlinked in the the future, I recommend you check Copy files into Final Cut Events folder. This is a good idea for all linked files. The only downside to copying files is that they take more storage space.
When you have found all missing files, click Relink Files and everything is “all well better” again.
SIDEBAR: POTENTIAL LINK ERROR
Sometimes if you are working with multiple versions of the same media, you may see this error message. It means that the clip you selected for relinking doesn’t match the source clip.
Click OK, and look for the original file. If, for some reason, it no longer exists, you will need to replace the missing clip in the Timeline with a new clip. FCP X won’t allow you to relink clips that don’t match.
UPDATE – July 19, 2014
The 10.1.2 update to Final Cut adds additional robustness to relinking. For example, if you store media in folders within folders, you can now relink media by selecting just the top folder. All missing media contained in folders within that top folder will be relinked, without needing to navigate to them individually.
NOTE: It is always a good idea not to change the file names of media once it has been imported into Final Cut. However, the new symlinks that FCP X uses can often relink media even though the file name has changed.
UPDATE – Dec. 21, 2014
I learned this tip last week from Michael Wood, when I was teaching a Final Cut Pro X class to his team. I don’t know when Apple added this feature to the software, but this is new behavior, at least to me.
As we’ve learned, nothing causes more frustration than the dreaded red Unlinked Media icon. To relink media, select the clips you want to relink in either the Browser or the Timeline and choose File > Relink Files.
This displays the relink dialog. Either select a specific clip to relink and click Locate Selected, or leave everything unselected and click Locate All.
Here’s the cool part. Normally, I never pay attention to the message at the bottom of the file picker screen because, in the past, it simply said the file was missing. Since I already knew that I ignored it.
However, here, it is saying that the file does not exist anywhere in the selected path: “/Volumes/OWC RAID (Fast)/Training Media/Jim Walker Underwater/” Hmm…
But! I know that that file is somewhere on that hard disk, so on the left in the Sidebar, I clicked the name of the hard disk and – poof! – FCP X found the file. I had moved it into a different folder on the same hard disk.
All I need to do is click Continue to relink to the file.
Here you can see the file was successfully relinked. Click the Relink Files button in the lower right corner of this dialog and you are done.
SUMMARY
Rather than require us to figure out where the file is, all we need to do now is select the drive or folder that probably contains the file and – if it is there – Final Cut will find it and allow us to link to it. (However, this technique won’t help at all if you’ve deleted the missing file because then it is actually missing.)
Very cool and MUCH faster than navigating to a file manually.
148 Responses to FCP X: Relinking Media [u]
Newer Comments →-
Stephen Waite says:
August 27, 2012 at 3:53 pm
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Larry Jordan says:
August 27, 2012 at 4:09 pm
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Joe Hackett says:
August 29, 2012 at 5:16 pm
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Larry Jordan says:
August 30, 2012 at 8:09 pm
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Phil Macreedie says:
August 31, 2012 at 6:24 am
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Larry Jordan says:
September 11, 2012 at 12:12 pm
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Danica Barnes says:
September 11, 2012 at 10:28 am
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Larry Jordan says:
September 11, 2012 at 12:13 pm
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roger stoneburner says:
October 12, 2012 at 7:24 am
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Max Shuppert says:
November 27, 2012 at 3:46 pm
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Larry Jordan says:
November 27, 2012 at 6:16 pm
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Stephen Dhondt says:
November 30, 2012 at 12:29 am
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Larry Jordan says:
November 30, 2012 at 9:53 am
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Tim Johnston says:
December 1, 2012 at 10:48 pm
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Larry Jordan says:
December 2, 2012 at 9:47 am
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CJC says:
January 26, 2013 at 5:38 am
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Larry Jordan says:
January 26, 2013 at 11:00 am
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Els VdV says:
January 30, 2013 at 11:08 pm
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Larry Jordan says:
January 30, 2013 at 11:12 pm
Newer Comments →Great article. Unfortunately when I try to print the article the last few paragraphs do not print. Is this just me or is it a general problem. A work around would be appreciated.
Thanks
Stephen waite
Stephen:
I just printed it and all pages printed fine.
Larry
Larry,
Thank you. Always smart and concise.
One major problem for me is…. trying to relink multicam clips…. the only thin I see is “missing.”
Apparently the multi cam only exists in “the event??”
Any thoughts?
Joe
Joe:
You are correct. Multicam clips don’t really exist. You need to link the underlying clips.
Larry
Very interesting and informative article. I thought it might have solved a problem I have had where I lost the link to my proxy files after changing the time on some files (using FCPX’s function under “modify”). The proxy files were still in the folder but all the clips had “missing proxy”. However this method doesn’t seem to work with proxy files. Ended up re-coding them.
Generally, with Proxy files, you simply need to change the Preference setting from “Original/Optimized media” to Proxy media.
larry
Is there a way to relink custom titles created in Motion? When I publish a title from Motion, I usually assign it to a category other than “general” (usually the project or client name). On a recent project, I accidentally assigned a few titles to the wrong category. If I try to move the files in the Finder to the correct category folder, all of these titles, obviously, appear offline in my timeline. I’m not sure how to relink these, other than replacing them all manually. I don’t get the same relink options for titles as I would for clips in the Event Browser.
I don’t think you can relink them. I would open them and resave them to the correct folder using Motion.
Larry
hi larry,
i love all your videos.
I had someone do a “paper” edit for something I have to cut in FCP X. I sent them mp4 media files and they ended up doing a rough cut in iMovie. They sent me the iMovie event and project and I was able to import into FCPX.
My problem is, their cut and the event files point to mp4 files. i tried to link, but am unable to because of the differing extensions (mp5 vs. mov). Do I have to rename the full res versions mp4 to make the reconnect work? Or am I missing a button I can flip to ignore the extensions and just go off the file names?
Cheers,
Roger
Larry:
Have enjoyed your thoughts for a couple of years now and having moved to FCPx over this past summer from FCP7 have mostly enjoyed its many improvements.
However, I have now encountered a problem wherein I could not open the app until I renamed a month-old backup as my new CurrentVersion and now all of my compound clips (of which there are many) indicate missing files.
I have not moved files at all and have tried a great deal of relinking which, while it works on regular clips, does nothing for my compounds (almost all created in the timeline, BTW).
Have you or any of the other brighter lights on the forum here have any suggestions?
FWIW, I have purchased and used Digital Rebellion’s Pro Maintenance (to no effect), have been using Event Manager X since it came out and have tried trashing prefs and cache files for the app. So far, no luck relinking. My files exist on an external drive and were not copied into the Event folder, itself on the same external drive.
My machine is a late-model iMac w/i7 processor, 16GB RAM, SSD for apps + 1TB internal SATA drive. External drive is a G-Tech 4TB raid connected via Thunderbolt to Sonnet ExpressCard-to-eSATA to the drive.
Thanks in advance to any all who have cogent suggestions.
Max:
Since you trashed preferences, I don’t have any immediate suggestions.
What you are saying is that even though you have selected the media that is off-line in your Timeline or Event Browser and choose File > Relink Media, FCP X is not allowing you to point to and connect to the source files stored on your hard disk?
I just want to be sure I understand the exact problem.
Larry
Hi Larry,
Thanks for an informative piece. I still have a problem with relinking though. I’m new to FCP X (used to work with Premiere Pro), so I might be asking a really dumb question.
When I started editing I saved everything on my iMac hard drive. Then I bought an external drive (for use at filmschool), copied the events and projects to it and continued editing on the external drive.
Now, when I click ‘reveal in event browser’ on the earlier clips in my project, it still links back to my Macintosh HD drive and not the external one – which means when I hook up my external drive at school, I see a lot of red missing clips.
I’ve noticed that when I tried to relink (the source media IS present on the external drive) FCP doesn’t just replace my selection within the media clip, but just replaces the entire clip with the original uncut media … which isn’t really what I want – I might just as well start over again from scratch.
Any thoughts on how to fix this?
Stephen:
There are two different issues here:
1. Relinking ALWAYS replaces entire clips. The concept of In and Out only exists inside FCP.
2. You may have copied the media and the projects, but you continued editing the old version stored on your local hard drive. This is why there was unlinked media when you tried to open the project on a different computer. In fact, I suspect, much of your media is actually stored in your home directory.
I’m currently working on an extended article looking at media management in FCP X and will let everyone know via my weekly newsletter, when I’ve got this finished.
larry
I’m not really using FCPX right now, but am thinking of switching, so this is more of a ‘presales’/workflow question…
I usually shoot with a cameras that have their own proprietary card format (Sony XDCAM, Canon XF, Panasonic P2). When I archive these, I only keep copies in its native format. In my current workflow, the Avid, FCP7, or Premiere project keeps the metadata, and you can make the NLE it relink to or re-import the media in its original format. So I only have to archive the project file and copies of the media in its original shoot format. If I switch to FCPX, I have two questions about relinking…
Does FCPX work the same way, relinking to the native shoot format, or would I need to keep a copy of FCPX’s “Event” media to be able to rebuild the timeline in the future? And in either case, what happens to the metadata?
Thanks for the help!
Tim:
As always, do tests to be sure everything works as you expect.
However, FCP X should handle metadata the way you expect. You can recapture from camera source files, and metadata in the file is captured and retained by FCP X.
Larry
Hi Larry,
How do you get done all that you do & be able to respond as actively & engaginly on top of it is an absolute wonder to me. So impressed and I just truly appreciate how much you “give” freely of your knowledge. You have helped me immeasurably.
That said I have a bit of a perplexing problem in FCP X.
Long & short of it is I get the triangle in my event alerting me of clips that have issues within it. Usually this signals media that is offline, much like your article details.
However these files, some of them anyway, have a red in the audio portion, are online but when I click reveal in finder or hunt manually they are nowhere to be found.
My fcpx management is farily sound. In my external drives that I have FCPX link to are all organized by “REEL 001, REEL 002” etc. I also put in the corresponding metadata in the “reel” section of the fcpx metadata.
But for some reason these “trouble” files, while online are nowhere to be found.
Clearly they exist and clearly they exist out of my before thought to be perfect media management set up!
But since I have 400 some “reels” in this project and since FCPX doesn’t search like 7 I have no idea how to find these files that are giving the yellow triangle with an exclamation point!
Thoughts?
CJC:
Hmmm… for some reason FCP X is not finding linked audio files. Did you, by any chance, optimize any of these files? My guess is that FCP X can find the video, but not the linked audio files.
Select a file with missing audio in the Timeline. Type Shift+F to find that same clip in the Event Browser. See if the audio plays there. If, then choose File > Transcode > Optimize media to convert the audio into a format FCP X can read more easily.
Otherwise, right-click the Event Browser file and select “Reveal in Finder.” See if you can find the source media and its audio.
Larry
Hi Larry
Great article. Is there a solution for “relinking” or “reconnecting” missing effects. As I started using FCPX a year ago, I created new effects in an unorganised way. Now that I understand FCPX better I renamed some of the folders. By doing that FCPX creates missing links (same as pictured above). How do I reconnect without losing the structure of my effect folders?
I hope there is a solution 🙂 Any thoughts?
All the best
Els
Els:
Effects that you want FCP X to see are stored in: [ Home Directory ] > Movies > Motion Templates … grouped by folder into categories.
Simply drag the effects you’ve created and stored elsewhere into those folders and FCP will see them automatically.
Larry