Reload Changed Assets?

This is getting very frustrating. Is there any workaround to force refresh media that's been changed outside of DR? As someone commented I tried changing the clip's color and changing the timeline view options but it only works half the time. Between this and the lack of being able to replace media in timeline (keeping all attributes) by drag and drop, DR is really getting on my nerves to work with.

Most softwares - not only NLEs - refresh a changed asset or at least acknowledge the fact that an asset has been changed and give a warning. Doesn't take much computing resources, won't affect the performance in any way... I'm just wondering why is this still an issue in DR

big +1 for this one

Our solution is not to ever change files outside Resolve. I think you'd run into the same thing with Avid or Premiere.

You can always just highlight the fields on the Media Page and manually relink, which only takes a few seconds (especially if they're still located in the same folder).

Managing workflow takes some effort, and I don't expect the software to do all the work for me. I concede that it takes a lot of planning and care to pull it off.

Our solution is not to ever change files outside Resolve.

Is this satire? Definitely got a bit of a laugh out of me.

I think you'd run into the same thing with Avid or Premiere.

Don't know about Avid, but in Premiere this is a non-issue because you can easily reload footage on a whim and expect it to work reliably (if only that were true about everything else in Premiere...)

When generating assets from 3D apps, image sequences change frequently, especially when doing test renders. This applies to working from After Effects and rendering out animations to .MOV.

Managing this is a massive pain in the ass in Resolve, and has never been an issue in any other app.

You can use edit replace (F11) to replace a clip on the timeline while keeping the attributes intact. It's not drag and drop though.

I know what you're talking about. Resolve uses some hidden buffer to store picture and sound. If you overwrite a source file while the project is open it doesn't always update on the timeline. This buffer stores picture on frame basis. You can easily run into a situation where some frames of a clip reflect the old version and some reflect the new version. Mind you, this is not related to the timeline caching at all. It happens even when caching is off.

This is very dangerous and for that reason we don't use versionless upversioning of source files. If you overwrite the files and reload the project (I think) the buffer is invalidated. Definitely, if you restart Resolve the buffer is invalidated.

Our solution is not to ever change files outside Resolve.

Honey, unless Resolve can do "everything" "every" other software does, hate to burst your bubble, but people are going to use other software besides Resolve.

Is this satire? Definitely got a bit of a laugh out of me.

it WAS funny, wasn't it

You can use edit replace (F11) to replace a clip on the timeline while keeping the attributes intact. It's not drag and drop though.

For example in Premiere you can do this by Alt dragging the media into the timeline. in Resolve I have to move the playhead EXACTLY to the first frame of the media in timeline, make sure the correct track is selected, hit F11 and even though the replaced media might keep the attributes, but disregards the clip's timecode. F11 is not the same thing as Alt drag, not even close.

This is very dangerous and for that reason we don't use versionless upversioning of source files. If you overwrite the files and reload the project (I think) the buffer is invalidated. Definitely, if you restart Resolve the buffer is invalidated.

That's just absurd... you won't update the source file because it's versionless?? So if I deleted the source files why would I get a "Media Offline" warning? According to your logic, shouldn't I still be able to carry on based on the previous status? and what if I went ahead and exported that timeline. Do I get the version before I made changes outside of DR? No! add this to the fact that by playing with the timeline view and changing clip colors, sometimes you're able to force the cache to update. So, I come to the conclusion that this is not by design, and clearly there's something wrong with the whole caching structure in Resolve.

For example I'm editing a vector file in Illustrator (sorry Marc Wielage for doing it outside of Resolve!!) and export a png every time I adjust something, you want us to restart Resolve every time I move 1 Pixel in Illustrator? that's just ludicrous

Our solution is not to ever change files outside Resolve.

Is this satire? Definitely got a bit of a laugh out of me.

Not exactly, but it's basically one of those, "doctor, it hurts when I do this!" "Then don't do that" situations. Moving files around outside software is one of those things that will break all kinds of databases. I've had experience with this in Pro Tools and FCP, and it can be a nightmare to solve. If anything it's easier to relink files in Resolve than in a lot of other kinds of software.

One thing people have to bear in mind is that Resolve is mainly a database, so you have to constantly be on guard of confusing or corrupting the database. Things like moving file locations or changing or removing drives can and will result in catastrophe.

For example I'm editing a vector file in Illustrator (sorry Marc Wielage for doing it outside of Resolve!!) and export a png every time I adjust something, you want us to restart Resolve every time I move 1 Pixel in Illustrator? that's just ludicrous

Illustrator is a wonderful program and we recommend it often. My brother is a graphic artist and is a ninja with both Photoshop and Illustrator.

The thing with video workflow is, you have to be very careful when files are updated while an edit session is going on. This principle goes back 100 years to film, and also to videotape and everything else in the last 20 years. Juggling the workflow takes constance vigilance, and keeping track of updated files is of prime importance. @Igor Ridanovic above is absolutely right: version numbers (and even dates) are mandatory for graphic files, title files, and VFX files in progress, because it's the only way you can keep everything straight with a complex session. We have an internal system worked out for "Shot_No_version_timecode_date" that generally works pretty well, but every post house has different workflow procedures in place. As long as everybody agrees on file naming and how files are updated and replaced, it can work just fine. But you do have to manually "point" the session to the new file, and make sure everything works correctly. We generally keep the original shot and the latest VFX on separate video tracks to eye-match them and make sure it's all perfect.

Of course, with very complex, VFX-oriented shows, you need an actual VFX editor to keep track of all of this and send out daily (even hourly) memos making sure the entire team is on the same page in terms of the right shots. If it's just one guy sitting in a chair, working on YouTube videos, you need not go with a system that complex, but you have to come up with some method just out of logic and efficiency. It gets even more challenging if you come back to the project a week or a month or six months later and need to change it.

You can always just highlight the fields on the Media Page and manually relink, which only takes a few seconds (especially if they're still located in the same folder).

This is what I've always done and it seems to work just fine.

Moving files around outside software is one of those things that will break all kinds of databases.

I'll leave this video here. It is an unedited screen recording, in real time:

Not exactly, but it's basically one of those, "doctor, it hurts when I do this!" "Then don't do that" situations.

And if you see the video, you'll see that there are better doctors out there. We just want Resolve to update their healthcare system to a more sophisticated one.

One thing people have to bear in mind is that Resolve is mainly a database, so you have to constantly be on guard of confusing or corrupting the database. Things like moving file locations or changing or removing drives can and will result in catastrophe.

I've seen the "Resolve is a database" used very often on these forums, and I don't believe it to be an excuse for poor functionality. In fact, it being a database should have ensured from the get-go that we have a decent footage usage system, but we don't, but that's another topic.

Fact is, in other apps refreshing footage is a non-issue, and has been that way for many, many years now. In fact, it's been around for so long and works so well, that we're gobsmacked that this is even an issue today.

The end user doesn't care about the foundational underpinnings of Resolve's software architecture. Resolve is competing in the same space as these other apps, and Blackmagic should just get it done. It's a common request, dating back several years now and how we expect modern software to behave.

You can always just highlight the fields on the Media Page and manually relink, which only takes a few seconds (especially if they're still located in the same folder).

Just like eikonoklastes, I'm going to do a screen recording to demonstrate that neither relinking nor replacing the clip (manually) doesn't refresh the media either.

I'm just away from my workstation for now

Just a quick update that this still doesn't work and "defending" resolve for this behaviour is ridiculous imo.

I have a graphic in the timeline and need to do a change. Save-overwrite it from photoshop and resolve doesn't update... annoying but fine.

Relinking doesn't update the file either... hmmm strange.

Removing it from the media pool and importing the new file, still the same old file that doesn't even exist on the drive anymore... wtf??!!

Restarting does work but common BM.

If someone doesn't know this issue and the changes in the graphics are subtle this could lead to uncomfortable situations with clients.

Just a quick update that this still doesn't work and "defending" resolve for this behaviour is ridiculous imo.

I have a graphic in the timeline and need to do a change. Save-overwrite it from photoshop and resolve doesn't update... annoying but fine.

Relinking doesn't update the file either... hmmm strange.

Try saving the new graphic with a different name (i.e., "Graphic_V2.png") and then in media manager relink the clip to the new file. Resolve won't have the new file buffered anywhere so you should see the updates to it.

Re-link works only with the same file name. You could use "replace" but then it would have the same old name from the file before in the media pool which has the potential for a lot of confusion.

edit: what DOES work is to import the new file with different name, select in in the media pool and then right-click "conform with media pool clip" on the file that is to be replaced. Ok i can work with that
As with other things in resolve it's just needlessly complicated, still love it though...

+1!

This is extremely important for me. I will often create graphic elements in After Effects that need updating sometimes dozens of times.

My current workaround is to delete the file from the Media Pool before overwriting the original file, and then reimporting it. This means the clip remains unchanged in the timeline, but it's an absolute headache.

Our solution is not to ever change files outside Resolve. I think you'd run into the same thing with Avid or Premiere.

This is not true. Avid, Premiere Pro, and Final Cut Pro all manage to immediately and automatically register that the original file has changed and the change is reflected in the NLE without the user having to lift a finger.

In fact, I'm a little confused about why Resolve has this issue at all, as I haven't asked Resolve to store copies of my imported media files. I'm assuming it's because the file is loaded in RAM.

Similar issues at time with audio for me as well. Sending to RX and making changes to the file is not always reflected on playback. Closing and opening sessions usually fixes.

This is a suggested workflow also.

Similar issues at time with audio for me as well. Sending to RX and making changes to the file is not always reflected on playback. Closing and opening sessions usually fixes. This is a suggested workflow also.

That is also my experience with iZotope RX and a lot of other programs.

I think the above users are actually experiencing issues with cache files, and to me that's all part of workflow. If I replace files, I'll use the Refresh command in Resolve to make sure it understands there's new files out there, or I'll delete the cache and re-cache it if necessary. If it doesn't, I'll restart the program and generally that wakes it up. My guess is that there's a dynamic database link that gets broken because the internal file descriptor (or whatever system Resolve uses) is gone, replaced by a new file with a slightly different descriptor. I have absolutely run into this with lots of other programs, and it boils down to... be careful of changing files in the OS, outside an open program using those files.

By the same token, you have to be very careful with permissions and other issues if you have two programs trying to access the same file at the same time. That can lead to havoc. I had a memorable issue some years ago when I didn't realize that iTunes (now Apple Music) was running in the background during a ProTools session, and I got clobbered pretty hard.

Now, with multi-users running Resolve sessions simultaneously, you can see the complication: what if User A and User B are both using Session Z, only User A replaces file #1, but User B expects the old file #1 to be there? Who gets priority? It's not a simple problem with an easy solution beyond, "be careful when you move around files, change locations, or replace old files with new files." I get that they have to be altered, and there's lots of post situations where projects are very dynamic and constantly changing.

That is also my experience with iZotope RX and a lot of other programs.

I think the above users are actually experiencing issues with cache files, and to me that's all part of workflow. If I replace files, I'll use the Refresh command in Resolve to make sure it understands there's new files out there, or I'll delete the cache and re-cache it if necessary. If it doesn't, I'll restart the program and generally that wakes it up. My guess is that there's a dynamic database link that gets broken because the internal file descriptor (or whatever system Resolve uses) is gone, replaced by a new file with a slightly different descriptor. I have absolutely run into this with lots of other programs, and it boils down to... be careful of changing files in the OS, outside an open program using those files.

By the same token, you have to be very careful with permissions and other issues if you have two programs trying to access the same file at the same time. That can lead to havoc. I had a memorable issue some years ago when I didn't realize that iTunes (now Apple Music) was running in the background during a ProTools session, and I got clobbered pretty hard.

Now, with multi-users running Resolve sessions simultaneously, you can see the complication: what if User A and User B are both using Session Z, only User A replaces file #1, but User B expects the old file #1 to be there? Who gets priority? It's not a simple problem with an easy solution beyond, "be careful when you move around files, change locations, or replace old files with new files." I get that they have to be altered, and there's lots of post situations where projects are very dynamic and constantly changing.

This has been addressed now, yes? Resolve now automatically refreshes changed assets without any user input. This applies to stills, image sequences, and videos. I haven't tested audio, but I'm guessing it should?

Now, with multi-users running Resolve sessions simultaneously, you can see the complication: what if User A and User B are both using Session Z, only User A replaces file #1, but User B expects the old file #1 to be there? Who gets priority? It's not a simple problem with an easy solution beyond, "be careful when you move around files, change locations, or replace old files with new files." I get that they have to be altered, and there's lots of post situations where projects are very dynamic and constantly changing.

I’d expect in this situation if User A edits a file. User b sees the edited file. Same as if User A deleted it, I would expect it to be gone for all users. Resolve does handle this well enough by duplicating the audio sent off for external audio and placing the new file with a new name on a new layer, so the situation you describe shouldn’t exist.

But it seems to be the act of making changes to the new file that SOMETIMES don’t make it back.

I believe what Igor described earlier Is the likely scenerio, though I do not know enough about the backend to know for sure. Perhaps the previous audio is stuck in RAM or similar. Either way it is an annoying and not fool proof process at times.


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This has been addressed now, yes? Resolve now automatically refreshes changed assets without any user input. This applies to stills, image sequences, and videos. I haven't tested audio, but I'm guessing it should?

I don't think so... What I experienced yet yesterday is what Igor wrote about above :

You can easily run into a situation where some frames of a clip reflect the old version and some reflect the new version.

Ok, it was a transition which didn't take into account the change of clip underneath, but it's quite the same...

And above all, what I'd like to see is :
- either changes made on the files are immediately refreshed in the pool (as I saw in FCP7 more than 10 years ago)
- or a refresh button comes in the 3 dots place or here around, allowing to manually refresh any file already present in the pool
- or also - and I was really waiting for this - a "refresh" option exists in the right click menu on a single file

Not in front of it now, if I remember well a "refresh" option still exists when seeking files on the HD from the MPool...

I think you'd run into the same thing with Avid or Premiere.

Final Cut 7 automatically relinked perfectly in 2009.

+1 for relinking of externally modified files in 2023

This is still issue in 18.5B build 20

Externally modified files (like images) are not updating automatically.
Even unlinking and then relinking doesn't help.

Updating works perfectly on Adobe Premiere.

This problem has improved somewhat for me subjectively. In any case, I have the feeling that it no longer occurs so often.
My problem since the beta, however, is that Resolve locks the assets used and they can no longer be overwritten by an external application.
Example: In my Resolve timeline I have several VFX shots that come from an external 3D rendering. If I discover a small error, I want to run the export from the other software again and overwrite the asset so that it is automatically updated in Resolve afterwards.
Yes, I know it is better to work with versioning depending on the situation. But if it's just a very small detail, I like to overwrite the assets. Especially if they are render errors. Otherwise you just waste storage and time unnecessarily replacing the shot.

Anyway, now I always have to close Resolve so that the other software can overwrite the asset. Otherwise it is write-protected. I'm a bit unsure right now, but I have the feeling that this always worked without problems in the past. Can anyone confirm this? Of course, it could also be due to my system.

18.5B Build 31, specs in my signature.

This drives me nuts less often but I just missed a step in the rain-dance sequence to get Resolve to recognise an updated audio file and now it is impossible to refresh it (manually relinking does nothing, restarting Resolve does nothing, and Replace Selected Clip destroys my edits). Infuriatingly, if I Reveal in Media Storage the file, the extra content at the end of the audio file show blank does actually play through. In the project, the playhead/clip never extends beyond where the old file ended.

I understand this is the caching mechanism so why is there not a "clear cache" function like After Effects? This is needlessly dumb.

There is a Clear Cache command. It's a family of commands in the Playback menu called Delete Cache.
That said, it may or may not work. There are bugs in caching and they may even be in the Clear command.

Hi, is there any solution for this? My workflow involves frequently modifying edited audio files outside Resolve and I need a way to refresh them, if not automatically, then via a quick keyboard shortcut. As others have pointed out, this is not a problem in Premiere.

Hi, is there any solution for this?

When you create a new version of a file, save it with a new name to the hard drive. Then perform a Replace operation from the bin in Resolve to link the new version.

I found one way to update changes on file, which works for me. Right click the clip in timeline-find in media pool-generate optimized media. It updates immediately.

+1 For sure. Either an auto-update toggle or at least an option to right-click-> Refresh assets would be nice.

+1. I've wasted so many workhours fighting against this weird behavior, not only with video composition stuff but with graphics, sound effects and music as well.