Hello there! This thread is intended for anyone in QA or Engineering.

It seems Clips generated from ALEs won’t relink to the underlying media in Media Composer these days.

When I drag and drop an ALE onto a Bin, Media Composer will make make new Clips with the metadata defined in the ALE, but when I try to relink those Clips to Managed Media, Media Composer says, “No.”

I can’t pinpoint when this first started happening, but I can confirm this is happening in:

- MC 2024.10 (macOS 14.7)
- MC 2024.6 (macOS 14.7)
- MC 2024.2 (Windows 10 Pro)

I can reproduce this with media generated by Media Composer using the Audio Tool.

Here are the steps to reproduce this:

1. Launch Media Composer > New Project

2. File > New > New Bin

3. Tools > Audio Tool > PH > Create Tone Media

  - Target Bin: (Your New Bin)

  - Target Drive > (A Local Volume)

4. With the desired Bin open go to File > Output > Export Bin.

5. Export Setting > Avid Log Exchange > Save (to your Desktop)

6. In the desired Bin:

  1. Delete the Master Clip for that TONE Clip.

  2. Do not delete the associated media files.

7. Define ALE import options under File > Input > Import Media > Show Options > Options… > Shot Log: "Maintain events as logged" or "Merge events with known master clips".

8. On your Desktop, drag and Drop the newly exported ALE from Finder (or File Explorer) to that new Bin.

9. A new Clip will appear in the Bin based on the ALE.

10. Try to relink Clips (Select Clip > Right-Click > Relink > Managed Media).

11. Set the Relink dialog to the most permissive settings and press OK:

  - Relink selected items to >

    - Media on drive: All Available Drives

    - Relink only to media from the current project: DISABLED

  - Relink by:

    - Match case when comparing source names: DISABLED

    - Video Parameters

  - Relink to: Any video format

  - Relink method: Highest Quality

The result? An OK dialog: “No clips were relinked.”

If you open Console, you can see Relink sees my local volume –  "/Volumes/Sonoma//Users/Shared/AvidMediaComposer/Avid MediaFiles/MXF/1/" – with the expected number of media objects (Mobs).

Am I missing something, or did something break with Media Composer’s ALE writer and/or reader?

Of note:

- I read this Knowledge Base article – https://kb.avid.com/pkb/articles/en_US/Knowledge/Troubleshooting-relink-No-Clips-Were-Relinked – but it didn’t help when using an ALE with a Bin.

- If you need a reference on how this should work, this is the best video out there: https://youtu.be/cE_0hQ_RNSY?si=5T2TK6a_07H9MTEt

Thanks for reading and for considering!

I would not expect that to work with a generated tone, as it has no Tape name. Relink requires a source/tape name and timecode. So your method should work if the clip metadata generated in Avid Log Exchange match the metadata in the clips/media that are already in the system. Depending on the Log file import settings, it could require the start and end TC to match (unless you select: merge with known sources and automatically create subclips).

Thanks for responding, Job.

Using ffprobe on that resulting MXF generated by Audio Tool, it has both Timecode and a Tape name (i.e. reel_name).

Check the Tape Name in the bin. The original tone won't have a tape name. You could try to relink using another column, but that means that column will also have to match.

OK, I think I understand why this happened to me.

When you import or drag and drop an ALE onto a Bin in Media Composer, Media Composer seems to assume you’ll be working with a Tape-Based Media Workflow.

That means Media Composer expects the user to have previously defined a Tape Name for each Clip in a Bin under:

(Select Clips) > (Right-Click) > Modify > Modify Clip... > Set Source

Once the Tape Name for all Clips are set, the user will see that name under the “Tape” Bin Column.

⚠️ You must set the Tape Name (which will be listed under Bin Column: Tape) in Media Composer. If you define values for the “Tape” Column in an ALE, Media Composer will not use it for matching Managed Media to Clips when relinking Clips in a Bin. Defining a Tape Name under Modify > Modify Clip… > Set Source is the only way to ensure Managed Media relinks to Clips when using an ALE. Also, there’s no way to delete Tape Names in a Project once they’re defined (which stirs up a bit of late-night digitizing PTSD).

After that, Media Composer will use the Tape Name, not the Source File ID or Source File Name, as the matching criteria when you relink Clips to Managed Media.

However, if you drag and drop a MDB file from a Managed Media folder Media Composer successfully indexed to a Bin but do not import an ALE into a Bin, it appears Media Composer relinks Clips to Managed Media based on the Source File or Source File Name. The user doesn’t need to add a Tape Name to each Clip in Media Composer in order relink Clips to Managed Media.

You can confirm this by:

1. In Media Composer, drag and drop a MDB file from a Managed Media folder to a Bin.

2. (Select Clips) > (Right-Click) > Modify > Unlink Media...

3. (Select Clips) > (Right-Click) > Relink > Managed Media

A few other helpful bits:

1. You can edit ALEs directly in TextMate (macOS) or Notepad++ (Windows). Enable “Hide Invisible Characters” so you can see the Tabs and Carriage Returns at the end of each line.

2. The text encoding is ASCII UTF-7. You can confirm this using the file command and the enca utility in macOS.

3. The file is formatted as a Tab Delimited file with Carriage Returns (CR) terminating each line.

4. This Reddit thread was helpful too: https://www.reddit.com/r/editors/comments/gmtdi1/working_with_ale_files_in_avid/

This all started because I wanted to see if you can use a spreadsheet app (e.g. Excel, Numbers, OpenOffice Calc) to edit ALEs directly, then use editingtools.io’s ALE Converter to clean up any unwanted characters from the ALE saved by the spreadsheet app. Hopefully the next Digital Imaging Technician (DIT), Lab Technician, or Assistant Editor won’t have to scour the Internet as much as I did.

Additional References

- What’s the Deal With Reel Names in Avid Media Composer Clips?

- On Renaming Avid Media Composer’s Media Folders

- ALE (Avid Log Exchange) Files: What They Are and Why You Should Understand Them by Pomfort

- Avid MediaLog User's Guide Release 2.0 > Appendix A - Avid Log Specifications

- Avid Metadata Logging and Tracking (thanks, Job!)