I wonder how you notice that the shadow files are not being used?
Thoughts:
If the timeline editing is (still) slow, does it help to downscale the quality of the preview screen and the display options?
When I test the switching off and on of the shawdow file creation, while editing, I see that PD will duly produce shadow files (when done the the marker in the bottom left corner goes from yellow to green.)
In "normal" editing situations it takes a while before (all) shadow files are available, even when the timeline is being filled up by the users editing. So this would be normal behavior and this would be something developers would take into account?
So, if besides the green marker there is no way telling whether shadow files are being used (if that should matter at all), maybe ask the developers / customer support what really is happening behind the scenes.
Saving the project and then reloading it again (after having switched on the shawdow file option and the markers are green, I think taht PD will rescan the media room and likely also look at the availaility of shadow files. Would that help?

I wonder how you notice that the shadow files are not being used?

Because the clips are very slow to play compared to clips that have shadow files being used.

If the timeline editing is (still) slow, does it help to downscale the quality of the preview screen and the display options?

No, I already have that on the lowest quality setting

When I test the switching off and on of the shawdow file creation, while editing, I see that PD will duly produce shadow files (when done the the marker in the bottom left corner goes from yellow to green.) In "normal" editing situations it takes a while before (all) shadow files are available, even when the timeline is being filled up by the users editing. So this would be normal behavior and this would be something developers would take into account?

Yes I'm fully aware of this. All shadow files are done generating so having to wait for that to finish isn't the case here.

So, if besides the green marker there is no way telling whether shadow files are being used (if that should matter at all), maybe ask the developers / customer support what really is happening behind the scenes.

Asking customer support has always been a uselless exersize to me with corporate sounding unhelpful replies, a complete waste fo time without exception in my experience. These forums in contrast have always been helpful.

Saving the project and then reloading it again (after having switched on the shawdow file option and the markers are green, I think taht PD will rescan the media room and likely also look at the availaility of shadow files. Would that help?

Yes I've tried that. This isn't just a thing that happened and 5 minutes later I posted on the forum. It's been days before I asked for help here.

Quote Hi, my timeline is full of clips that I edited while I didn't have shadow file generation activated...

But things started to slow down so I decided to generate shadow files.

The problem is, the shadow files I generated don't work on the clips that are already on my timeline. It only works on new clips I add to my timeline, even though the source footage of what's already on my timeline is the same as those clips.

Is PowerDirector supposed to work this way? It seems odd to me.

In any case, is there a way I can retroactively link those timeline clips with the corresponding shadow files?

Hi,

You should be able to check if all the shadows have been generated by looking in your current corresponding project ShadowEdit Files folder - it is a hidden folder by default so you should enable the Show Hidden Items for that folder.

If they have been generated and the green film icon is present for all your media library clips then PDR is working correctly so far.

I am not sure if there is a definitive method of ensuring that PDR is actually using the correct shadow files - there have been many instances of odd timeline behavior using shadows over the years, but often linked to editing before full generation has occurred.
In the absence of a surefire way to test - unless CS could suggest something - then I'm not sure how to troubleshoot further.

Have you tried locating your shadow edit files in File Explorer and then deleting them and allowing PDR to generate all of them from scratch again? I realise that may take some time, but it may be worth exploring?

Cheers
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there have been many instances of odd timeline behavior using shadows over the years, but often linked to editing before full generation has occurred.

Yes this is my case here. I edited these clips before I generated the shadow files. Now after I've generated them PD doesn't use the corresponding shadow files for my existing edits. It only does for new edits dropped on the timeline.

Have you tried locating your shadow edit files in File Explorer and then deleting them and allowing PDR to generate all of them from scratch again? I realise that may take some time, but it may be worth exploring?

I know the location but didn't try deleting and regenerating them as there are a lot, but I may give it a try overnight. Or maybe with a smaller sample size to test if this can fix things. Thanks for the suggestion.

It would be useful in any case if there's a way to manually link shadow files, or a way to force PD to link shadow files to timeline footage by just matching the filename.