I edited a sequence last week.  All was well.  Tonight I get onto Avid, capture a new batch of footage and start to edit.  Everything seems fine.  However, I take a look at the sequence I edited last week (same project) and the whole thing just says Media Offline.  I go look at the source clips, and they say it too.  What happened?  I deleted nothing!

Why can't things just work.

When media clips are suddenly and unexpectedly off-line, it's usually one of two things (or both).  First, make sure your system recognizes and mounts the drives you use for media storage...verify that all drives are powered and connected, then in the file pull down, choose "mount all".  This forces the system to look for, find and mount all available drives.

If the off-line problem persists, quit the application and open up the OMFI MediaFiles (and MXF, if appropriate) folder and sort contents by date.  At the top of the list will be two files that identify by type as "Avid Media Database".  Delete these files and re-launch.  These files tend to get corrupted from time to time, so get used to and comfortable with this process.  On re-launch, the system will detect the missing files and build new ones. 

Unless there are deeper core issues, this should solve your media offline problem.

    My external hard drive was turned off.  Thank you.

You're welcome, and glad it was that easy a fix.  Keep in mind though, that media database files do tend to get corrupted from time to time and will cause media offline issues (assuming of course that the media is still there and has not been accidently deleted).  It's generally a good idea to rebuild your database files just before deleting material using the media tool, to make sure the media tool shows all master clip, precompute and media files for any given project, lest you wind up with orphaned files (media files with no pointer clip files) floating around taking up space. So I suggest you make note of the procedure I described earlier for future reference.

I'm having a problem with a maxtor 160 gig hard drive that's "corrupted".  I used Seagate recovery software to try and salvage the video. The OMFI files look intact.  I copied it to a 500 gig drive but  I'm still getting media offline messages.  I'm, running express dv 3.5.4 on a compac evo n610c and the external drives. I deleted the msmFMID and msmMMOB data files that I read on this forum my help, but I 'm stuck. What do I do next?

Help

Are your project files and pointer clip files intact that relate to those OMFI files?  If not, then all you have are orphaned OMFI files which are useless to you now.  But if the project is still intact, you can try the relink function to try to get the clips back online.

" ... At the top of the list will be two files that identify by type as "Avid Media Database"

... at the top, if sorted by date.

"The OMFI files look intact.  I copied it to a 500 gig drive but  I'm still getting media offline messages"

The media files must be in a folder named exactly, OMFI MediaFiles.  The media cannot be inside any sub-folders, within the OMFI MediaFiles folder.  The OMFI MediaFiles folder must be at the top level of your media drive, and not inside any other folder.

Randall is absolutely right about naming protocols.  Make sure your folder and file structure is exactly the way he described, or the system will not be able to find the related OMFI files. And after verfiying that, if your media is still offline, try the database rebuild procedure again that I described earlier in this thread. (BTW Randall, I did include sort contents by date in that description.)  If that still doesn't work, try relinking the clips.

"(BTW Randall, I did include sort contents by date in that description.)"

... my bad ... that's what I get for posting to the forum at 5:00am .. :)

Hi Larry,

 

You sound like the man in the know. Was hoping you could help? I'm having the same 'Media Offline' probs. I have tried the process you stated previous but to no avail. Any other suggestions? I have only just started using Avid, (Avid Express DV) for mac, so might be being a muppet. I have it set up to an external hard drive.

 

Thanks very much,

Sammo

Hello Sammo, and welcome to the Forum. If you've already tried rebuilding the database files and still have media offline issues, check and make sure you're following the ground rules for media folder management:

1) The "Avid MediaFiles" folder (for MXF media) and the "OMFI MediaFiles" folder (for OMF media) MUST reside at the root level of the media drive, not inside any other folders or the system will not be able to find the media.

2) The folder names must always be the factory default names listed above (minus the quotes) or the system will not be able to find the media.

3) There can be only one of each folder type on any given media drive.

Also, you may want to check permissions for your media drive. I refer you to this procedure. Scroll down to the Mac section.

And when you have a moment, please fill out your system specifications. Click on your name, then "edit my profile" then "profile options" to find the appropriate text field. Having this information already posted helps us to help you faster.

Hi Larry,

Many thanks indeed. Appreciate your time. I have updated what operating system and version of avid I am using and have checked the permissions settings and they are read and write. With regards to the folding settings, I think I have this set up correctly? I have set up the media to save directly to my hard drive where it has automatically created a folder under the name of my project where I can see my project settings, bins etc. Is this correct or do I need to highlight the OMFI folder and save my project within there? If so, please confirm and I will change this and hopefully this will resolve the issue. If not, I'm still at square one. 

 

Something to mention... I went to a conference yesterday where one of the speakers was an AVID expert. I explained the problem to him and the only other thing he could think of was to check the media tools option. He said if I can't see and access the media/master files there then I must have deleted them. I have checked this and CANNOT see or access the media. I have not deleted the files so presume they are not storing any where?

 

I have just been on to some online tutorials which ran through the entire process of setting up projects, capturing etc and I can confirm that I was already doing things correctly. One thing I did notice though... In the capture tools box, under the bin drop down, there was a box which showed the media drive being used with a drop down to change this. I do not have this box/field on my version of avid. The only item on my bin drop down is the name of the bin I am using. Is this the problem and why don't I have this? Is it because Im using an older version and that it is not really applicable?

 

Help ;-)

 

Cheers fella and thanks again.

 

Sammo

Hi Sammo:

First, just to review folder structures, when you create an Avid project using the "New Project" tab in the select project window (the first one you see when the program launches), The new project is placed inside the "Avid Projects" folder that lives on your system C: drive. However, media files should ALWAYS be captured (or imported) to a separate drive, either internal, external, or a RAID array, NOT to the system C: drive.

Regarding the missing drop down on your capture tool, go into your media creation user settings and under the "Drive filtering and indexing" tab, if "filter out system drive" and "filter out launch drive" are active (which is the normal setup) and you have no additional drives, that would explain the missing drop down.

Again, make sure you have a separate drive to write media to and that it is mounted and recognized by the system.