Greetings,

Sorry for dumb novice quesiton. I'm very new to Avid Media Composer First and I can't seem to Link or Import material from my Source Browser, via external hard drive, to clips bin. When I view the video avaiable in Source Browser they all read "Can't be linked" under the Plug-In column. 

What's frustrating is that just two day ago I was able to ingest all the video I needed into the bin. Just in case, I've already uninstalled and installed AMC First and nothing works. I did see in another thread to check under the "info" tab which has all the plug-in's that come with AMC First and I do believe I have all the required ones to edit .mov .mp4 etc.

Any and all suggestions are welcome.

Thanks in advance,

Julian

Can they be imported?  In other words can you select the Import button if you want to import the files?

Note that if you  chose to Link rather than import, the Project Properties dialog box will appear when you " drag the first linked clip to the Timeline"

Marianna

Thanks for responding, Marianna!

It can't be imported either. When I click on Link or Import on the left side of the box, the Link/Import button on the right hi-lites but nothing happens once I push it. 

Thanks again!

I am wondering if you settings got hosed.

To restore settings to their default values:

1. Click the Settings tab in the Project window. The Settings list appears.

2. Click a setting to select it. Ctrl+click (Windows) or Command+click (Mac) each additional setting you want to select.

3. Right-click the selected setting (or one of the multiple selected settings), and select Restore to Default.

   A message box opens.

4. Click Copy & Restore to copy the current settings before restoring the default settings, or click Restore to discard the current settings.

   The system restores the default values for the selected settings. 

   
   

   
   

Did what you asked and nothing. It still appears as "can't be linked" under the Plug-in column inside Source Browser next to all of my external hard drive media.

What kind of files are they? What camera or program created them?

Camoscato,

Thanks for responding. I think I kind of found a solution. Since I couldn't ingest video from my external hard drive because each of them read, "Can't be Linked" under the Plug-IN column in Source Browser, I transfered all the media I needed to my desktop. I have no clue why. but it worked. I was able to ingest the videos I needed to my clips bin from Source Browser where each video no longer had "Can't be Linked" but instead its corresponding file format, although 4 of the 14 videos still had "Can't be Linked" attached. Again, I have no idea why it worked but it obviously has something to do with the external hard drive and how AMC First reads it. Would be great to know why but whatever, I can work with what I have.

Thanks again for answering my plea for help.

Cheers,

Julian

Hi Julian,

I'm glad you got it working.

By any chance, were there any weird characters in the file path when the files were on the external drive. Any "/" or "*" or anything else like that?

Carl

Humongously long file/path names?

Hey Carl,

No. All files ended with either .mov or .mp4. Unfortunately, I'm not too tech saavy but it obviously something that changes once it's transfered from the external hard drive to my MacBook Pro. 

Thanks for following up!

Julian

Luca,

As I told Carl, there are no wierd characters at the end of each file, nor are the files humongously long. I have no idea why it works once I transfer it from my external hard drive to my desktop. I would love to know why it happens so I can fix it and wont have to worry about it in the future. Thanks for reaching out.

Ciao!

Julian

Hi Julian,

clayton8321:

there are no wierd characters at the end of each file, nor are the files humongously long.

Just to make sure we're understanding each other, I was asking about characters in the file path. For example, if the file path was: G:\canon\media/20180118\clip01.mov the forward slash in the middle might be causing a problem.

Luca was asking about the length of the file path or file names themselves. For example, if the file name was Ysdfhgfiuedhireihiriehasdue88fcfhse89x9cht9w8hgnbnw0r8slr8r7kfvhwe48wl.mov that might be causing a problem.

So not just the ends of the file names, and not the lenght of the clips themselves.

Guess I'm not too tech saavy. I did open (command + i) each file and under "Name and Extention" they all had basic names I had renamed followed by either .mov or . mp4. (ie.. Bobby Bones PKG.mov or Pre-USA/ARG.mp4 )  None were long or had special characters. So sorry for my minimal knowledge of this stuff. I just want to do some basic editing as I try to then use it more with a Sony camera I bought. Sorry for being a pain!

THanks!

Julian

In case it helps anyone. I solved one problem which I'm sure a lot of people now are rolling their eyes and going "duh!"  When I transfered a few files to my desktop and was able to ingest them to my bin via Source Browser, there were 4 files I still couldn't ingest as they still said "Can't Link" under the plug-ins columns. Well, the common denominator of all 4 is that they all had "/" in their path file i.e. Johnny/Hates Jazz.mov. Once I deleted the forward slashes they were know available to ingest. It's kind of what Carl had suggested but just having one forward slash was enough to keep me from working with all the files.

Long, boring explanation but whatever. Hope it helps another super novice like me.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Julian

clayton8321:

there were 4 files I still couldn't ingest as they still said "Can't Link" under the plug-ins columns. Well, the common denominator of all 4 is that they all had "/" in their path file i.e. Johnny/Hates Jazz.mov. Once I deleted the forward slashes they were know available to ingest. It's kind of what Carl had suggested...

It's exactly what Carl had suggested. Twice.

camoscato:

were there any weird characters in the file path when the files were on the external drive. Any "/" or "*" or anything else like that?

camoscato:

if the file path was: G:\canon\media/20180118\clip01.mov the forward slash in the middle might be causing a problem.