I'm trying to simply load some footage onto the timeline in Avid Media Composer 4.0.4 and nothing will load. I have a single drive on a Mac system. I go to "Import" and get the error message "There are no media drives available. You will only be able to import shot logs". Well... I don't have a shot log. I want to import media sitting on my existing drive!

So you look up that error online and it says to make sure certain preferences are unchecked. They ARE. Still won't let me import any footage. Well... almost. I can drag an m2t file to the bin and, instead of doing nothing, it pops up an error message and then crashes.

I cannot get footage of ANY type on the timeline. I even tried JPG images which also won't load. It is certainly NOT the epitome of user friendliness. Why would it CARE where my footage is located? It's my footage - I should be able to place it wherever I want! If I drag a JPG to the bin, I get "Mac Error -5000 (Incorrect access for this file/folder)"

At least in the other apps I've used I can get footage onto the timeline...

Edward, I am VERY new at this, but when I looked up this problem in the MC help file, it says to go to Tools > Media Creation.

When you install MC, it wants to know where it's going to put it's database. I may filter out your system drive by default. If this is the case, when you open Tools > Media creation you can change this behavior. Once that is done, click on the tab that says "Import" and you can change your drives for importing.

Under media creation its not the drives you select. Those are just shortcuts to default of what drive your footage/imports/cgs/renders will go to. You can always change them individually at the time you use them.... ie. When you render IN to OUT, the call box comes up asking what drive to render them to, these are the ones you selected under MEDIA CREATION-- but you can always change them.

Its drive filtering click boxes on the left side thats screwing you. You probably have FILTER NETWORK DRIVES BASED ON RESOLUTION checked. Back in the day, Avid would rate only its drives as fast enough to edit to. Now there's a million choices, Lacie, G-Tech, Medea (now Avid) etc. DESELECT that click box, and I'll be your drive shows up again, as essentially your filtering out a drive that isnt "AVID Authorized" but works just fine.

Under media creation its not the drives you select. Those are just shortcuts to default of what drive your footage/imports/cgs/renders will go to. You can always change them individually at the time you use them.... ie. When you render IN to OUT, the call box comes up asking what drive to render them to, these are the ones you selected under MEDIA CREATION-- but you can always change them.

Its drive filtering click boxes on the left side thats screwing you. You probably have FILTER NETWORK DRIVES BASED ON RESOLUTION checked. Back in the day, Avid would rate only its drives as fast enough to edit to. Now there's a million choices, Lacie, G-Tech, Medea (now Avid) etc. DESELECT that click box, and I'll be your drive shows up again, as essentially your filtering out a drive that isnt "AVID Authorized" but works just fine.

My installation of 4.0.4 didn't have this issue. It recognized my internal drives, and my external USB 2.0 drives just fine. Not saying it didn't do this, but my install a couple weeks ago didn't have this problem. However, MC may well filter out the SYSTEM drive, and if he's only got one drive in the machine, I could see that causing this problem easily.

I have checked those settings and I have no drive filtering turned on. However, the main hard drive is still not available.

At this point I don't understand how anybody can get any editing done in Avid if it won't even let you add a clip to the timeline. If I find a file in the finder, drag it to the bin, in my opinion it ought to be added to the bin - period.

I have checked those settings and I have no drive filtering turned on. However, the main hard drive is still not available.

At this point I don't understand how anybody can get any editing done in Avid if it won't even let you add a clip to the timeline. If I find a file in the finder, drag it to the bin, in my opinion it ought to be added to the bin - period.

Sorry you are having a bad experience Edward. Honestly, it sounds like something went wrong during your installation. Wish I knew more to help you, but I bet if you post on the Avid forums, you'll find someone who can assist you in very short order. Usually takes 15-30 minutes for me to get my questions answered there by a profession user or Avid staff.

I agree with Perrone, Avid's media management is the envy of the industry. I believe too that you have some preference or permission incorrect, or it was a bad install. I've edited on several systems (Mac) and have owned a XPress and 2 MC's and never had a problem similar to yours.

Can you import to your system drive? Both of my MCs are PC, anyone more familiar with Mac functionality?

This link is not addressing your specific problem, but I think it might help. Scroll down the page for Mac specific intstuctions -

Knowledge Base (http://avid.custkb.com/avid/app/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=274783&Hilite=setting+permissions)

Because of testing plugins, 4.0.4 was still in Beta when I downloaded it so I'm going to download a newer version and see if that makes a difference.

Well... installed 4.0.5 - same issue. Avid will NOT import any clips. Hard to do any editing when it won't import clips. Gone through the menu options listed previously and I do NOT have anything filtered out yet is still says that no drives are available.

It still does not make sense to me that a clip ON THAT HARD DRIVE cannot be added to the timeline. It's already there! I just want it on the timeline.

Edward,

I ask again. Have you spoken to anyone at Avid? There is clearly something wrong here as thousands of Avid users are doing every day what you seem not to be able to do here. Call them.

It still does not make sense to me that a clip ON THAT HARD DRIVE cannot be added to the timeline. It's already there! I just want it on the timeline.

When you import files into Avid, the files are copied into Avid's media folders. The new files show up in bins as master clips and Avid never touches the original files again.

If for some reason Avid is not able to create or write to it's media folders, you will not be able to import anything into Avid. Make sure your use account has read/write permissions for the OMFI MediaFiles and Avid MediaFiles that are located in your drive's root folder.

Have you tried importing to an external drive?

At this point, I have not spoken to anyone at Avid. One would think that by simply installing it, it would work. I've checked and the preferences have no restrictions set for my hard drive. There's only one drive in the system and no other drives attached.

Yossi, I definitely have create/write permissions. Avid was able to create a new bin and save that. I just don't understand why it says it can't use my drive to import a clip. I don't see a OMFI MediaFiles or Avid MediaFiles folder anywhere.

Ok, found the answer:


The problem is arises because Snow Leopard no longer allows unqauthorized write-access to the root of your boot volume. If that's the only volume that you have on your system, you will see that error.

I found a simple solution to the problem, although it breaks Snow Leopard's security protocol. I changed the permissions on my boot volume to allow full access to my group - which is Administrator. I did this using the following command in the Terminal:

sudo chmod 775 "/Volumes/Macintosh HD"

You will need to replace "Macintosh HD" with whatever you have named your boot volume. If your boot volume name contains a space, the entire path should be wrapped in quoatation marks.

Search - Avid Video Community (http://community.avid.com/search/SearchResults.aspx?q=There+are+no+media+drives+available)

Nevermind, you found the problem.

It did work for me too. The solution was posted there a week after the initial issue. I had not looked back there again. Was good to see I wasn't the ONLY one with that issue (was beginning to think I was!) and glad to see an easy to apply solution.