Moving media files using Vegas Explorer

douglas_clark wrote on 11/21/2008, 2:12 PM
In the thread How to move files already used in a project? in March, ForumAdmin pointed out that Vegas Explorer could be used to move the location of files already in a project. ForumAdmin said:

Use the Vegas explorer to drag the media files to a new folder. This should also move the companion files (.sfk, .sfl, etc.) along with the media files. It will also update their location in your current project.

I would like to do this, but it doesn't seem to work on an open project in V8c. When I shift-drag (move) project media files to a new folder in Vegas Explorer in an open project, I get an error "Error Moving File or Folder" stating "Cannot move
Only Vegas is open. Sure I can move the files if I close the project, but then the project wouldn't get updated with the new file location. What am I doing wrong here?

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Comments

Grazie wrote on 11/21/2008, 11:32 PM
Douglas, I am having to agree with you.

I read and re-read the advise and I cannot make this happen.

But to FORCE part of the procedure I went Ctrl+Drag. This created a "copy" of the files in a newly named folder. OK. I now purposefully deleted the original files and got the expected "offline" warnings.

It would appear the relationships aren't being re-created in the "new folder".

I must be doing something wrong and the "guys" in the other thread are doing a procedure that I am not!

But no, I can't make this valuable option work either.

Cheers,

Grazie

douglas_clark wrote on 11/22/2008, 2:37 AM
Ya Grazie, I too found that copy worked, but it doesn't help in terms of moving the media. I hope somebody has the answer to this. It would be very handy. (and it would be extremely handy if files in Media Manager could be moved this way! ;-)
Douglas

Home-built ASUS PRIME Z270-A, i7-7700K, 32GB; Win 10 Pro x64 (21H2);
- Intel HD Graphics 630 (built-in); no video card; ViewSonic VP3268-4K display via HDMI
- C: Samsung SSD 970 EVO 1TB; + several HDDs
- Røde AI-1 via Røde AI-1 ASIO driver;

richard-amirault wrote on 11/22/2008, 8:39 AM
Well, have you guys tried moving files that are *not* part of the current (open) project? To me, that would be the next obvious thing I would try.
Grazie wrote on 11/22/2008, 8:55 AM
Well, have you guys tried moving files that are *not* part of the current (open) project? Whyb should I, when, FA says that- "It will also update their location in your current project." - And that, brighterside, is the whole point of this exercise, is it not?

Grazie

Steve Mann wrote on 11/23/2008, 9:13 PM
Try removing media not used in the project (lightning bolt icon in the media manager)
Grazie wrote on 11/23/2008, 11:50 PM
Try removing media not used in the project (lightning bolt icon in the media manager)

Steve? Where's lightning bolt icon in MM? Got it in Project Media.

Anyway, tried lightning bolt icon in Project Media, still not good.

Grazie
farss wrote on 11/24/2008, 2:17 AM
Checked V5.0, V6.0, V7.0 and V8.0b Doesn't work in any of them either.
I can't recall there ever being a way to move any file in use in a project inside of Vegas. Outside of Vegas with it running unless you set that Release Media Files When Vegas Looses Focus flag you can't move them either.

As pointed out within Vegas you have to remove all usage of the file from the T/L and then flush the Project Media and then you can move the file using Explorer.

What I found ever so frustrating is moving a file outside of Vegas will ALWAYS cause the loss of the linkage between the media file and it's associated files. This is a HUGE time waster especially with HDV and XDCAM files which take Vegas ages to build the peak files for.

Clearly the full path to the sfk and sfl files are in the project file and Vegas will not look for them anywhere else including the same folder as the media files. This is plain dumb behaviour. It'd make sense if you could tell Vegas to put them anywhere other than the same folder as the media files. What we're left with is a loose / loose situation and one that's been the source of constant complaints for as long as I've been using Vegas.

Bob.
TeetimeNC wrote on 11/24/2008, 4:35 AM
Bob, I was having related thoughts the other day and sent in a feature request to SCS. I think it would be very useful if the project and its media were managed from within Media Manager, and it gave you the option of moving media or an entire project to a new location, including offline. This would simplify the archive and retrieve from archive operations. As long as everything was moved from within MM, it also wouldn't be difficult for it to maintain the links to sfk and sfl files.

>What I found ever so frustrating is moving a file outside of Vegas will ALWAYS cause the loss of the linkage between the media file and it's associated files. This is a HUGE time waster especially with HDV and XDCAM files which take Vegas ages to build the peak files for.
farss wrote on 11/24/2008, 4:59 AM
You shouldn't need to maintain any link to the files.
Given the current restriction that they must be in the same folder as the media it'd only take a change to a few lines of code in Vegas to solve the problem. All it has to do is look for the sfk and sfl files in the same folder as the media.
If the media gets moved outside Vegas and Vegas can't find it once you resolve the path and name of the offline media Vegas could then do a very simple look for the same filename with extensions .sfk and .sfl

Requiring users to use MM for this task is huge overkill and I'd suggest the majority of users don't even install MM which is quite a shame, it could have been a killer feature.

What also bugs me is why those sfk and sfl files are considered so precious. If by chance Vegas somehow opened the wrong ones due to user meddling so what. We've already got a facility to rebuild the waveform files. A feature that I've never needed to use but I wouldn't mind using it if I did stuff up. What I do mind is Vegas deciding I can't be trusted to move a couple of files using Windows Explorer.

Bob.

TeetimeNC wrote on 11/24/2008, 6:41 AM
Bob, I didn't mean to imply that users should use MM to track .sfk and .sfl., which would certainly be overkill. What I did mean, is that MM is technically capable of maintaining any type of linkage, and as implied by its name, is the most logical tool for moving project media and maintaining linkage back to the consuming project(s). If it were a more integral part of the workflow "from cradle to grave" it would be a very useful tool. If it were a very useful tool it would be used by most or all Vegas users.

Currently, "media management" is spread across MM, Vegas Explorer, and Project Media in a way that suggests each was a bolt-on without much thought about integrated workflow.

Here's my blue-sky dream list of how I would like to use MM in Vegas. At least some of these are features provided by other Digital Asset Management products (e.g., Adobe's Lightroom).

1. MM should abstract away from Vegas the concept of OS folders sorta like bins optionally do in Project Media. MM should be the only place in Vegas that knows the real OS location of the media. If MM is used to move the media to a different OS folder this should have no impact on the Vegas project which would look only in the bin location maintained by the user in MM. This would also allow the introduction of a "library bin" which would contain reusable clips, subclips, and projects and would always be maintained online. This would enable (2) below.
2. Archive (move) completed projects offline. Shared project components from the library bin would be retained online.
3. Versioning of library (reusable) components.
4. Apply tags to my projects and use MM to find and open existing projects (both online and offline).
5. Show me a list of all projects (online and offline) that use a specified (nested) project , clip, subclip, or tag.
6. View the hierachy of nested projects.
7. Right click to open clips directly from the MM into the trimmer.

Jerry

[edit - corrected typo]

>Requiring users to use MM for this task is huge overkill and I'd suggest the majority of users don't even install MM which is quite a shame, it could have been a killer feature.
farss wrote on 11/24/2008, 1:43 PM
"Here's my blue-sky dream list of how I would like to use MM in Vegas."

We share the same dream.

Bob.
douglas_clark wrote on 11/24/2008, 3:29 PM
I'm still very interested in getting ForumAdmin's technique to move project media files to actually work. Was that original post about Vegas Explorer an April Fool's joke?

Home-built ASUS PRIME Z270-A, i7-7700K, 32GB; Win 10 Pro x64 (21H2);
- Intel HD Graphics 630 (built-in); no video card; ViewSonic VP3268-4K display via HDMI
- C: Samsung SSD 970 EVO 1TB; + several HDDs
- Røde AI-1 via Røde AI-1 ASIO driver;

douglas_clark wrote on 12/11/2008, 1:32 PM
I put the question to Sony support, and here is their answer:
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Hi Douglas,
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So, some day, it may again be possible to move media files using Vegas Explorer. And while they are at it, it will be nice if the file location in Media Manager also gets updated when a file is moved!!

Anyone care to find out which version was the last to have this move capability? Vegas 4? Vegas 3?

Home-built ASUS PRIME Z270-A, i7-7700K, 32GB; Win 10 Pro x64 (21H2);
- Intel HD Graphics 630 (built-in); no video card; ViewSonic VP3268-4K display via HDMI
- C: Samsung SSD 970 EVO 1TB; + several HDDs
- Røde AI-1 via Røde AI-1 ASIO driver;