Editing a project on different computers "Cannot open this media file because it's moved or missing"

dave_van_damn

Newbie Joined: Jan 15, 2019 02:32 Messages: 14 Offline

Solved by

Feb 23, 2020 03:57

Dear all,

I'm currently editing a huge home video project using hundred of clips.

My first edit was done on my work computer. All the videos are saved in specific folders on a USB HDD. The project .PDS is saved to my USB drive.

However, when I plug my USB into my home laptop and try to open the .PDS I get the following message:

"Cyberlink PowerDirector cannot open this media file because it was moved or is missing. Check that it's available and then try again".

Same thing happens if I copy all the videos and project files over to my laptop.

If I browse for the videos it's painful task because they're in multiple different folders, specificed by dates, cities, countries. It takes ages just to locate them all.

Is there a quicker way of locating the videos rather than manually browsing for each one?

I realise the problem is because my work computer sets the USB HDD as D: drive but my laptop sets it to G: - but is there a quicker way to locate the files rather than manually browsing for each one?

On Reaper DAW, for exmaple, you just point the browers to a folder (e.g. C: Music) and it'll search all the folders until it find all the missing music files.

I'm aware that in the past, people would use "Pack Project Materials" as a workaround, but I'm curious if there's a more effeciant way in PD17?

Additionally, if I click "ignore" the missing video files they appear as black bars on the time line. Is it possible to "re locate" those missing files at a later date or does PD just ignore them forever and ever.

Many thanks!

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Feb 23. 2020 03:59

JL_JL

Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline

Feb 23, 2020 07:32

It appears you understand the base crux, for default operation, PD hard codes source location of imported clips in pds file.

As such, your best option if you are using a external USB drive for source material and you want PD to properly load these projects on multiple computers without finding material is to use a fixed drive letter assignment. Even handy on a single computer if you often plug in various different USB devices simultaneously and drive letters reassign.

Assign a drive letter to the USB drive like say "Z:" and then this letter will be used on the other platforms too and your saved project pds files will hard code this Z: location to all source material and load just fine.

With any ASCII type editor you can edit and change the reference for each source file in the pds file from like "D:\Home Video\Bday_8_27_16\Camera1\AVCHD\BDMV\STREAM\00012.MTS" to "Z:\Home Video\Bday_8_27_16\Camera1\AVCHD\BDMV\STREAM\00012.MTS" Just remember to do this on a backup copy of the pds file for safety if you fat thumb a change you don't destroy your pds project.

Jeff

PepsiMan

Senior Contributor Location: Clarksville, TN Joined: Dec 29, 2010 01:20 Messages: 1054 Offline

Feb 23, 2020 15:59

if you have a huge external drive or a thumb drive, then just 'Pack Project Materials...' drop down menu under FILE in workspace.
save to a folder of your choice PD will pack(copy) everything. you don't have to do anything else.

just remember that FAT32 supports single file size upto 4GB. exFat and or NTFS can support files bigger than 4GB.

do a test project...

happy happy joy joy

PepsiMan
'garabeg in garbage out' 'no bridge too far'

Yashica Electro 8 LD-6 Super 8mm
Asrock TaiChi X470, AMD R7 2700X, W7P 64, MSI GTX1060 6GB, Corsair 16GB/RAM
Dell XPS L702X i7-2860QM, W7P / W10P 64, Intel HD3000/nVidia GT 550M 1GB, Micron 16GB/RAM
Samsung Galaxy Note3/NX1