Media Management - "Failed to copy" what?

I can see the file that is failing to copy in the edit bin and in the folder with all the other media. I've replaced the file and still I get "failed to copy." I've tried 2 projects so far and with both, the music track fails to copy. Thanks for any help.

Are you using the copy with trim option? That might fail if Resolve cannot trim the particular codec. Just grasping at straws...

Ahhhh, I see. Thanks. That makes sense. It would be cool if Resolve offered a prompt for this. I'm no programmer but seems like it'd be pretty simple to accomplish if that's the case.

If you copy in full without trimming, does it work? Can you narrow down the files that fail? I would prefer an error report and the option to copy in full if partial copy cannot be performed.

... an error report and the option to copy in full if partial copy cannot be performed.

Brilliant!

Yeah, we've asked for a more robust Media Management tool for a long time. What I'd like it to do at the end is finish copying and trimming, and then say, "Media Management is incomplete -- the following clips failed to copy," and provide a savable list we could manually track down and fix.

90% of the time, what fails for me are (unimportant) graphics or sound files that I can easily grab manually. But it is a drag when a huge Media Management process fails after 10-12 hours because of 2 relatively-minor files we don't care about.

Another qirk I have found is that any .wav files with a sample rate of 44.1khz will not copy. If you convert them to 48khz and replace them on the timeline they will copy.

Another qirk I have found is that any .wav files with a sample rate of 44.1khz will not copy. If you convert them to 48khz and replace them on the timeline they will copy.

Wow - I've never noticed that. Good catch. Is that also only true with the 'trim' copy option?

Another qirk I have found is that any .wav files with a sample rate of 44.1khz will not copy. If you convert them to 48khz and replace them on the timeline they will copy.

Wow - I've never noticed that. Good catch. Is that also only true with the 'trim' copy option?

It is the same. That is the only backup archive option I use. I have gotten into the habit of converting any 44.1 files before importing. The only error I occasionally get now is one about stills not exporting, which allows you to continue the export and does not affect the archive. Best guess is that it is referring to captured stills within the project during grading on the coclour page, not timeline stills or images, so nothing is lost.

I gave it a try with a 44.1 kHz WAV file (stereo, 16-bit) and an confirm that copy with trim fails outright while copy without trim (I don't mean trim set to zero, I mean the other copy option) works as expected. Not sure why the straight copy option fails for you.

Frankly, I can't understand why the trim option fails for the audio WAV file. Seems like mp4 audio files at 44.1 kHz work (although I've never bothered checking to see if the mp4 audio file is actually trimmed.

Another qirk I have found is that any .wav files with a sample rate of 44.1khz will not copy. If you convert them to 48khz and replace them on the timeline they will copy.

That's a very interesting problem. I will add that to my list of "gotchas" for Media Management.

I gave it a try with a 44.1 kHz WAV file (stereo, 16-bit) and an confirm that copy with trim fails outright while copy without trim (I don't mean trim set to zero, I mean the other copy option) works as expected. Not sure why the straight copy option fails for you.

Frankly, I can't understand why the trim option fails for the audio WAV file. Seems like mp4 audio files at 44.1 kHz work (although I've never bothered checking to see if the mp4 audio file is actually trimmed.

I don't use straight copy. I always trim, so I imagine the behavior is consistent.

Would be great to have an option to exclude pure audio files from trimming, they don't eat much space anyway.

Would be great to have an option to exclude pure audio files from trimming, they don't eat much space anyway.

This. I was thinking the same thing.

this is frustrating, very frustrating that you cannot media manage a timeline if a clip fails and oh boy they fail...

Thanks to this thread, I was able to convert 96 and 44.1 audio files to 48 and the trim option worked.

I, too, would also love an option to only trim the video files, for example. Or, better, make it so the Media Manager can handle other audio bitrates [smile].

~Luke

Another qirk I have found is that any .wav files with a sample rate of 44.1khz will not copy. If you convert them to 48khz and replace them on the timeline they will copy.

I can also confirm I have this same issue and when I switched to recording in 48kHz, the media management trim function worked. I was even having this issue with stock music that had a sample rate of 44.1kHz. Again, as soon as I removed that file from the timeline, media management trimming worked.

I pop this up every so often, but here's some Media Management workarounds that function for the way we use Resolve:

1) limit your session to just the files actually used in the session (that is, make sure no unnecessary files are sitting in bins)

2) Render-in-Place all H.264, JPG, TIFF, and PNG graphics clips to ProRes or DNxHR so that now the clips have embedded timecode and (preferably) unique file names

3) avoid 44.1kHz audio source files (especially MP3) -- convert them in advance to 48kHz / 24-bit WAV files instead

4) for camera clips with embedded audio, my opinion is you're better off if you strip the sound out as a WAV file that lives in the session

5) be aware that Titles can be a bit dodgy and don't always survive the changeover with Media Management. (I would say the same thing with Fusion sequences, which I would render out and treat as a separate transcoded element.)

6) high frame rate (slo-mo) footage can be a problem because the timecode isn't predictable or easily trimmable. Handle those as VFX shots and render them in place first.

7) be wary of PROXY FILES cluttering up your timeline. Make sure that all the files are legitimate camera raw files (assuming that's what you want), because otherwise that's a guaranteed fail.

The simpler you make your session, the better the potential for successful Media Management. The moment you have a filename clash or a timecode conflict, it can fail. I wish Resolve had better error trapping so that when it did encounter an error, it just popped up a message with a list of problems, rather than just bailing on the Media Management process entirely.

If your file copying is failing for another reason, try Nikolai Waldman's Resolve Collect and I bet it'll get you at least 98% there without errors. His program has been a lifesaver for me over the last 6-7 years.

http://www.niwa.nu/resolve-collect/

Another possibility (which I haven't tried) is EditSpy for Windows:

http://edlspy.felixhuesken.de/

Marc's guidelines will get around most if not all Resolve media management issues.
That said, it's pretty clear that this is a bug and should be fixed. No idea when that might happen.

Sadly, they didn't even fix the Alexa S-35 footage bug in 18.6.6.

I hate the fact that even successful trimming of some video formats may reset certain properties of the new clips such as data level and color space / gamma that were overwritten from defaults in the original clips. Maybe I’m just a complainer, lol