Files are Offline, but still there. Help!!
 

I've just completed a multicam project in Premiere CS5 and was in the process of exporting it via Dynamic Link to Adobe Encore, as I've done a thousand times. Everything was going smoothly until I saw the timeline in Encore.....the video was a solid color...in other words, the project was gone. I went back to Premiere and sure enough, the time was also solid red...indicating the clips were offline. I went to my source monitor and saw the clips were there, but the logo indicated offline status. The clips are in my media browser...the project just doesn't see them. What might I have done, and is there any way to turn the offline clips back into online clips?? any help would be appreciated

Re: Files are Offline, but still there. Help!!
 

Did you move any clips or change any directories? In the project panel, does the little icon next to the clip indicate that the clip is offline? If so, right click and choose "Link Media" and navigate to the actual clip. It might use this default path for all the clips but more likely you will have to link all the clips individually this way.

Another possibly easier way: select "Import" and re-import all the clips in one batch. The clip references in the timeline might go back to the correct clips. I would frankly try this on a duplicate project so as not to thoroughly screw up your original.

I had this happen to me in Encore once, but in Premiere everything was fine. I just did a new "Send to Encore" and everything worked out. Sounds like your problem is more serious.

Re: Files are Offline, but still there. Help!!
 

Just because your bins list the files does mean they are still linked.

I run into things like this once in a while with a couple of external drives (where I've parked older footage). Every once in a while, Windoes just loses track of the external drives and stops talking to them. Footage on them hows up as off line. Rebooting and making sure the drives are on-line fixes the problem. (Assuming the project has not been saved in the interim with the files being listed as "offline." ) There have been a couple of times where the external RAID was shut down and I forgot to turn it back on and I got a similar loss of on-line status.

Assuming you are on Windows, use a file manager to make sure the drives and files are accessible. If not, reboot and see if you can get them back on line.

I've also had a couple of instances of problems like this when I had not cleaned the CS5 media cache recently. I deleted all the render files, cleaned the media cache, and then re-rendered and everything was okay again.

Worst case scenario is that something has gotten corrupted in your project files and you will have to manually re-link each file to each clip in your bins. (right click on a clip to get a property box, click link media and browse to the file.)