Audio File Disappeared

[Brock Burwell]

Yesterday afternoon I imported some audio from an interview into FCPX. Once it finished uploading, I tested it to make sure it was working fine and it was. I took the SD card out and left work for the day. That evening I formatted the card and did some filming. I came back to work today and that audio file is in red and missing. Am I screwed? Is there anyway to recover that or a quick fix I'm missing? The interview was with a pretty important person in town and won't be able to be replicated. Is this just an expensive lesson learned?

[Nate Haustein]

1: did you drag and drop the audio from the card to the library?

2: is FCPX set up to copy imported files into the library - or just link them?

3: open up the library package itself in the finder and see if you can find the audio files - either in "original media" or as "transcoded" files.

[Pete Cofrancesco]

sounds like you inadvertently linked the audio file to the sd card instead of importing it into the library. You should be able to verify this checking the link path of the file in FCPX. If that's the case the only option left is run file recovery on the card and hope it wasn't over written.

You might want to adopt my practice.

1. Copy files from the sd card using the finder into the folder your library is. Then import into fcpx.

2. Copy those files to another hard drive. I prefer an external drive. These files remain as backup until the project is finished.

Yes it's an extra step but I sleep well at night.

[Jim Feeley]

Good search tips from Nate, and good general backup advice from Pete.

I add to Pete's approach:

3. Backup the audio files to Dropbox or some other cloud/offsite service. Audio files aren't that big, affordable internet connections are fast, and you never know what might happen.

4. Don't reformat cards until the last-possible moment. Easy to say now, but I do cycle through cards because who knows what I, my colleagues, or clients will accidentally do. Cards are cheap...


But for your current situation, maybe see if you can recover the data from your SD card. IIRC, typical "reformatting" just deletes a directory to files and says "it's OK to write new data to these regions." In the distant past I sometimes was able to recover "lost" files with the recovery software (Rescue Pro) that was then available with purchase of SanDisk cards. I don't know what software to recommend today.

I'm not up on the latest, but maybe google around (or follow the advice of someone here) and see what the current best practice and suggested software is for recovering files from SD cards. If you didn't fill the card with your new filming, maybe your file is still accessible.

Good luck Brock!

[Pete Cofrancesco]

Most recovery software are free to download and run a scan to see if they can find the files you want. Then you can purchase the software to recover them.

Jim has good advice about card rotation. It usually takes something like this to realize it isn't worth being penny wise and pound foolish in regards to cards and backups.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Brock Burwell

Is this just an expensive lesson learned?

Not that this is going to be of any help but, yes. No matter what NLE you use, never import data from inside your NLE, always your OS explorer to copy the entire card contents to a harddrive and then make 1 or 2 backups to either another internal- or external drive or even online. Then import all data into your NLE and double check it's all there. While I am doing this process I never do any other work inbetween while the pc is copying but focus on my data and backup first and I also compare the size of the cards vs what I copied.

Once you have done that you can safely format your cards.

[Nate Haustein]

Since I keep all my media organized inside the FCPX libraries, I compulsively mash the "Consolidate Media" button whenever I get a chance.

[William Hohauser]

I keep SD cards for at least a month after the shoot. Transfer the contents immediately but don't reformat for at least a month. I'll use the cards for other jobs and fill them up.

[Jim Feeley]

Brock, were you able to try any of the file-recover software apps?

Any success?

Hope So!

[Tim Lewis]

Hi Brock

I trust you were able to recover the audio. I use this method with FCPX:

1. Copy the contents of the card or cards to an external drive in a folder called RAW Footage. I use a sub-folder with canonical date for each shoot, i.e. YYYYMMDD. Anything else like audio will be copied in here too

2. Copy from this drive to another external drive with the same file structure. It is faster for me to copy from the drive than the SD card again.

3. I then run all my AVCHD through Clipwrap into a new folder on the second drive called Converted Footage, again with a canonical subfolder. I find it faster to convert from one drive to another.

4. Once all the footage is converted I copy the folder back to the first drive in the same folder structure.

At this stage I am ready to start editing. I import the media into FCPX with a link to the files on the first drive for editing and leave the second drive alone.

Until I finish editing the footage, all SD cards used for the shoot sit on the stand of my iMac just under the monitor where I can see them. When I have finished the edit and the client has the final product, I format the SD cards.

It may seem to be overkill but I always feel happier.