More Missing Audio Files that won't relink

[dansoundmix]

Hi! As I’m sure many others do, often I’ve been moving projects between the studio and my home rig on a portable usb drive. For some reason, I’d estimate at least half of the time, when I transfer to and open the project on my home rig, there are missing audio files of the omf variety. The weird thing is that in the relinking window, the path that is listed, is the original audio files folder within the Project folder on the Studio rig. It’s like the project now doesn’t know that the files now exist in the copied audio files folder. Anyway I have no luck relinking the files even with the option "File name" selected and "file type, duration and mod date" deselected. The omf files originated from Premiere. My studio rig is 12.8 os 10.10.5 and my home rig is 12.4 on os 10.10.5. Anyone have any insight?

Thanks,

Dan

[reichman]

When I import an OMF or AAF, I almost always choose 'Copy from source media,' instead of link. I have better linkage and fewer problems this way. If you have done that, try the exact same drive name. Also trash Workspaces so PT refreshes its knowledge of available drives.

[thierryd]

Originally Posted by reichman

When I import an OMF or AAF, I almost always choose 'Copy from source media,' instead of link. I have better linkage and fewer problems this way. If you have done that, try the exact same drive name. Also trash Workspaces so PT refreshes its knowledge of available drives.

I would even say, use "Force to Target Session Format", instead of "copy from source media", when importing audio from embedded AAF or OMF files. PT is a lot less smart about file management than Avid's Media Composer. With "Force to Target Session Format" you can be sure that it copies and converts the audio to your session's format.
When exchanging sessions between different computers (especially with different versions of PT), things go wrong when opening up PT sessions, that imported audio linked to media from an embedded OMF/AAF file. Relinks don't work anymore etc.
You would think that in 2018 Avid would have brought PT and MC closer to each other on the file management level (that is PT closer to MC! dare I say AudioVision 1996 , but apparently it must be a gigantic task to implement. MC has always a perfect idea of its media, even if it's offline and MC lets the user organise media in bins etc . PT doesn't know a lot of its media unless it's online (and getting it online via relink is sometimes not easy, so you have to avoid the pitfalls) and the cliplist can...not be organised by the user
PT has made a lot of progress the last few years, but in this department there's certainly room for improvement.

Greetings,

Thierry

[dansoundmix]

Originally Posted by thierryd

I would even say, use "Force to Target Session Format", instead of "copy from source media", when importing audio from embedded AAF or OMF files. PT is a lot less smart about file management than Avid's Media Composer. With "Force to Target Session Format" you can be sure that it copies and converts the audio to your session's format.
When exchanging sessions between different computers (especially with different versions of PT), things go wrong when opening up PT sessions, that imported audio linked to media from an embedded OMF/AAF file. Relinks don't work anymore etc.
You would think that in 2018 Avid would have brought PT and MC closer to each other on the file management level (that is PT closer to MC! dare I say AudioVision 1996 , but apparently it must be a gigantic task to implement. MC has always a perfect idea of its media, even if it's offline and MC lets the user organise media in bins etc . PT doesn't know a lot of its media unless it's online (and getting it online via relink is sometimes not easy, so you have to avoid the pitfalls) and the cliplist can...not be organised by the user
PT has made a lot of progress the last few years, but in this department there's certainly room for improvement.

Greetings,

Thierry

Thanks for the advice. I always have used the "Copy from source media" option, but I will try the "Force to target format" and hopefully that will improve things. I can't for the life of me figure out why just a few of the files would still have paths to the original hard drive when all of the others updated their paths correctly.

Unfortunately, upgrading the home rig to 12.8 isn't a viable option from a financial standpoint.

Dan

[its2loud]

I use consolidate on import 6000ms handles. Never have an issue. The problem I believe is in the file names with certain odd characters.

[Leverson]

I find copy media is a better solution than ‘force to target’.

‘Force to’ will only convert files that differ from the project settings, copy will move everything.

I’ve had issues where I’ve done a force to in the past and then the OMF wasn’t moved with the session and some files had to be relinked, with the copy files selection everything is moved, and it’ll convert the audio if needed, and it’s my preferred option all around.