Hi Everyone,

here i am again begging for help with another bug I'm used to unfortunately run into. So as usual, running an Avid Qualified/certified Media Composer 21.12 Workstation on windows 10, simple problem:

I edited a project during two weeks, like edit the day, shutdown the workstation at night, start it and edit the next day, two weeks in a row, UME linked media (4K DNxHR and 1080p Prores), all good.

Then, I shutdown the workstation, and have been away for a week, NOBODY touched the workstation, the office was closed. Got back after a week, start media composer: all medias appear offline. WTF. The drive didnt move, still the same drive letter, nothing changed, no update, the workstation was not even started during the whole week. I can't "relink" (hey, that would be too easy I guess!) the only thing I can do is alt-drag the media from each folder to its corresponding bin and suddenly Media Composer remembers that oh, right, it's not offline uh.. .

You could tell me that's no big deal, you just lost, again, time that you shouldn't have figuring out what was goind on, but now you can edit so don't complain.Well...

ALL rendered effects in my timeline are now OFFLINE too!!!! NO WAY I GET TO loose a whole afternoon rendering all of that again + the space that's already used by the rendered effects because guess what it is still used on the disk!!

Simple question then: WHY? I remember it did happen on previous projects, it is so frustrating, anybody has an idea why and how to remedy?

Thank you very much in advance for your help!

I never ever use linked media for any project that going to run over more than one session. It's just not as stable as Avid media. 

Avid media stability is one of the key Avid strengths and using linked clips you forgo that.

So I link and consolidate or transcode. 

Pat Horridge:

I never ever use linked media for any project that going to run over more than one session. It's just not as stable as Avid media. 

Avid media stability is one of the key Avid strengths and using linked clips you forgo that.

So I link and consolidate or transcode. 

 

Hi Pat thank you for your answer

Great to read that but it doesn't give me a solution nor does it justify this bug (All that UME Craze is just bells and whistles?) and  it still doesn't explain why even the rendered effects (which by nature are not linked but plain "transcoded" media)  show unrendered in the timeline, even if they are on the same drive as the media and the linked media has been successfully (manually as I said in OP) relinked !

It is definately a PITA when linked clips go offline for no reason.  Whether it is the use of the AMA database (which I no longer use) or some other reason...yes it sucks.

As a small consolation, be aware you do not have to relink each folder to it's original destination.

When I lose links that span several bins, i just create a new bin, and alt drag everything to that bin.

This will give Avid the kick in the butt it needs to find the links for the original clips as well.  You can then clean out the links from this new bin, and your original links should all be working.

Again, as for why, i suspect; the ama database folder setup, which I also finds slows the entire boot time for Avid, so I have quit using it, and have had much less issues with missing links.

Your rendered clips is strange, they should be fine, usnless you have some corrupt database, or perhaps a failing drive.

Glenn Sakatch:

It is definately a PITA when linked clips go offline for no reason.  Whether it is the use of the AMA database (which I no longer use) or some other reason...yes it sucks.

As a small consolation, be aware you do not have to relink each folder to it's original destination.

When I lose links that span several bins, i just create a new bin, and alt drag everything to that bin.

This will give Avid the kick in the butt it needs to find the links for the original clips as well.  You can then clean out the links from this new bin, and your original links should all be working.

Again, as for why, i suspect; the ama database folder setup, which I also finds slows the entire boot time for Avid, so I have quit using it, and have had much less issues with missing links.

 

Your rendered clips is strange, they should be fine, usnless you have some corrupt database, or perhaps a failing drive.

Thank you for your feedback Glenn

Well I assume the alt-drag and the "create new bin" methods arrive to the same result.

regarding a failing drive, it is a brand new progressional grade NVme drive, I checked it for errors and of course it has absolutely no issues whatsoever and all te corresponding After Effects Projects work like a charm, so it is definitely again a Media Composer issue. Very Weird indeed. 

I'm curious to have some user come here one day with an out of the blue explanation and solution as I have been used to with Avid software 😅 

I have had linked drives not show up if they haven't woken up when MC launches. A lot of drives go to sleep or only "wake" up when they are accessed.

If I launch MC with linked media on a drive thats not connected my media is offline. Mounting the drive mostly doesn't restore the links as MC seems to have learnt they aren't there.

So you could try access a file on the drive before launching MC to ensure its "seen" by MC.

Re adding linked clips to a fresh bin (alt drag or source browser) re teaches MC the master clips media location and normally refreshes it across the project.

With Avid media similar can happen but opening the media tool (or closing Avid and re-opening it) causes a refresh of the media databases and media relinks automatically.

Pat Horridge:

I have had linked drives not show up if they haven't woken up when MC launches. A lot of drives go to sleep or only "wake" up when they are accessed.

If I launch MC with linked media on a drive thats not connected my media is offline. Mounting the drive mostly doesn't restore the links as MC seems to have learnt they aren't there.

So you could try access a file on the drive before launching MC to ensure its "seen" by MC.

Re adding linked clips to a fresh bin (alt drag or source browser) re teaches MC the master clips media location and normally refreshes it across the project.

With Avid media similar can happen but opening the media tool (or closing Avid and re-opening it) causes a refresh of the media databases and media relinks automatically.

OK Thanks Pat so just to make things clear :

as I said in my OP, my routine is always the same: start the computer, obviously as I said the drive is attached and didn't move, when windows started the drive is mounted as usual, then I launch MC, (always after waiting for a good 5 min to make sure everything is in order before I start it, always).

Nothing changed. Don't blame the drive. It's an Avid issue. I've had it several times in the past, on different machines, with different MC versions, other projects and totally different drives. Again, it's a Media Composer issue. And Glenn up here seems to have ran into it too.

Any other removable drive connected to the system? If the drive letter changes for whatever reason MC won't see the linked clips anymore. In a bin with the offline clips show the file path column, see if it matches with the same column in a bin with the newly linked clips.

luca.mg:

Any other removable drive connected to the system? If the drive letter changes for whatever reason MC won't see the linked clips anymore. In a bin with the offline clips show the file path column, see if it matches with the same column in a bin with the newly linked clips.

Hi Luca, thank you for your answer, as I said in the OP, the drive letter is the same and didn't change. There is no removable drive connected, NOTHING moved, changed, nobody touched this machine before or after I did.