Please help -- Media Offline - No Way Out

Ok so I spent 16 hours total trying to figure this out in the past 2 days. It is really mind boggling. I was even ready to pay for the paid version realizing that has "Media Offline" issues as well. I've tried deleting render cache, changing folder locations, removing parts of clips, and even deleting the .gallery and cacheclip folders.

It took me about 3 days to edit this video and now I can't run it. I know this will be the last of me using this software once I get this movie exported out.

How can I fix this problem? How can I delete the VOL0 folder? There are 0 instructions online to do so.

[Peter Chamberlain]

I are u on Mac OS? Which exact version? Please detail ur hardware and exact resolve version
Where is the media? Can u see it in the media page storage window when selected?

Generally, a media offline error means that your original files have moved or become unavailable since you imported them. It can happen for any number of reasons. If you change the name of a folder anywhere in the hierarchy of folders which contain your media, for example, the media will go offline. Or, if your media lives on an external drive, and you eject the drive, the media will go offline. Or if you're accessing the media over a network, and the network becomes unavailable... you get the idea.

So changing folder names and moving stuff around in your system is generally how you get yourself into trouble. The way you fix it is by reconnecting your media in Resolve. If you're on 17b, there's a red, broken chainlink icon that you click to initiate the process. In versions prior to 17b, you can right-click on the item in the media pool and choosing either "relink selected clips..." or "change source folder..." The difference between the two commands is described on page 322 of the Aug 2020 user manual, but basically the re-link command will do a recursive search for target files, and "change source folder" won't.

The folders you're talking about deleting are for your render cache. Your cache is internally generated and managed by Resolve. You shouldn't mess around with it outside of Resolve, but if you do, Resolve will invalidate the previous cache and generate a new one. I think there were issues with previous versions of Resolve caching out the red "missing media" graphic, but I'm not entirely sure that's what was going on. Networked setups also used to behave differently with respect to render caches. Like Peter said, we'll need to know more details about your setup to be able to help, but we'd be glad to help.

Oh, and there's also a difference between unlinked and missing clips, and they both have different badges. See page 898 of the user manual for that info.

And lastly, I know it can be frustrating and stressful when you see red badges, yellow exclamation points, or whatever. They are a part of every NLE, and every editor panics a little on the inside whenever they pop up. You get used to it. I've worked in FCP7, FCPX, Premiere, and Resolve. It's not a Resolve-specific problem, but a consequence of your NLE being a separate system from your OS; it's just a fact of life.