HELP!!! Clip Relinking Issue

Question

Okay - here's something new - and annoying: I am trying to relink a whole bunch of files (due to a NAS crash). The problem is - somewhere down the line, FCP has changed clips with longer names to abbreviated versions of their names. It cuts off the clip name after about 22 characters, and adds a number. For example, if I assign a clip name something like "WSRain_Stormw-Lightning," FCP changes that name somewhere to read "WSRain_Stormw-Lightn #5345." So when I go to relink the media, it looks for the the ABBREVIATED name. The clip, however, retains the ORIGINAL, longer name, so fcp fails to make the connection. There are almost 900 clips & files associated with the project and it's only recognizing about 400 of them. I could turn off the "Matched Name Only" toggle and manually relink each file, but that would take forever!
The only thing I can find in the manual is that "fcp CAN handle long clip names, but other systems can't" (p I-239). It also mentions that MAC OS versions made prior to OSX only allow 31 characters (p I39). But we're running dual 2-gig G5s w/OSX 10.4.
So, how can I remedy the file name conflict in a timely and efficient manner?
Thanks,
Tim Walton
KVIE Public Television

Answer 1

How was the drive that the files were saved onto formatted? That could be the problem. And what is a NAS crash? Keeping the length of file names in control is important for a lot of reasons. FCP will add characters to file names when you create a freeze and then export it. I think there are other examples where this may happen. When you export a file to use in another application and then application appends additional characters a filename you thought was safe suddenlyl isn't. Also, avoid ever using nonstandard characters (like / or *) in anything that may land up as a file name. If you're not paying attention and you've used one of these characters in a sequence name and you export the sequence, you may have serious problems that can be difficult to troubleshoot.