Relinking Media in Apple Final Cut Pro

The last time I wrote about relinking media in FCP was ten years ago. While much remains the same, it is long past time for an update.

A NOTE ON WHERE TO STORE MEDIA

While each project is unique, here’s my general advice on where to store media:

• Store source media files on your largest and fastest external drive. Don’t use the internal drive for media; you can, but you are far too likely to run out of space.
• Store optimized files on your largest and fastest external drive.
• Store libraries on your internal drive while you are editing them. Then, move them to an external drive for long-term storage when the edit is complete. As long as you don’t change the location of your media files, none of your links will break when you move the library.
• Store render and proxy files in the library during the edit, then delete them when the edit is done.
• Store backups of libraries and media to a second, perhaps slower, external drive.

For multicam editing:

• Store small multicam projects on the internal SSD drive of your Mac for best performance. Move them off the internal drive when the edit is complete.
• Store large multicam projects on SSD-based external storage. Large frame size multicam projects essentially require the speed and capacity of external SSD storage.

These suggestions provide the greatest flexibility and performance for most edits.

WHY LINKS BREAk

When you import media into Final Cut, you are presented with two choices:

• Copy files into the library
• Leave files in place

Copy Files. This option copies imported media into the library. The benefit to this is that wherever the library goes, all the media you imported into that library travels with it. This means that is it almost impossible for media links to break. The disadvantage is that it makes the library very big (which is not really that big a deal) but, more importantly, that media can’t be easily accessed accessed by another library, software or editor.

NOTE: While Final Cut has provisions for copying and moving media between libraries, as well as the ability to open multiple libraries at once, accessing media is not as easy as linking to media stored on a hard disk.

Leave Files. This option links to, but doesn’t copy, media files. When you choose “Leave files in place,” Final Cut imports the path name only to the file, not the media file itself. (The path name is a very small piece of text that describes where on your hard disk the media file is stored.) The big advantage to leaving media files in place is that it does not increase the size of the library nor use extra storage duplicating media. The disadvantage – and it is a big one – is that if you rename the storage volume or any folder that contains media or the media file itself, it breaks the connection between the media file and FCP.

NOTE: In general, I recommend that new users copy files into the library, while experienced users should leave files in place.

Leave files in place makes importing very fast without requiring any extra storage. However, if you move or rename that media file – or any folder containing that media – outside of Final Cut, the path to the file is no longer the same and FCP loses track of that media file. This is called “breaking the link.”

RELINKING FILES

Over the years, Final Cut has improved how it relinks missing files. In fact, it is more powerful than you might think.

• You can relink only those files that are missing (“broken links”)
• Or—you can replace all the existing media with new media provided the file names are the same. (red arrow) This option allows you to start editing with proxy files created outside of Final Cut, then switch them to the high-res versions without needing to recreate your edit.

Assuming that you want to relink missing media:

• Select the library or the event containing the missing media.
• Choose File > Relink Files > Original

NOTE: Most of the time, I just relink original files. Proxy media is easy to recreate using File > Transcode Media. As well, most of the time, proxy files are stored in the library and even unlinked files can be deleted by selecting the library and choosing File > Delete Generated Library Media.

• When the Relink Original Files window appears, select Missing. (Choose All if you want to replace all media in the selected library or event with new media.)
• Click the Locate Selected button, then navigate to a folder that contains the missing media. You don’t need to find the specific file itself, FCP will find it for you!

NOTE: If you know where the file is, navigate to it and select it. That’s the fastest option. But, if you only have a rough idea, select a folder that contains the missing file and let FCP do the search. This folder can be several levels up from the file, including the hard disk name itself.

NOTE: Final Cut displays the name of the missing file it is currently looking for (middle arrow) at the bottom of this window. If this link is not displayed, click the Options button (bottom arrow).

When all the files are found, clicked Relink Files to update all missing media links in Final Cut.

SUMMARY

Relinking provides two big benefits to editors:

1. You can replace all existing media, for example proxies, with high quality media after the edit is started.
2. You don’t need to know the exact location of a missing file. FCP will search selected folders and connect to the missing media automatically.

While the best way to prevent missing media is to store it in the library, the relinking options make reconnecting media fast and simple.

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