FCPXchange Reconnects for Offline and Missing Media

If you’ve ever suffered a project with missing media, the folks over at Telemarq have a possible solution for you with FCPXchange. This is an application specifically designed to match assets that for whatever reason have gone offline within an FCPX Event. While this is no substitute for a true force relink, it may just be a life-saver for certain types of situations. Sometimes files can go offline when you unknowingly (or intentionally) change them in other applications such as visual effects, color correction and sound design applications.

According to developer, Quentin Stafford-Fraser, here’s how FCPXchange works:

• You have a project with the dreaded red boxes, indicating missing media.
• You have a media file – if not the original, then perhaps a version in a different format – but Final Cut won’t let you relink to it, because there are too many small differences.
• Import that replacement file into the event, and put it in the timeline somewhere; for example, as a connected clip. (You can delete it later.) The project then knows about both the original media and the replacement. (We’ve even had reports that this alone can sometimes be sufficient to allow FCPX to relink the original media.)
• Export the project as XML, using the File > Export Project XML… menu.
• Open the XML using FCPXchange. It will show you a list of all the media in your project. You can then do what amounts to a ‘global replace’ in the timeline, substituting references to one clip with references to another.
• Save the resulting XML, and re-import it into FCP, and you should have a duplicate project, with the missing media replaced with the new clip, but the edits preserved.
• You can then delete the connected clip you added earlier.

What’s even nicer about this application is that it’s completely free (for now.) So, for more information and to try it out or just grab a copy while it’s still free, check out FCPXchange.

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