Apple Final Cut Express HD - Manual (Page 935)

Chapter 65 Reconnecting Clips and Offline Media 935
XI
Reconnecting Clips to Media Files
Clips in your project don’t have to be offline for you to use the Reconnect Media
command. You can reconnect media files to clips in your project at any time, since all
you are doing is changing the file path stored in the clip’s Source property. You often
need to reconnect the links between clips and media files after you modify, move, or
delete media files in the Finder and return to Final Cut Express HD.
Differences Between “Missing” and Offline Media Files
Final Cut Express HD considers any clip without a media file to be offline. However,
the status of the clip’s Source property determines whether Final Cut Express HD
continues to search for a clip’s media file each time a project is opened.
If a clip’s Source property contains a file path and the media file cannot be
found, Final Cut Express HD considers this clip’s media file to be missing, and
Final Cut Express HD warns you about the missing media file each time you open
the project.
If a clip’s Source property is empty, the clip is considered offline, but
Final Cut Express HD does not search for the clip’s media file (since there is no path to
search for). In this case, you are not warned about missing media each time you open
the project. For example, if you simply log a clip, it does not yet have a media file
associated with it, and therefore its Source property is empty. In this case,
Final Cut Express HD doesn’t warn you each time you open the project that the clip is
missing its media file.
Final Cut Express HD keeps track of which clips have missing media files until you
explicitly request otherwise. You can change the status of a clip from “missing” to
simply offline by clearing the clip’s Source property. You can do this several ways:
 Select the Forget option in the Offline Files dialog that appears when
Final Cut Express HD detects that some clips’ media files are not in the expected
location.
 Select one or more clips and choose Modify > Make Offline.