Disappearing Render Files

I finish working on a project, render, save and close. When I reopen the project some, not all, of the render files disappear and need to be re-rendered.It doesn't always happen, and I've only noticed it happening after the Mac has been powered off for a while. It's not a big problem but it is inconvenient. Any help is appreciated, as always.
Thanks,
Frank, Cranford, NJ

Others may have a better answer...all I can tell you is I've seen this happen from time to time, no particular reason...same with corrupt files...etc...'it's all just ones and zeros'..poor little buggers must just get tired...
I just re-render and move on.
Kevan
EDIT - follow up to Bogie's query...for me, they've always just disappeared...I've tried reconnecting, searching manually..just gone, oh well. You could tell me to trash preferences, but frankly, I've only done that once in two years, just for kicks....just work it out and move forward.

Similar Messages

Render Files Disappearing

Question, I'm creating a variety of short (1-3 minute) videos in FCP 7, primarily a combination of various Motion .motn files embedded in the sequences. The problem I'm having is the render files are disappearing after only a couple of days. This means I keep having to re-render the .fcp projects whenever I want to work with them. I have a dedicated Scratch disk with over 150GB free.
What is FCP's algorithim for deleting render files? Are there any settings I can configure to have FCP hold onto or not delete any render files for a certain time?
Thanks!
lance

Up to now I have been importing the Motion .motn files directly into FCP. But I'm beginning to think you have the right approach. Export Motion files into ProRes, then import that into FCP.
Another problem I'm running into is if I open .motn file, and don't even edit it but just then close it also, when I open FCP it complains about the .motn file being unlinked.
ProRes and not embedded .motn files may be the way to go ...
lance

What are the "rules" regarding render files?

OK...one PO-ed user here, wondering *** is going on...
I've always said that FCP is about as weak as an early version of Media 100 when it comes to render files. You can search my posts (not that you'd want to...), and find that I've been complaining about every system I regularly work on losing render files like a 6 year old loses mittens.
However, it's hit the fan, thus this post. I work on a half-hour tv show. Let me mention that we shoot and edit in XDCAM EX 1080i60; this is notable as yes, I know, rendering in long-GOP codecs is slow. Oh, I know it...
Anyway, this past Tuesday I dilligently rendered my composite sequence, and the broadcast output sequence, and then exported the broadcast sequence for feed. All was well.
Today, I opened up the project so I could make final archives and web exports of the individual segments...and guess what? Gee, Wally, the entire sequence was, you guessed it, unrendered. Where did those pesky render files go? Well, I figured I'd try something I never try, and that was to reconnect them. Hopeless, right?
As it turns out, yes, hopeless...because when I navigated to the Render Files folder, there was a grand total of 11 render files for this particular project. Now, I don't change my System Settings at all...I like where things go, I have my media volumes set up, everything should be hunky-dory, no?
So to get to the heart of the matter...what process is tossing render files? Why are they disappearing from my hard drive?
I have folders from projects from 2 months ago that have some render files in them, but I don't have the render files my system (supposedly) created on Tuesday!
Anyone got any ideas?

Hey, Shane, as soon as I saw you posted I began to get deja vu all over again, as we had a discussion about losing render files which, yes, caused me to stop nesting...for the most part. So yes, here we again have evidence that the "nesting behavior" coding team took off early the day they were supposed to be bug-fixing...but i digress.
I nest only when necessary...generally, we edit "packages" (your acts) and then I get em, do whatever audio and color correction time allows, and copy and past them into my complete program sequence.
However, when all is well, good, revised and approved, I "edit" that complete 22:10 sequence into my "BS" sequence (you might guess, Broadcast Safe), which has the bars n tone requested by the broadcast mothership, and where I apply a light Broadcast Safe filter and a touch of compression to the audio. So I guess my only question here it...are you suggesting that I just splat-A my edited sequence and apply the filters to the gazillion-odd clips individually?

Losing link to render files

Here's the situation. Final Cut 6.0, running on client's Dual 2.3 OS 10.4.9. Feature film, project was fully rendered the last time I opened it. Now I open it and nothing is rendered, but Final Cut does not prompt me that any render files have gone offline. I check in the Render Files folder and the render files are all still there. I restore the project to the last autosave from last week, when I know it was good. Project reopens, everything now appears rendered in the timeline again. Great, so I Save it (also tried Save As... with same results), close the project, reopen it, timeline appears rendered for a brief moment, then the spinning beachball of death appears for several long seconds, and when it disappears, suddenly everything is unrendered again.
Explanations? Solutions?
Thanks,
-jdammon_71

hello again - just thought i'd throw this into the mix. here's what else i found online...
"Lost renders...fixed ; 6.02 fcp
Lost Render Files for Duplicated Sequences Issue Resolved
In previous versions of Final Cut Pro, rendered items of a duplicated sequence could become unrendered after you reopened a project. In these cases, the render bar indicated that the items were rendered, but the items appeared unrendered during playback in the Canvas. This issue has been resolved in Final Cut Pro 6.0.2." the link is http://www.finalcutpronews.com/2007/11/lost-rendersfix.html if you'd like to check it out...
can't check the version i'm using since it's RENDERING!

Missing Render files, won't play, General Error message

I have Final Cut Pro 5.0.4 on my Mac 1.8 Ghz Power PC G5, using Mac OS 10.4.10.
I just opened a Final Cut Pro project and got a message that several render files were offline. No idea how that happened, and I couldn't find them to reconnect. Now, when I try to play the video, it stops and a "General Error" message comes up.
I tried re-rendering the whole thing,and reconnected all my media files, but it still won't play. Any ideas on how to save my project?

There are just too many possibilities for us to start guessing. Try searching for GENERAL ERROR and MISSING RENDER FILES, both topics get posted often so you'll find several suggestions and possible causes. However, not many people bother to close their threads around here so there's no way to know if any of the information we passed on was of any help.
FCP 4 and 5 had the odd super-power to make files disappear as if they had never existed. General Error often indicates a corrupt project file so try to open one of your AutoSaves.
bogiesan

Render files disapearing

Lately I have been having issues with quicktime exporting. When I need to export I go to "export using quicktime conversion" (in this case) or occasionally I just use "quicktime movie". In the past I was able to export this way and then take the files into media cleaner 6 and batch compress them into windows media. Recently, if I attempt to batch compress, I get a message stating that following:
"The movie file "sequence 1-FIN-00000003" cannot be found. Without this file, the movie cannot play properly."
For the past few weeks, if I export one file and go directly into media cleaner, the one file will process fine it was only when I tried to export multiple files, only the last export would compress properly.
Today, I am trying to export "using quicktime conversion" and I am getting that message on the file BEFORE the export. It refuse to export the movie because it cannot find this file. I don't know why this started happening, I can't figure out any settings I have changed or conflicts that may be arising.
I tried throwing the prefs away and that hasn't helped.
I am working on a G5 with dual 2 gig drives, using FCP4.5.
Any ideas?
Thanks
Maria Fowler
Machine Model:     Power Mac G5
CPU Type:     PowerPC 970 (2.2)
Number Of CPUs:     2
CPU Speed:     2 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU):     512 KB
Memory:     2 GB
Bus Speed:     1 GHz
Boot ROM Version:     5.1.4f0

What is happening is the program is looking for render files that seem to have disappeared/ become unlinked. This can be the result of corrupted FCP preferences or moved scratch locations.
* Download and run FCP Rescue. Just Delete (trash) your preferences for now.
* Verify the location of your scratch disk and if necessary change the it to the apporpriate drive. Once set, don't change the location.
* Delete all your render files using the Render Manager. Don't worry, any that are needed will be regenerated.
Good luck.
x

FCE Losing Render Files After Project is Copied

I've been having a vexing problem that's been costing me a lot of time. FCE keeps losing the render files for my projects, or more accurately, it is overwriting them or otherwise making them disappear. More background:
I have a large master project that is quite lengthy. I am also breaking that project into smaller videos (it's a concert and I want to have individual song videos as well). I render the large file and get it edited the way I like it. I do a "save as" to the project and create a working copy to clip into songs. However, once I start modifying the copy, if I reopen the original, I am told that the render files have gone offline, and even when I do a manual search i can not find them.
Shouldn't a copy of a project get its own set of renders? Or am I doing something wrong?

First, welcome to the Final Cut Express forum!
Questions
What exactly do you mean by +large master project+ and +quite lengthy?+
What do you mean by +manual search?+ In the reconnect dialog? in the Finder? Somewhere else?
What kind of video are you working with - DV, HDV, AVCHD, something else?
Did your source media clips (video) come directly from your camcorder or some other source? If a camcorder, what make & model?
What are your sequence settings?
_Possible explanation_
Render files are associated with a project name, and no two projects use the same render files. What I suspect is going on is that when you do your +Save As+ and give the project a +new name,+ FCE is carrying the render files forward +associated with the name of the new project.+ That would explain why they are no longer available to the first project.
Suggestion
If you are basically using the same source media clips for your complete concert plus individual songs, imho it would be much better to confine your work to _one FCE project._
In that single project, create your _master sequence_ (the whole concert, as you have already done) and then just create a new sequence for each individual song video that you want to create. This is a much more efficient workflow than creating +separate projects+ to accomplish what you appear to be doing.

FCP deleting render files on export

Hi,
the FCP system that I'm working on (Mac Pro 2 x2.8ghx quad core / 10.6.4 / FCS 3) has developed an annoying problem of deleting render files on sequences when I try to export them. Meaning that I have to continually re-render sequences, and I can't export as a reference clip (because the render files appear to disappear as soon as the sequence is sent to export).
Does anybody have any suggestions that they could help me with? I've got a lot of material (10 shows in ProResLT HD), so it takes a long time to render each show, only to have the renders disappear as soon as the file is exported.
I've tried deleting the preference files, and it's not helping.
My seqeunces have been cut in multi cam (sequences set to ProResLT 1920 x 1080 25p), but have all been collapsed before rendering & export.
thanks in advance for your help!
Cheers
Andrew

Hi Tom,
I've returned to this project, and I'm still having similar problems - once I've tried to export a sequence, many (but definitely not all) of the renders are lost on export, or if the export was cancelled.
I've been careful to ensure that every option is enabled for the "Render All", and we've reloaded the FCS 3 software, but we're still editing from the same original projects (one project per artist for a batch of artists that we're making DVDs for).
I'd love to hear any more ideas or suggestions.
Cheers
Andrew

FCP keeps dumping my render files

I can't understand this. I am using FCP 5.1.2 on a PowerMac G5 Dual 2.5
When I render video in my sequence everything is fine. The sequence plays, the red line above the timeline disappears as it should. Then when I quit FCP and then either immediately restart FCP or even some days later start FCP, everything is unrendered, the red lines are back and I get the media offline prompt to reconnect media. When I locate the media, the files are always in the trash. It seems to happen when I shutdown the computer, because when I boot up my trash shows content, and even before I launch FCP I can check the trash and it always contains FCP render files.
Anyone any idea what is going on?
Thanks in advance.

Hello and thank you to all that have replied to my troubles. Very big apologies for the delay in my response. Other work issues forced me to move on from this problem. Needless to say, this one hasn't gone away!
Here is a bit more info:
I have used FCP Rescue. I have deleted my FCP prefs folder. The root to my scratch disk is HD2/Final Cut Pro/Capture Scratch. This drive has between 60 and 100GB free most of the time. This drive is not my startup volume.
Just for reference, I am not sure if the folder heirarchy is correct for FCP. My Final Cut Pro folder on this drive contains the following folders in its' root:
Audio Capture Scratch
Audio Render Files
Autosave Vault
Capture Scratch
Render Files
Thumbnail Cache Files
Waveform Cache Files
Should all these folders be in the root of my Final Cut Pro folder? The reason I ask is that when I look into my Render Files folder the most recent projects I have worked on do not have project folders within this folder. In fact they do not seem to exist anywhere, apart from in the trash!!!
I hope you can pick back up on this issue for me. I am really only just getting to grips with FCP having been an AVID Media Composer person in a previous life. The software seemed fine for me when I didn't need to know what it did behind the scenes. Now I do and as you can tell, I'm struggling.
Thanks again.

Project cannot open: "Searching for Movie Data" in render file

My feature-length project suddenly stopped loading today, pausing at 47% to complain that a bunch of render files are missing, and that "this movie cannot play without the file..." I've seen these error messages when trying to open Quicktimes that refer back to files that no longer exist, but not when trying to open an FCP project file. My autosaves are giving me the same problem. The render it lists is "Rough Cut" something or other, which refers back to sequences I haven't used in weeks.
I've done the usual fixes: restarting, throwing out preferences. I ran FCPRescue. I opened a blank project and did a Render Manager dump. I did a Render Manager dump earlier today (as part of my workflow), but didn't have any problems at the time. I don't know how to get around this, and I don't know why those files are supposedly missing.
There's an earlier post about the same problem, but he didn't find a solution. Thanks for any and all help!
Quad G5 2.5GHz Mac OS X (10.4.4) 2.5GB RAM, 2X250GB SATA internal, dual monitors

It sounds like you used a reference quicktime in your project and the media that the quicktime referenced is deleted or that the system has some how or other lost track of it. This can be a tricky problem to fix. Andy's advice may get you up and running, but you will still be unable to work with the problem quicktime. I always try to export selfcontained qt's because of this potential problem.

Backing up files on external hard drive... do I need to keep render files?

Hi, I back up all of my video work and files onto DVDs and to a Lacie external hard drive. I am filling that up quickly and would like to know if I need to keep copies of the render files, which are quite large. Will it save me that much time later? Or are they simply taking up much needed space?
thanks in advance
Rob Grossman
Monrovia, Liberia

Welcome to the forum!
Render files can always be regenerated if needed. I dump them before backups.
If you keep your original footage on tape, the only stuff you need to back up is the FCP project file, any still images, AE files, etc. This takes VERY little space in the scheme of things.
The final quicktime video file (if that is what was created) can also be sent back to tape.
Good luck.
x

Iphoto fails to render files for export to certain folders after upgrade

I just upgraded to Yosemite and the latest version of iPhoto but I now unfortunately get an error message when I try to export photos. It seems to work if I export to the main Documents folder but fails if I try to export to a sub folder of the main Documents folder (very odd) which is where I want the exports to be saved. The error message says "Unable to render file for export:/Volumes/NO NAME/DCIM/IMG-1058.jpg". I don't know why the path name shown here is a SD Card path which is not connected. Hope someone can help? It worked fine before the upgrade to iPhoto 9.6.1
Thanks
Craig

The iPhoto preference file might be wonky. Try the following:
1 - delete the iPhoto preference file, com.apple.iPhoto.plist, that resides in your
User/Home/Library/ Preferences folder.
2 - delete the contents the following folder: User/Library/Containers/com.apple.iPhoto
3 - reboot, launch iPhoto and try again.
NOTE: For Mavericks and Yosemite, go to your Home folder and use the View ➙ Show View Options menu to bring the this window:
where you can check the Show Library Folder checkbox.

How do I get FInal Cut Pro to save the render files?

Final cut used to work really great, but lately it has stopped saving any render files, so ever time I try to edit something new it starts re-rendering all of my other files and slows it down to the point of crashing a lot. Is ther any way to fix this or get it to NOT render things that I am currently not editing?

Can you see the render files in your project folders? FCP X does not stop rendering by its own choice, check your preferences, as Tom suggested, and restart FCPX to see your settings taking effect.

Best way to adjust audio on Final Cut Pro 5 Quicktime Export?? Render files

What is the best way to adjust audio on Final Cut Pro, Quicktime self-contained export? Please note all render files and orginals master clip are gone. So adjustments will need somehow be made to the exported Quicktime file.
As always thanks in advance for your reading and replying to my post,
Sebastian

Export the aiff file out of QT Pro, and import it into SoundTrack. Sweeten there

My Final Cut Pro render files seem to end up in seemingly random locations.

I find my Final Cut Pro render files seem to end up in seemingly random locations on the HDD. for example, they will appear in a sub-folder of an unrelated project. I would like my render files destination to be in a sub-folder for the project I am working on. How do you tell Final Cut where to put the render files? Can't figure it out.

By default they are put inside your scratch folder, so if you change the scratch disk and forget to change it when you switch to a different project, your render files will be put inside the other project's scratch folder.
You can change this by going to Final Cut Pro > System Settings. If you click the Set button below your current scratch disk (not the one next to it) you can assign a second location just for the video / audio renders if you desire (this must be on a different disk though).

Disappearing Render Files

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