Relink Prevention

Relink Prevention is a feature for Final Cut Pro users.

Relink Prevention reduces the number of times you need to relink Clips to media in a Final Cut Pro Library. When adding or importing a Library in PostLab, MEDIA LOCATION defines how a Library's Storage Locations will persist when each Team Member opens that Library from their Mac.

Set a Library's MEDIA LOCATION to either Individual or Shared when adding or importing a Library.

Shared

Shared Libraries are FCP's default treatment of media storage: the volume name of your media storage stays the same or rarely changes. Shared requires Team Members to use shared storage – like a NAS or PostLab Drive – or local storage with identical names and thus file paths. FCP will not require relinking if all media is on shared storage. All media outside of the Storage Location requires continuous relinking using Shared.

With Shared Libraries, the Team Member that first opens a Library sets the Library's Storage Locations from their Mac, propagating to each Team Member. When the next Team Member opens that Library, they can get right to work if the volume or folder names are exactly the same. Otherwise, FCP will prompt them to reset the Library's Storage Locations, resulting in relinking. When the original Team Member reopens that Library, FCP will prompt them to reset the Library's Storage Locations again, resulting in more relinking.

If all your media is on Drive, use Shared.

Individual

Individual Libraries allow the team to use independent Storage Locations on each Mac, removing the need to use identical volume names or paths. These Storage Locations will persist on that particular Mac each time they open that Library. Since each Team Member sets the Library's Storage Locations once from their individual Mac, it's possible to relink Clips to media only once, then never again, with an Individual Library.

Opening a Library from PostLab

The first time you download and open a Library from a PostLab Production, FCP will prompt you to define your Library's Storage Locations. If you see a Storage Location in capital letters, it needs to be set.

More info on setting a Library's Storage Locations is available in our Initial Workflow Checklist for Final Cut Pro.

Once your Library's Storage Locations are set and you upload the Library to PostLab Cloud, PostLab shows you which files are Online or Offline in the Document's Media Status indicator without having to open the Library first.

Questions

Why do I have to relink Clips to media every time I open a Library?

In PostLab, FCP Libraries are Documents added to a Production. When you open a Library in PostLab, that Library's downloaded to a local Production bundle, then PostLab uses that local copy to track and upload changes to PostLab Cloud.

If you ever have to re-download a Library from PostLab Cloud, you'll need to redefine the Library's Storage Locations in FCP, then relink Clips to media.

Some examples of when you'll be required to re-download a Library in your Production include:

  1. Select a Library in your Production, then choose Remove Local Copy from the Document's Options menu.

  2. The locally cached Production becomes corrupt, and Support directs you to rename/remove then re-download it.

With Individual Libraries

Once you download an Individual Library on a particular Mac, that Library only knows what media you've linked on that Mac. As long as you keep your media organized with the same relative folder structure across all your Macs, be it on local or network storage, your Library will retain links to any media previously linked on that Mac. However, if you're frequently importing new media, all Team Members will need to relink to that new media when opening that Library on their Macs.

You can also confirm which media is ONLINE or MISSING for that Library on your Mac by viewing its Media Status.

Why are all the Clips in my Project reporting Missing Plug-in when I haven’t used any plug-ins?

The Missing Plug-In alert has become a bit of a misnomer since FCP 10.4.9.

The real problem is likely:

  1. The Clips within the Library in question are supposed to be linked to Proxy Media and...

  2. The Clips have lost their link to the underlying media.

Ideally, the Team Member experiencing the Missing Plug-in error can relink all media in FCP from their Mac using this method:

  1. With both the Original Media and Proxy Media located on a local drive:

    1. Relink the Original Media to the local files.

    2. Relink the Proxy Media to the local files.

  2. Once that Team Member relinks both the Original Media and Proxy Media locally, upload the Proxy Media to PostLab Drive (if needed).

  3. In FCP, relink Proxy Media to the files on PostLab Drive.

  4. In PostLab, Upload your Library.

If the Team Member doesn’t have access to the Original Media or Proxy Media on a local volume but the media is available on PostLab Drive, they can try relinking all Clips to the media on Drive.

How can I learn which media is ONLINE or MISSING?

Once a Library's downloaded in your Production, PostLab's Media Status indicator will tell you which files are ONLINE or MISSING in that Library.

When I copy Clips, Projects, or Events between Libraries, I have to choose to include Media or ...without media. I can't copy media into my Library in PostLab, but I don't want to relink Clips every time I copy something between Libraries. What should I do?

When copying something from one Library to another, select Include: Media then enable Original media and Proxy media:

Even if you don't want to relink to Original Media, enable Original media. FCP will present this dialog: Original media does not exist for some clips, then click Continue and relink to any Original Media later:

FCP will not copy any media into your Library. Instead, FCP creates symbolic links to your media files in the destination Library.

From support.apple.com

Copy or move items between libraries in Final Cut Pro: https://support.apple.com/guide/final-cut-pro/copy-or-move-items-abetween-libraries-ver397277a3/mac

See Section: Important

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