See this article. R You Up for It.mp4 was supplied by PD18 and Win 10 at the time: https://www.exefiles.com/en/m4a/r-you-up-for-it-m4a/ . You can download a short .m4a file, rename it and put it in the PD18 Sample Clips folder to fix it. Samples of it I heard on the internet are okay from a Russian pc.

You can also load one of your projects, ignore the error and see if it loads fine. Save the project with a suffix like maybe 1 so you don’t overwrite the original.

Quote I'm trying to open a project using PD18 but the program crashes with an error message while loading media files. I've tried three different projects and each crashes at the same point and displays the same error message. I have attached the error message as well as a DxDiag printout.

The projects were last accessed successfully about 18 months ago. I'm using the same computer with the same operating system and the same copy of PD 18. In short, nothing obvious has changed, as far as I'm aware.

I have NOT tried to reload PD 18. The error message seems to reference a media file that is a sample clip supplied with PD 18. I have no further info.

Any suggestions are much appreciated.

Hi,

You are correct that the file is an .m4a audio clip supplied as a sample clip.
By default, sample clips for PDR18 are found here:
C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDirector18\SampleClips

The ideal solution is to replace the offending file with a functioning copy, as tomasc indicates, and then all projects referencing the file should open correctly.

Try this copy from my system. Download the attachment, navigate to C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDirector18\SampleClips and locate the original, and replace the original with the new downloaded copy.

Hopefully that will solve the issue. Let us know how you get on.

Cheers
PowerDirector Moderator

For customer support related issues, please contact:
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Thanks for the suggestion and the new version of the file.

I found the existing (apparently defective) file in the Sample Clips folder and replaced it with the new file you provided. Unfortunately, nothing changed in the startup of Power Director. While trying to open my project, the program got to the same place in the opening process, stopped and displayed the same error message. I tried with two different projects and got the same results. I then clicked "OK" to remove the error message and the opening process continued a few more seconds before PD disappeared and I got the message "Oops, Power Director has stopped." I should have mentioned in my first post that I got the same "Oops" message in my attempts before replalcing the file.

I also should have mentioned that I'm running Build 18.0.3801 and the Serial Number is VDE210127-01.

If you have the patience to suggest other courses of action, I have the patience to try them.

Being an adventurous guy, I tried a different approach. I simply deleted the offending file (RYouUpForIt.m4a) entirely from the Sample Clips folder and tried opening my project. I got a message saying the clip was missing but I clicked "Ignore" and PD continued the loading process successfully. I verified that my project worked OK once loading was complete.

Once verifying that my project worked, I simply closed it; I did NOT save it, either with the same name or with a new name. Is it possible that if I save the project with a new name then it would be saved without the offending file and I'd be able to open it again without the error message about a missing file?

Quote Being an adventurous guy, I tried a different approach. I simply deleted the offending file (RYouUpForIt.m4a) entirely from the Sample Clips folder and tried opening my project. I got a message saying the clip was missing but I clicked "Ignore" and PD continued the loading process successfully. I verified that my project worked OK once loading was complete.

Once verifying that my project worked, I simply closed it; I did NOT save it, either with the same name or with a new name. Is it possible that if I save the project with a new name then it would be saved without the offending file and I'd be able to open it again without the error message about a missing file?

Hi,

Simply put for this context, .pds files are structured like this - whatever is in the Media Library is saved within the .pds file. By that, I mean that the full file location address is hard coded into the .pds file, not the actual files themselves.
For example:
SRC="D:\Video Archive\Croatia 2017\Croatia 2017 01_08 0002.MP4" NAME="Croatia 2017 01_08 0002.MP4"
SRC="C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDirector18\SampleClips\ntsc\Skateboard.mp4" NAME="Skateboard.mp4"
SRC="C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDirector18\SampleClips\R You Up for It.m4a"

so, even if an asset is not used in the project (yet??) but is present in the Media Library, it will be identified in the .pds file.
Hence, if Preferences>Project>Automatically load sample clips....... is checked, then the sample clips will be in the Media Library and saved as part of the .pds project file, even if they are not used in the project.

Personally, I always start with a clean, empty library for a project, or use the rt click>Remove All Unused Content...... to give me a clean project file, if that is appropriate!

So, in your case, perhaps you can open your project, clean up the Media Library, using the above or manually whichever is appropriate, and then save your project under a new name. Check your "new" project for validity, if it is what you want and works fine, then delete the old project .pds file( or rename it [OriginalName].bak or whatever, and then rename your "new" cleaned up project file back to your original name, if that is important to you?

Sounds complicated but isn't really - as you found, if there is a problem file, corrupted, changed location, changed name etc. etc. and it is not needed in the project then identify it, remove from the Media Library, and re-save.

If the problem file is a critical part of the project, then that's a whole new ballgame!!

Cheers
PowerDirector Moderator

For customer support related issues, please contact:
- Customer service: https://membership.cyberlink.com/support/customer-services.do
- Technical support: https://membership.cyberlink.com/support/service/technical-support.do

Although I don't understand the intricacies of PD, I do understand your explanation and suggestion.

Following your idea, I opened one of my old projects and clicked "Ignore" when the error message popped up telling me the RYouUpForIt.m4a file was not found. PD continued the opening process and my program functioned fine. I then checked the Preferences as you noted but the box "Auto Load Sample Clips" was NOT checked. Hmmm. I then saved the project using a new name and tried to re-open it. PD was able to open the project with no error messages of any kind. I repeated the procedure with another old project (ignored the missing file, determined the "Auto Load Sample Clips" box was NOT checked, and saved the project with a new name) and then I used PD to open the newly saved project. Again, it opened with no error messages.

I can't say I understand what's happening but I seem to have a method to work around the problem. Unless you have other thoughts, I'll consider the case closed and use my work-around as needed.