Storage Locations - relinking entire Library at once?

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Level 1

110 points

Storage Locations - relinking entire Library at once?

I'm moving to a film I last worked on in the spring of 2022. The project/Library media is stored on an external drive. I had changed the name of the drive to edit another film (also on the same external drive) in the meanwhile. Today I rename the drive to the original name of last spring. But when I open the Library nothing is linked. I double-check the Storage Locations (a Media folder on the external drive); they seem to be as they were last spring.

So maybe changing the drive name back and forth did something?

I reset the Storage Locations path - everything is in external 'Media'. I close and reopen FCPX. Reload the Library. None of the clips are linked.

Do I need to 'Consolidate' the Media to get everything to relink up? I'm confused. It looks like Consolidating means putting the Media INTO the Library itself. Which I don't want.

Is there a way to relink all the media in the Library (meaning the Library-with-media-stored-on-external-drive) at once, rather than going in and tediously relinking everything project by project?

All ears ... Ben

MacBook Pro

Posted on Jan 24, 2023 9:48 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Luis Sequeira1

Level 9

67,594 points

Jan 24, 2023 9:51 AM in response to Ben Low

This has nothing to do with setting the storage location, and everything to do with Relinking.

Select the library, File->Relink Files, choose "All" or "Missing", as the case may be; probably "All", then click Locate.

Choose the top level of the drive. FCP should then be able to relink the files.

Only if it can't find some, do the same, choosing "Missing" this time, and point it to a more specific location, like the folder that contains the actual media.

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Answer 2

Ben Low Author

Level 1

110 points

Jan 24, 2023 10:42 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Hi Luis,

When I chose "All" it got stuck on a specific item and then seemed to jam (see attached screenshot).

Then I did a pass choosing "Missing" and it seemed to relink hundreds of clips ... took a few minutes ... but when I clicked "Relink Files" it linked about a hundred and then seemed to jam again. After a few minutes of spinning ball I "Force Quit" FCPX.

But!

When I reopened FCPX I found hundreds of clips relinked ... so maybe while the ball was spinning (and the link indicator seemed frozen) FCPX was continuing to work. Big project. Hundreds of timelines. At first scan many many seem now relinked.

Ha ha ha. I was recovering an earlier film last week, and for some reason felt I had to relink scores of projects one at a time. Dang. Dumb.

Thank you Luis! Just knowing something can be done is worth mucho mucho. And it worked ...

All the best ... Ben

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