Relinking media
Also known as: relink, reconnect media
Pointing a project back at footage it has lost track of, which is the standard repair for a timeline full of missing clips.
Updated
What it means
Relinking reconnects references. The edit is intact and the file paths are wrong, so the operation is telling the application where the footage actually is now. Nothing about the sequence itself has to change.
It is the fix for Offline media rather than a separate problem. One is the symptom and the other is the repair, and the two are frequently discussed as though they were one thing.
Applications match by name first. Pointing at a folder lets them find everything with a matching filename, which is why renaming files after import is the thing that breaks it more than moving them does.
How it works in practice
One clip usually relinks the rest. Choosing the right directory for a single file lets the search resolve the others, so the repair is normally a single dialogue and the rest follows.
Proxies need relinking separately. A project that reconnects to Proxy editing files rather than originals looks complete and exports soft, which is the version of this worth checking for.
Consistent folders prevent the whole category. Footage kept where it was imported from, with dates and the original names, relinks in moments or never needs to at all over the life of a project.
What to watch out for
Relinking to the wrong file is possible and quiet. Two takes with similar names can be swapped, and the sequence opens looking fine with one clip replaced. Review is what catches it.
Transcoded copies break matching. A file converted during Transcoding has a different name and frequently a different duration, so it will not relink against the original reference without being chosen by hand.
Archived projects are the hard case. A session restored from a NAS months later may have moved folders more than once, and nobody remembers what the original structure was.
How RawClip handles it
Nothing in the delivered result needs relinking, since the output is a single finished file rather than a project pointing at sources. The original footage stays useful on its own terms, wherever it ends up being stored later on.