Questions

Why am I shown a "Security Alert" in Media Composer?

This alert is Avid's way of telling you that you are not using NEXIS storage with Media Composer. It shows up when creating or first opening a project. This behaviour is consistent across all third-party Bin Locking solutions from Mimiq to EditShare, ELEMENTS, or Facilis.

This alert has been around for years in various forms, and does not indicate a problem — it has no functional impact.

When should I use Workspaces?

Only if you're not exclusively using a NAS as shared storage. If you are using a NAS, use the NAS management to create shares. Do not reshare folders on your network share via a Workspace, but create a second share for just the folder you want to share.

When I try to activate Mimiq I'm getting a “No virtual machine activations allowed”-alert.

This only concerns Windows users.

If you see this error when activating a trial, you're running Mimiq in a VM, or a Hypervisor process must be active in Windows.

If you see this error when activating a purchased license, you have a regular license or a Pro license that needs VM activations allowed on your license.

A step-by-step guide for disabling any-and-all Hypervisor (Hyper-V) and Virtual Machine features on your PC is available here:

VMs & Hypervisors

If you have a regular license and need VM activations, upgrade your license in the License Manager, then reach out.

Already on a Pro license? Reach out.

Can I use the same license key to activate Mimiq on a Mac and a PC?

Yes.

What about Indiestor?

Hedge acquired Mimiq from Indiestor in September 2022.

Licenses purchased from Indiestor ("Legacy Mimiq") or its resellers were supported for the duration of your licensing period, which means by now they are all out of support and will no longer receive updates.

To crossgrade your Legacy Mimiq license to a new Mimiq license, reach out.

Can I transfer a Legacy Mimiq license to another computer?

No. Legacy Mimiq licenses were tied to a specific MAC address which cannot be altered. Instead, crossgrade to a new Mimiq license.

Do you still offer Legacy Mimiq licenses?

No, Legacy Mimiq is no longer available for purchase. Mimiq has feature parity, and if you need to use Mimiq with MC 2018 and/or macOS 10.14 Mojave a Mimiq Pro license covers your needs.

Can we use Mimiq to work on the same project from a Mac and a PC?

Yes, you can mix any number of Macs and PCs. Just make sure your license has enough activations available for each computer. Additional activations can be added in the License Manager.

Can I use Mimiq in an air-gapped environment?

Yes. You can either air-gap the Media Composer edit suite after activating Mimiq or use a Local License Server.

Why does Mimiq Pro no longer enable my cloud drive for MC?

You likely have installed a version of LucidLink or Suite Studios that was released after your Mimiq Pro license's eligibility for support and updates expired. You can either extend your Mimiq license, then update your Mimiq to the latest release, or downgrade your cloud drive application.

Which version of Mimiq supports which version of a cloud drive client app is documented in Releases.

If you solely use Mimiq Pro for remote workflows using cloud drives, our yearly licenses are a more economical option than a perpetual license. If you have a perpetual license, reach out to discuss migrating to a yearly license.

How do I deactivate Mimiq to use on another computer?

You can deactivate Mimiq in-app by clicking the helper app, go to the hamburger, then License > Deactivate...

You can also manage your activations and deactivations from anywhere using the License Manager.

Does Media Composer support permission management systems like Active Directory or Open Directory?

In short, no. When you're reading this, chances are you have a SAN and thus use permission management like Active Directory or Open Directory. Those permissions do not carry over to Media Composer.

If you already have assets in permission-managed folders that you need to expose to Media Composer, create a new share on your SAN and run a chmod 777 Terminal command on its contents.

From then on, only create new folders through Media Composer.

Will Mimiq work with Media Composer 2018.x and macOS 10.14 or Windows 7?

Yes, see MC 2018 & Mojave.

Your mileage may vary when using Windows 7. We don't officially support it, but Mimiq might work with your workstation's configuration.

Why can’t there be one version of Mimiq for all versions of Windows, macOS, and Media Composer?

In short:

1. Apple and Avid no longer support all versions in use.

2. These versions are no longer patched or updated, posing a significant security risk.

3. Apple silicon requires macOS 10.15.7 or newer.

4. The new Mimiq uses modern technologies that are too new to work on all previously supported OSs.

Microsoft ended support for Windows 7 in January 2020.

Apple discontinued support for macOS Mojave 10.14 in November 2021.

Avid declared End of Development of Media Composer 2018.12.x on December 31, 2020, and End of Support for it on December 31, 2021.

If you need guidance on upgrading, use Mimiq's Requirements as a starting point, then either consult with an Avid reseller or choose the best qualified combo of operating system and Media Composer for you with Avid's Version Matrix for Media Composer:

Avid Media Composer Documentation and Version Matrixkb.avid.com

Avid’s Chris Bové also maintains a human-readable (but slightly less updated) rendition of that Version Matrix here:

AlwaysEditingAlwaysEditing

From Chris Bové, Online Community Manager and Customer Advocate, Avid Technology

Which on-premise shared storage providers support Mimiq?

Mimiq is compatible with any shared storage that lets you create shared volumes over SMB, NFS, and AFP.

That said, network stack implementations (i.e. SMB, NFS, AFP) vary from vendor to vendor, and there may be differences beyond our control that are incompatible with Mimiq. If you think you’ve found one of these incompatibilities or you’re running in circles, reach out.

How should I configure my SMB, NFS, or AFP share?

Mimiq doesn't have a preference on how to configure your shared storage, but Avid very much does.

If you want to hit the ground running, try setting read and write privileges for any shares used for your Avid Projects and media. Once your shares work as expected, work with IT or experiment with narrowing down permissions for your team or situation.

Also, if you're using SMB shares, look for an OPLOCKS (Opportunistic Locks) setting in your shared storage admin's UI, then disable it. That disables caching on the client workstations, forcing all workstations to always look at the current state of affairs on your shared storage instead of having the OS rely on a locally cached state to make decisions on file operations.

Beyond that, as Hedge isn’t a system integrator or IT support company, we can’t say how best to configure these shares on your particular storage - use an Avid system integrator for that.

If you don’t have access to IT or need assistance beyond Mimiq support, Professional Services are available for an additional fee.

Should I mount shared volumes through UNC paths in Windows?

No. Avid introduced mounting any shared volume via UNC in Media Composer 2022.12. Our testing reveals their implementation is unpredictable, with erratic OS-level permissions errors. Hence, shared volumes mounted solely through UNC paths are currently not supported by Mimiq.

Setting the Mount point of your LucidLink Filespace to a Valid absolute path and separated semicolon drive letter is not supported.

Should I use the AllDrives command in Media Composer's Console?

No, AllDrives is not required for Bin Locking and shared media to work with Mimiq.

How can I test throughput performance for my network share?

First, check with your shared storage vendor for any docs, bundled utilities, or commands that could assist you.

Second, use a benchmarking utility to perform a throughput test. Benchmarking utilities should only be used as a rough guide. For further assistance, it may be necessary to contact an experienced storage specialist.

Where should I store my media?

You can store your media on any volume accessible to your computer. Just make sure you use the appropriate Avid media management folder structure on the desired storage:

• Shared Storage

  • /(Volume)/Avid MediaFiles/MXF/(Someones Computer).(N)

  • /(Volume)/OMFI MediaFiles/(Someones Computer)

• Local Storage

  • /(Volume)/Avid MediaFiles/MXF/(N)

  • /(Volume)/OMFI MediaFiles/ - no subfolders

Do not mix Shared and Local storage media management folder structures on the same volume.

Should I rename the folders in ../Avid MediaFiles/MXF | UME/ or ../OMFI MediaFiles?

That depends.

Media Composer expects subfolders in ../Avid MediaFiles/MXF | UME/ or ../OMFI MediaFiles on shared storage to be named this way:

• ../Avid MediaFiles/MXF/(Someones Computer).(N)

• ../Avid MediaFiles/UME/(Someones Computer).(N)

• ../OMFI MediaFiles/(Someones Computer)

When ingesting media, Media Composer generates Media Stream Manager files (MSMs) in these subfolders, then reads those MSMs to connect Clips to their media.

A common practice is to ingest dailies, then rename those subfolders for tracking purposes (e.g. by date or reel). When someone renames this folder, it is now locked off. Media Composer will neither add more media to that folder nor update the MSMs.

If this is part of your workflow and you can stay on top of renaming those folders according to your custom workflow, feel free to rename those folders on your storage.

However, if you don't ‌quickly rename those folders, you introduce unpredictability for the rest of the team. Team Members won't be able to view media in Media Composer until someone renames these subfolders according to your team's custom workflow.

Instead, we recommend letting Media Composer put the media wherever it wants within ../Avid MediaFiles/MXF | UME/ or ../OMFI MediaFiles/, then use Media Composer to organize your Clips into Bins. If you need to copy or move any media, use the free Media Database Viewer (MDVx) helper app to sift media based on Project (or based on a Bin) as needed.

Can both Mimiq and the Avid NEXIS Client be installed on my computer?

Yes. Since Mimiq 24.2, the NEXIS client and Mimiq Pro can coexist. In context, the NEXIS client is used to mount NEXIS type shares, while Mimiq is used to handle Bin Locking on third party storage.