The MEDIA OFFLINE problem

Hi. I finished my project yesterday, closed DVR 19.1.4. Opened it today again and saw this:

Screenshot 2025-05-19 154730.png (267.6 KiB) Viewed 785 times

Nearly half of my timeline is missing. And before you suggest I'd moved the files or renamed them (which 1000% had not), here's the Media pool window showing all the files are in their place:

Screenshot 2025-05-19 154953.png (215.59 KiB) Viewed 785 times

(the rest of the folders in that project have all files in their places as well).

Having consulted with my more-experienced-Davinci-colleagues I found out there's a bug in DVR 19 and - which is more important - 20 Beta as well, which makes DVR forget the files location.

Please, Blackmagic, investigate and fix it because this is a serious matter. I may have a 27 minutes project and remake the missing part should I not have a simpler solution, but what if it were a 2-hor long documentary?..

PS: relinking and replacing the clips does not help.
Managed to fix the issue by deleting the files from the media pool and bringing them back from the folder again.

To add more intel: the videos I was working with are VFR. I had 2 copies of this project - one original and the other for experiments to see into this issue. Once I fixed it in the original and reopened the experiment one, the issue came back to the original project as well. Once I reapplied the fix and deleted the experiment-one, the issue was fixed entirely.

Some discussion here on the forum suggests this may be a caching issue.

Some discussion here on the forum suggests this may be a caching issue.

Hi, Stephen. If you are inkling on deleting cache this was the first I did and it didn't help. Also there's a strange coherence between the original project and its copy (I described it above). So it's not only the inner-project side of thing, because I deleted the whole cache from every project I have in DVR now. Do you happen to know if this one is being investigated and is gonna be fixed by the devs?

The only way it's get investigated is by you posting the logs.
Information about the footage (internal/external hdd/ssd etc), and if possible a DRP.

The only way it's get investigated is by you posting the logs.
Information about the footage (internal/external hdd/ssd etc), and if possible a DRP.

Done: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NgIkT0 ... sp=sharing
The media:

Code: Select all

Format                         : MPEG-4
Format profile                 : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID                       : mp42 (isom/mp41/mp42)
File size                      : 335 MiB
Duration                       : 28 min 3 s
Overall bit rate               : 1 670 kb/s
Frame rate                     : 20.000 FPS
Encoded date                   : 2025-04-24 14:48:37 UTC
Tagged date                    : 2025-04-24 14:49:53 UTC

Video
ID                             : 1
Format                         : AVC
Format/Info                    : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                 : High@L3.1
Format settings                : CABAC / 2 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC         : Yes
Format settings, Reference fra : 2 frames
Codec ID                       : avc1
Codec ID/Info                  : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                       : 28 min 3 s
Bit rate                       : 1 601 kb/s
Width                          : 848 pixels
Height                         : 464 pixels
Display aspect ratio           : 1.85:1
Frame rate mode                : Variable
Frame rate                     : 20.000 FPS
Minimum frame rate             : 15.000 FPS
Maximum frame rate             : 30.000 FPS
Color space                    : YUV
Chroma subsampling             : 4:2:0
Bit depth                      : 8 bits
Scan type                      : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)             : 0.203
Stream size                    : 321 MiB (96%)
Title                          : Core Media Video
Encoded date                   : 2025-04-24 14:48:37 UTC
Tagged date                    : 2025-04-24 14:49:53 UTC
Color range                    : Limited
Color primaries                : BT.709
Transfer characteristics       : BT.709
Matrix coefficients            : BT.709
Codec configuration box        : avcC

Audio
ID                             : 2
Format                         : AAC LC
Format/Info                    : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID                       : mp4a-40-2
Duration                       : 28 min 3 s
Source duration                : 28 min 3 s
Bit rate mode                  : Constant
Bit rate                       : 64.0 kb/s
Channel(s)                     : 2 channels
Channel layout                 : L R
Sampling rate                  : 44.1 kHz
Frame rate                     : 43.066 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode               : Lossy
Stream size                    : 13.0 MiB (4%)
Source stream size             : 13.0 MiB (4%)
Title                          : Core Media Audio
Encoded date                   : 2025-04-24 14:48:37 UTC
Tagged date                    : 2025-04-24 14:49:53 UTC


Though after the fix it seems to work, but all the fusion clips I made from the clip that caused this glitch are still offline in the media pool and on the timeline. How do I fix those?

Screenshot 2025-05-19 180938.png (306.48 KiB) Viewed 428 times

UPD: fixed with File > Reconform

Variable framerate MP4 and AAC LC seem to be quite often the issue.

the videos I was working with are VFR.

Fix that.

BMD does not tell us what they consider a bug or for that matter what they consider worth fixing. We get what we get. That's the way they roll.

Variable framerate MP4 and AAC LC seem to be quite often the issue.

Yeah, that can be a potential workflow issue, especially with formats that don't support embedded timecode.

To the OP:
If you're running into Media Offline problems, check these things...

1) are the drives listed correctly in User -> System -> Media Storage?

2) are there any potential filename conflicts with the source media?

3) be aware that almost all H.264 files do not have accurate embedded timecode, so that can be a potential issue (particularly combined with #2)

4) make sure the drive read/write permissions are set correctly

5) on Mac OS, I would strongly urge you to avoid exFAT, which has problems with Sonoma & Sequoia (strictly my opinion). We generally see better performance with HFS+ (for spinning drives) or APFS (SSDs).

6) check the file path on the Media Page for the missing files and see if you can force a relink. Highlight the files, right-click, choose RELINK MEDIA, and then choose the correct source folder.

7) if the files are H.264/H.265 10-bit, be aware that they will only play in Resolve Studio. (There's quite a few codecs that only play in the Studio version.) For a lot of reasons, highly-compressed H.264/H.265 files are not ideal for post. We generally transcode everything to a better format like ProRes 422 or DNxHR SQX, embed better timecode, and give all the files unique names.

8 ) it's possible only your render cache has gone offline. To ward against that, re-render the cache or just delete it all and then go to the deliver page and try again.

The key is to check the MEDIA PAGE. Look at the rows of media and check where the source drive is. Worst case, relink it all. We try to confine all the media for one project to one folder, so worst case, we'd lasso all the media files, right-click and choose RELINK, and choose that one folder. "In theory," it should just work. Sometimes, just closing the session and re-opening it forces Resolve to go out and check the drive and file paths, and then the session is fine again. And as always, make sure you have enough available space on all connected drives.

Finally: on a Mac, check to make sure you have the latest Pro Video Formats update:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/106396

Variable framerate MP4 and AAC LC seem to be quite often the issue.

Yeah, that can be a potential workflow issue, especially with formats that don't support embedded timecode.

To the OP:
If you're running into Media Offline problems, check these things...

1) are the drives listed correctly in User -> System -> Media Storage?

2) are there any potential filename conflicts with the source media?

3) be aware that almost all H.264 files do not have accurate embedded timecode, so that can be a potential issue (particularly combined with #2)

4) make sure the drive read/write permissions are set correctly

5) on Mac OS, I would strongly urge you to avoid exFAT, which has problems with Sonoma & Sequoia (strictly my opinion). We generally see better performance with HFS+ (for spinning drives) or APFS (SSDs).

6) check the file path on the Media Page for the missing files and see if you can force a relink. Highlight the files, right-click, choose RELINK MEDIA, and then choose the correct source folder.

7) if the files are H.264/H.265 10-bit, be aware that they will only play in Resolve Studio. (There's quite a few codecs that only play in the Studio version.) For a lot of reasons, highly-compressed H.264/H.265 files are not ideal for post. We generally transcode everything to a better format like ProRes 422 or DNxHR SQX, embed better timecode, and give all the files unique names.

8 ) it's possible only your render cache has gone offline. To ward against that, re-render the cache or just delete it all and then go to the deliver page and try again.

The key is to check the MEDIA PAGE. Look at the rows of media and check where the source drive is. Worst case, relink it all. We try to confine all the media for one project to one folder, so worst case, we'd lasso all the media files, right-click and choose RELINK, and choose that one folder. "In theory," it should just work. Sometimes, just closing the session and re-opening it forces Resolve to go out and check the drive and file paths, and then the session is fine again. And as always, make sure you have enough available space on all connected drives.

Finally: on a Mac, check to make sure you have the latest Pro Video Formats update:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/106396

Hi, Marc, this all you posted above is basic. I on the contrary have encountered something no other software gave - a media offline with a FVR. It's kinda strange that Davinci reacts to variable framerate like that. It could potentially be a set of factors including those you mentioned, but no I have the 1-8 under control. The only reason I didn't convert the media into CFR is that I have never had issues with it in Premiere Pro or FinalCut Pro. But DVR suddenly gave me this punch. Well, IF that is the real reason. As I mentioned (and added a screenshot of that) the problem happened only on the timeline, and in the Media pool, on the Cut and Media pages everything was alright, with no offline media there. So there was nothing to relink. But I did relink the media too and it gave no result.

PS: another thing that bugs me - why the 18 minutes mark?