Blackmagic Forum

Hi everyone. I'm following this thread since I got my M3 Pro in December. Same probleme here. Same filetypes as mentioned above.

Some thumbnails show "Media Offline" randomly in the project and render causes crashes. The only "solution" is to disable the hardware encoder which is an absolute no-go for me due to reduced performance.

If I can provide anything that makes investigating this problem easier for BM I'll do so!

I'd suggest trying the 19 beta, and if it still crashes on render, post a log to the beta subforum.
Posting a log is explained in the FAQs.

To others with an M3, but no Sony: please contact me if you need a test clip. I have a Sony A7IV, but no M3.

As I am in the middle of a big documentary that will last for the next 2 months (minimum) I can not update Resolve. But I will do so as soon as this project is finished.

Hello to everyone. If you experience this problem - you are not alone

My situation is totally the same - random "media offline" no matter which hard drive and its file system. Errors during export in random moments.
MacBook with m3 pro chip
Using files from Panasonic S1H - 4k 422 10 bit H.264 25fps Vlog

19 beta didn't solve anything. But I can add that FullHD timelines in the new version of DaVinci Resolve during export have less chance to get the "decode error"

I hope this problem will be fixed soon. Switched from Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve became extremely important for me. This small bug sometimes causes too much discomfort. Can't wait when it's fixed.
It is strange that exactly MacBooks with m3 pro chip have this problem

John Waldmann wrote:While you ingest your footage and transcode a new high quality ProRes “original” suitable for finishing. Then swap out the source original for the high quality ProRes in media manager.

Basically that removes all issues related to h.264 or h.265 which are small heavily compressed source media unsuitable for editing. But the cost is drive space. And some prep time. The colour page, and fusion, and delivery will all use your designated high quality source. So unless you do the juggle I suggest it will try to use the h.264, with less than reliable results due to timecode, and decompression issues.

Hello, I am new to video-editing and haven't even started learning DaVinci Resolve yet.

Are you saying that converting H.264 and H.265 files to ProRes will completely fix this problem of "offline media" for M3 Pro and M3 Max users?

I've had this experience recently and almost always with 4K video, at 1080p I don't remember having any problems.
This happens to me in both version 18 and 19 Beta. I'm editing on a Macbook M3 Pro.
This doesn't happen with all the files in the project, it seems to be that they go "offline" randomly. You can actually edit, but some thumbnails appear and others disappear. When exporting, sometimes it's not possible, it says the file is offline when in fact I can read it.

After reading what you've written here before, it really does seem to be due to the incompatibility of Davinci's code with the M3 chip because the solution I've found in this case is to disable Decode H.264/H.265 using hardware acceleration. The problem disappears, but editing becomes much slower. At least it allows exporting without a problem.

hcepeda wrote:I've had this experience recently and almost always with 4K video, at 1080p I don't remember having any problems.
This happens to me in both version 18 and 19 Beta. I'm editing on a Macbook M3 Pro.
This doesn't happen with all the files in the project, it seems to be that they go "offline" randomly. You can actually edit, but some thumbnails appear and others disappear. When exporting, sometimes it's not possible, it says the file is offline when in fact I can read it.

When files goes "offline" does that mean you lose your work?

Or is it just an annoyance?

I thought you could manually bring offline files offline, but maybe when this happens, it destroyes your edits and times since the source files are gone?

Please elaborate!

hcepeda wrote:After reading what you've written here before, it really does seem to be due to the incompatibility of Davinci's code with the M3 chip because the solution I've found in this case is to disable Decode H.264/H.265 using hardware acceleration. The problem disappears, but editing becomes much slower. At least it allows exporting without a problem.

What are the specs of the files you are having issues with?

H.264?

H.265?

H.265 Intra-Frame?

What camera are the files from?

How much RAM do you have?

Are you working off your internal drive, or off of external drives?

Does this happen with ProRes files?

When I say "offline" I mean that the red thumbnails appear in the clip but I can still see the video content.
Sometimes when I export it gives me an error and says that the clip is offline when I can actually read it when I play it. It's very strange. The solution is sometimes just to close and open the program again and it will let me export.

I work mainly with clips recorded from the Sony Alpha 7s3 and IV in h.264. I haven't tried it on Prores but I might.
I work with an NVME on a Thunderbolt 3 but I transferred the file files to the Macbook's internal disk and the same thing happens, I don't think it's the physical support.
My mackbook has 18GB of Ram, I don't think that's the problem either because when I worked on a MacMini with 8Gb it worked fine.

What I've noticed is that when I have less than about 20 files in a folder I don't have any problems, but when I have more everything randomly has problems showing the thumbnails.

I hope I've been clear.

I would like to add to the confusion:
Recently I had a short project with just still images (jpg). I save and save as frequently manually so I had a project that was not corrupted with 'offline media' and went back to that and saved as another version ( from 5 to 7 ). Six was corrupted. I couldn't fix it ... all media that was offline dropped into timeline ( even above the V1 which is where everything was) showed up as offline. Very weird and annoying.
During the time I was working on version 6 ( the corrupted media offline media) I was on zoom with a photo class, and for first time used files from davinci source folder to copy to google drive and the zoom file folder set up by the class instructer. I'm 73 and studied photo stuff and worked in film biz, so this was a fun way to socialize and share critique's of each others works...

But after that version 6 had media offline and I couldn't get it back. I went back to version 5 and saved as version 7 and deleted version 6 ( the corrupt file).

I think that davinci source material pays attention to the source folder as its primary path and when confused with OS related programs ( kernels of other programs) that path can get messed up.

I’ve had a similar problem, some time ago, I think. It’s related to a subset of a sequence of ProRES 422LT files.

The original timeline was part of an FCPX to Resolve Studio “roundtrip” experiment, that did-not work out as expected. Original material was recorded during the Chingay Parade, February 2023, 2024 in Singapore.



Two sets of recordings were including. A first sequence, containing only Apple Camera ProRES 4222HQ takes, and a second set containing only Blackmagic Camera (1.2xxx) ProRES 422BLT takes.

An initial project was created in FCPX (after running into a practical problem in Resolve Studio, that I didn’t have the patience to solve). The test started by exporting the complete timeline into XML.

When importing into a “clean” project in FCPX, no problems arose as expected. This is not significant per se, but at least illustrates, that a valid “roundtrip” was possible.

When importing the XML timeline into Resolve Studio, the first (video) part (ProRES 422HQ takes), were as expected, but the second part (ProRES 422BLT) exposed three problems (video).



All the 422BLT files were legal, placed in the same folder, but three of the files consistently, repeatedly and reproducible over time and reboot imported incorrectly (media offline). Filenames etc. were correct. Inspection of the XML files showed no deviations, naming problems or anything indicating any reason, why this effect turned up. It was constant and a hundred percent reproducible.

Initially I assumed, that the problems originated in Blackmagic Camera App, but I couldn’t trace down an obvious reason, when inspecting the binary “footprint” of the files or the MediaInfo results. Since the files posed no problem (placed in the same folder), when used in FCPX (exported and reimported into another FPXC project) I decided not to pursue the problem further, and complete the project in FCPX

Reporting was not done - and deliberately not - for reasons not needing to be vented here.

Reading your plight with h264 in Resolve Studio, my earlier experience came to mind. Behavior was very similar in real life, although only a small sample of three files showed consistent and reproducible handling problems. Different environments, hardware and use case settings and whatnot may explain the different outcomes.

In some ways, behavior “feels” identical to your descriptions.

The project has since undergone many small and larger editing operations, and the finalized product will not be tested in a repeat XML import. The file structure has been dramatically altered since, optimized for FCPX use, so may prove a waste of time. At my age, to quote a comment in “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”: I don’t even buy green bananas!

Just a heads-up, that things may not be restricted h264, commonality only being hardware supported decoding in Apple Silicon, neither a specific chip version or Resolve Studio as such. It may be caused as a side effect in file handling in Sonoma, that is the only major commonality (besides Resolve Studio) between the two scenarios. There were other significant “oddities” resulting from the XML imports, that did not make sense either, but let’s concentrate on this for now.

I have erroneously posted a set of questions in another thread in this link:

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=201035&p=1048328#p1048233

Maybe answering the questions may lead to something. No guarantee. At all.

Regards

Kurt

Based on the shade of red in your second screenshot, it looks like the XML import resulted in a timeline clip with an absent media pool reference.

This thread is about the media pool clip being present with a recognised path (and metadata etc), but a bad decode for some of them some of the time. A whole other issue.

Back to your issue. I'm not sure what it is due to - the linkage can depend on the paths in the XML, media pool contents and disk contents ... the last of which is unique to your machine, so I'm hesitant to request files or suggest solutions. But do consider:
• using the edit index filter for offline clips - this "offline" refers to the media pool entry absence.
• manually importing missing media into the media pool and using reconform workflows to rectify the reference.

Regards
Shrinivas

Shrinivas Ramani wrote:Kurt

Based on the shade of red in your second screenshot, it looks like the XML import resulted in a timeline clip with an absent media pool reference.

This thread is about the media pool clip being present with a recognised path (and metadata etc), but a bad decode for some of them some of the time. A whole other issue.

Back to your issue. I'm not sure what it is due to - the linkage can depend on the paths in the XML, media pool contents and disk contents ... the last of which is unique to your machine, so I'm hesitant to request files or suggest solutions. But do consider:
• using the edit index filter for offline clips - this "offline" refers to the media pool entry absence.
• manually importing missing media into the media pool and using reconform workflows to rectify the reference.

Regards
Shrinivas

Thank you for the quick response.

I can only say, that all the 422LT files were legal, usable in FCPX without problems, all placed in the same folder (ample gigabytes available for cache etc) and even placed “sequentially” on the timeline, as in the original FCPX project. It was even recorded on the same iPhone within some 60 minutes, on the same BlackMagic Camera App to the same target drive.

The XML file content seemed legal in all respects (and the content was digested completely and correctly in another FCPX “clean” project).

Imported as a standard timeline XML into Resolve Studio.

Names were correct. Also shown as correct names in the Files Inspector section. When “re-imported” manually, the files worked completely as intended (and as shown in FCPX) with same cuts etc.

There were NO obvious, visible or inspected reason to the behavior. Not in the XML file either. It just was… weird!

Initially I suspected a BlackMagic Camera App problem triggering an unintended side effect in Resolve Studio and not in FCPX. Some aspects (project sound track organisation) could be blamed on Resolve Studio (left out here), but did not seem directly connected to the affected video tracks.

I do NOT think (based on other observations too, and discovering this h264 case), that Resolve Studio is responsible (or has sole responsibility) for the (at that time) reproducible errors in the video media handling.

There may be more to the problem, than immediately meets the eye.

Hope this helps fact and actual cause finding.

By the way: The (now FCPX) project (offline right now) is (and was) some 250 GByte in size (excluding cache etc) as far as I remember. I’m not sure, that reducing project size, would lead to identical problems (then). Now it would probably be a waste of time, due to the many modifications incurred since; some maybe not “importable”, since that was never on the table, when finishing the project.

Regards

Shrinivas Ramani wrote:...This thread is about the media pool clip being present with a recognised path (and metadata etc), but a bad decode for some of them some of the time. A whole other issue....

On this topic, we think it is M3-specific. I would test it myself but I only have an M1 Ultra, M1 Max and M2 Pro. It doesn't happen on those. Obvious questions include whether it's specific to certain 10-bit 4:2:2 H.264 variants, or does it happen on some H.265 formats.

I worked with a user having an M3 to obtain the following while decoding 10-bit 4:2:2 H.264 V-Log from a Lumix camera. These are selected messages from the terminal command "log show". The comments in parentheses are mine.

VTDecoderXPCService: (AppleVideoDecoder) AppleAVD: <private>() codecType: AVC, encryptionScheme 6, 3840 x 2160, tryAllFrames = 0, iChatUsage: 0, session: 0x124937c20 built <private> <private>

(Codec is AVC (H.264), don't know what the other items mean)

VTDecoderXPCService: (AppleVideoDecoder) AppleAVD: <private>: Compressed buffers enabled! CompressionType:3. luma depth 10 chroma format 2

(Luma depth means 10-bit luma, chroma format 2 might mean 4:2:2. The other terms are private and implementation specific)

kernel: (AppleAVD) AppleAVD: VADecodeFrame() : received reset Before Decoding - Flush DPB, framenumber 1

("Kernel:" means that AppleAVD is in kernel address space and may have received an error requiring flushing DPB = Decoded Picture Buffer.)

kernel: (AppleAVD) AppleAVD: INFO: logPerfStats(): avdIdx 0, Percentage of time spent at Vmin: 99%, Vnom: 0%, Vmax: 0%, histogram █▁▁
kernel: (AppleAVD) AppleAVD: INFO: logUserClientStats(): avdIdx 0, UserClientCount 2, 0, 0, 0, 1, histogram ▁▁▁▁▁
kernel: (AppleAVD) AppleAVD: isSystemWiredLimitExceeded(): ERROR! vmPageWireCount (0x971d5) > m_physPageCountLimit (0x90000)!
kernel: (AppleAVD) AppleAVD: newUserClient(): failed with error -536870210

(Wired pages are pinned RAM-resident, so there is a limit on these to 0x90000, but during the AppleAVD call it was above that at 0x971d5)

(-536870210 = signed 2's complement 0xE00002BE, likely corresponding to below 0x2be kIOReturnNoResources error)

VTDecoderXPCService: (AppleVideoDecoder) AppleAVD: <private>(): IOServiceOpen failed e00002be

(0x2be = kIOReturnNoResources from IOReturn.h)

VTDecoderXPCService: (AppleVideoDecoder) AppleAVD: AppleAVD_H264VideoDecoder ERROR: createAppleAVDHW_H264DecoderInstance returned error
VTDecoderXPCService: (AppleVideoDecoder) AppleAVD: <private>(): failed with error -12913

(-12913 is defined in VTError.h as kVTVideoDecoderNotAvailableNowErr)

Resolve: (libxpc.dylib) [com.apple.xpc:connection] [0x600024f5ce10] invalidated after the last release of the connection object
Resolve: (libxpc.dylib) [com.apple.xpc:connection] [0x402451100] invalidated after the last release of the connection object
VTDecoderXPCService: (libxpc.dylib) [com.apple.xpc:connection] [0x144621960] invalidated after getting a no-senders notification - client is gone

(VTDecoderXPCService is the out-of-process decoder added starting with Catalina. Message indicates the XPC process tried to communicate with the Resolve client process, but got an "unavailable" status. This is probably resulting from the prior error conditions.)

Joe, thank you very much for such a detailed overview of the log files

For all the users of MacBook M3 Pro with Davinci Resolve Studio installed - version 19 Beta 3 which was released on May 23, 2024 (Version 19.0B Build 33) has not solved the problem yet

Some of additional observations
I wanted to eliminate possible causes that may be not connected with the Davinci Resolve Studio itself:

Assumption that the problem is caused by external hard drives:
I bought 4Tb SSD hard drive yesterday (Samsung T7) which should be fast enough and able to store several of the projects for testing.
I formatted it into native file system (APFS) so I got a totally clean SSD which should perfectly work on my Macbook
Loaded projects for the test on this drive and the issue persists in Davinci Resolve Studio even when working on this drive.

Assumption that the problem is caused by macOS or M3 pro chip:
I decided to test exactly the same projects with identical files in Final Cut Pro X. If I experience the same problems in another video editor then I could say that the issue is way deeper that the stability of DR Studio
When I create a new event in FCPX and import all the files they work great and fast without any issues.
This observation can prove that macOS and M3 pro chip can handle my files without struggle. Moreover, the footage loads very fast in the Finder and I don't experience any difficulties with watching clips in different Players (QuickTime included)

I don't want to switch from DR Studio to FCPX by any means. I like a lot how Davinci Resolve is designed and all the possibilities it presents for creators. I hope that the BlackMagic software engineers can find the reason why DR Studio cannot handle hardware acceleration decoding on M3 Pro chips.

Hello to everyone,
Maybe someone will be interested to test the files I shot for the sake of the test (original Topic is placed in DaVinci Resolve 19 Public Beta folder of the Forum)

The link to the files:
M3ProBug

There are the following files:
3 screenshots: from MediaInfo, the view of Media Offline error, the Decode error during render
the Folder "Project": exported Project from the DR Studio (19.0B Build 33)
the Folder "Footage": 50 files shot on Panasonic S1H h.264 422 10 bit 4k
the Folder "Diagnostics Log": zip archive created after the decode error during the render. The time I created the new project is 2024-06-03 23:00:41,095 (I haven't found the way to clear previous logs so I attach this timestamp for the sake of the fast search)

The project exported is from 19 beta 3 version but you can create your own project and import the files from the Folder "Footage" and see if they work on your system

@Vitalii
Please post this to the beta subforum too, it might get more attention.

Uli Plank wrote:@Vitalii
Please post this to the beta subforum too, it might get more attention.

Uli, thank you for the advice, I already created a topic in 19 beta subfolder as you recommended in another topic

I mentioned about the original post in the reply above with the link attached

Perfect! Unfortunately, not so many users with an M3 took the effort you did with your very logical approach.
It should help the developers to get to the bottom of it.

M3 Max and running into the same issue where files from external SSD are immediately offlined upon import. Works fine when pulling from internal SSD but using external 1TB nvme over thunderbolt 4 doesn't work.

c_r_0_5_5 wrote:M3 Max and running into the same issue where files from external SSD are immediately offlined upon import. Works fine when pulling from internal SSD but using external 1TB nvme over thunderbolt 4 doesn't work.

Hello, if all the media goes offline when working with files from the external SSD I think it is not the same issue (especially if the files from the Internal drive work fine)

Maybe DaVinci just doesn't have access to the folders on external drives (MacOS Settings in Privacy under Files and Folders check that DaVinici Resolve is allowed to get access to external drives)

To my knowledge M3 Max chips don't encounter the decode issue

shestakov.video wrote:

c_r_0_5_5 wrote:M3 Max and running into the same issue where files from external SSD are immediately offlined upon import. Works fine when pulling from internal SSD but using external 1TB nvme over thunderbolt 4 doesn't work.

Hello, if all the media goes offline when working with files from the external SSD I think it is not the same issue (especially if the files from the Internal drive work fine)

Maybe DaVinci just doesn't have access to the folders on external drives (MacOS Settings in Privacy under Files and Folders check that DaVinici Resolve is allowed to get access to external drives)

To my knowledge M3 Max chips don't encounter the decode issue

I check what you recommended and it does have access but I dont' want to derail this thread since maybe M3 isn't the issue. I'll keep trying other things. Thank you!

c_r_0_5_5 wrote:...I check what you recommended and it does have access but I dont' want to derail this thread since maybe M3 isn't the issue. I'll keep trying other things. Thank you!

Unfortunately, the thread title just says "offline media." That is a broad symptom which can have various causes.

This thread is about the decoding errors unique to Mac M3 Pro machines processing certain 10-bit 4:2:2 H.264 formats at 150 Mbps and above. This causes media offline errors as one of the symptoms. However, those decoding errors are not visible, so it's understandable people with other types of media offline errors will post those here.

If possible, this title should be changed to something like: "Media offline caused by M3 Pro."

If you aren't on an M3 Pro, open another thread and state in the title "Media offline errors (not M3 Pro)."

As shestakov.video said, we currently don't think it happens on any M1 or M2-series, nor regular M3 or M3 Max, only the M3 Pro. We will revise that if we get other evidence, but that's our current understanding.

Thanks Joe!
Would an admin reading this change the title and maybe separate out non-qualifying replies into a new topic?

I'm using the free Davinci Resolve 18.6 and facing the same problem: it can't read my footage shot as 4k raw mxf files. I searched the problem and looks the most repeated fix 'disable Decode H.264/H.265 using hardware acceleration' is not available for me (as it's not in the free version) so how can I get resolve to read my files?

The funny thing is that I used resolve some 7 years ago to color grade those same clips and i didn't face this problem. Shall I maybe try using older versions of resolve?

P.S: Files are accessible from premiere no problem. Only in Davinci they are kept offline.

Lina89 wrote:I'm using the free Davinci Resolve 18.6 and facing the same problem: it can't read my footage shot as 4k raw mxf files. I searched the problem and looks the most repeated fix 'disable Decode H.264/H.265 using hardware acceleration' is not available for me (as it's not in the free version) so how can I get resolve to read my files?

The funny thing is that I used resolve some 7 years ago to color grade those same clips and i didn't face this problem. Shall I maybe try using older versions of resolve?

P.S: Files are accessible from premiere no problem. Only in Davinci they are kept offline.

With that little information no one will be able to help.
What EXACTLY are 4k raw mxf files?
I am not aware of any camera (Canon C200 maybe?) recording RAW into the MXF container.
Where do those files come from?

Preferably download the mediainfo app and share its output here.

Lina89 wrote:I'm using the free Davinci Resolve 18.6 and facing the same problem: it can't read my footage shot as 4k raw mxf files. I searched the problem and looks the most repeated fix 'disable Decode H.264/H.265 using hardware acceleration' is not available for me (as it's not in the free version) so how can I get resolve to read my files?...

Lina, could you please verify whether you are on the free or "Studio" version of Resolve?

Is the 4k MXF from a Sony camera? MXF is a professional container format used by Sony, Canon and other companies.

If you could download and use the MediaInfo utility to obtain the metadata from an MXF clip and then post it here, we could better help. https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo/Download

After loading the file in MediaInfo, just do File>Export, give it a name then post that here.

I’m facing a similar issue where I was previously working in Davinci 18.6 on an M1 chip.

Everything was running smoothly, aside from some performance slowdowns.

To address this, I decided to switch to my dedicated desktop, which runs Windows.

I installed DaVinci Resolve version 19 and loaded my video files from my mac to a external drive and on to my desktop.

I have videos shot on my iphone pro 15 and DJI drone video.

However, when I import the files into DaVinci, the DJI footage will show up as "offline" while the iphone videos only have audio.

The video codec for the drone footage is H.265 Main L5.1, and I'm using the free version of DaVinci Resolve.

On the Mac, the files worked flawlessly, but now on Windows, this problem has come up.

I’ve tried all the suggestions I’ve found in this thread, except I’m unable to access the option in preferences to "disable hardware acceleration for decoding".

If anyone has any insights into what’s happening or how to fix this, I’d really appreciate it.

As it stands, the software is unusable for me right now.

The free version doesn’t decode all ‚flavors‘ of the GOP codecs under Windows. On the Mac you have already paid for the license. Under Windows BM would have to do it. Of course, they don’t for millions of users for free. Get Studio or transcode with one of the many free tools for the PC.
If you go for Studio, make sure that your machine has a hardware decoder, like the current Macs, or you may see the clips, but still have bad performance.

Btw, the main issue of this topic has been completely resolved by MacOS 15, sequoia.

I can confirm that for our ‚sandbox‘ with Sequoia.
But the title of this thread doesn't limit it to the Mac.