Missing Projects within My Main MVP File

kamiet wrote on 12/15/2016, 3:42 PM

Yesterday when I was working in Movie Edit Pro 2016 Premium, I had a master file called "Video Z." Within this file were 4 or 5 projects I have been working on. I keep them all within the main Video Z file because a lot of the screen shots and music are used in several of the videos I am creating.

Today, when I opened it, there was only 1 video (Tab) within the master file and 3 missing (3 tabs that are different videos with different tab names). I cannot find them anywhere. Has this ever happened to anyone? Any suggestions? I was able to recover 1 of the main files as I had exported it at one point, but the others are no where to be found. I have saved all of them as MP3 files in my video file on my harddrive. Will this help in the recovery?

Comments

browj2 wrote on 12/15/2016, 5:03 PM

Hi,

First, you have to understand how MEP works and the jargon.

1 Project = 1 MVP file

1 MVP file can have 1 or more Movies. These are the ones in separate tabs. Each tab is a movie.

A Project contains no files, none, only links to other files. When you import a video clip, photo/image or audio clip, they are not actually imported and become something else. MEP only uses these when the program is open and the project is loaded, but it does not touch the original file which must remain available in the same location as when it was imported for MEP to be able to use it each time that the project is opened.

Everything that you do in MEP is saved by MEP as instructions, nothing else, so long as you Save, not Export. When you open an existing project, MEP looks at the instructions - use file 1 but only from frames 40 to 500, use file 2 next but only frames 20 to 220, put title on track 3, text = "My text", colour = red, font = arial, size = 32.......etc.

So, if you create a movie on a separate tab in MEP and import Video clip X, and then delete the movie, you are not deleting Video clip X, you are only deleting a set of instructions.

In your case, using the correct jargon, your master Video Z is a Project, with a file name of "Video Z.mvp." Once open, this is the Project; you cannot have other projects within this Project, only movies. When you Save, you save as Video Z.mvp. If you Export, you are not saving.

You say that you had 4 or 5 "projects" within Video Z, which, if I understand correctly, would be the movies on separate tabs. Then you say that you only had 3 but only 1 tab was left. So, which is it, 3 movies of which 2 have disappeared, or 4 or 5?

You say that you were able to recover "1 of the main files as I had exported it at one point." When you Export, you are making a new video clip, you are not Saving. This is not the same as Saving the set of instructions of a Project. Your Export has nothing to do with a Project or the Movies contained within it except that you exported a final result. Exporting is the final result of making the project in the first place. It is not the Project, meaning it is not the set of instructions.

You should watch my 2 tutorials, and on my YouTube site to get a better understanding.

I have not had any of the Movies (tabs) go missing when I reopened an ongoing project. The only way that this could happen would be if you did not Save the Project, the mvp file, after creating the movies.

However, so long as you did not shut it off or change the frequency, MEP creates a backup file every 10 minutes with an extension of ".MV_" which should be in the default location of your project files (see under Program settings).

You can open the most recent one of these to see if your work is there. These backups are a safety precaution in case a project file, mvp, becomes corrupt.

Finally, to go to your concern about having lost some files, unless you used Windows Explorer and went and deleted your source files, or deleted them in the Media pool (not the timeline), which you should not do, then they will still be on your computer in the same location as before.

Question: what, why and how are you saving MP3 files? MP3 is an audio format, not video. When you Save your project, you are not saving as MP3, only MVP. To get an MP3, you would have to EXPORT audio only.

johnebaker wrote on 12/15/2016, 5:45 PM

In addition to John CB's comments and excellent tutorials, and once you have understand the jargon, see this tutorial on creating multi movie projects - click the PDF icon and then the V2 version - this is a printable version so you can refer to it as necessary while working on the project without leaving the editing screen.

HTH

John

kamiet wrote on 12/16/2016, 10:35 AM

Hello,

Thank you for your responses. Hopefully my explanation below is clearer.

You are correct. My main project file contained 5 tabs. It was saved under Video Z.mvp. When I closed it out on Tuesday 12/14/16 and saved it, all tabs (movies) were there. When I opened it yesterday afternoon, only 1 tab was there and it was only a small part of that paricular movie. I was able to reload the tab called "Original Agent Video" because I had previously exported it. I had previously "exported" it under File- Manage Movies. This created a separate project, I believe. It is still available to me to "import" under File - Manage Movies back into Video Z.mvp and contiue editing. However, this is was done a couple of weeks ago and doesn't contain the most recent edits I did on 12/14/16.

The other tabs that I had never "exported" under File - Manage Movies, I cannot locate.

I have looked under the "Load Backup Project" and there is nothing saved before 12/15/16 for Video Z.mvp. I have other projects saved in back up as far back as August. But, nothing for this particular project.

I have also exported to MP4 files in order to upload to Vimeo. I said MP3, my apologies, I meant MP4. However, even after I export and create an MP4 file, it has always left the Video Z.mvp file available to continue editing.

I understand and know that my source files are still there as they are on my harddrive. What I am missing is the actual projects, the videos that I have created from those source files that have all the effects, music and voice overs.

Any other input as to what may have happened and if those tabs can be recovered is appreciated.

browj2 wrote on 12/16/2016, 12:01 PM

Hi,

Here is a screen shot of my Folders settings:

Normally, all projects should be saved to this location, but I create subfolders for different themes, so I have to select the correct one. Below is one of the subfolders:

The sort is by date. You can see that my latest project, Vacation 2016 r1.MVP, has only 1 backup file, Vacation 2016 r1_BAK.MV_. That is because I just did a Save As and renamed my project by appending r1 (revision 1). I do this once in a while on larger projects to protect myself against the main file and the backup files becoming corrupt. So the next one will be r2, etc. I have my automatic backup set to 15 minutes as I found that the automatic backup save at 10 minutes was interrupting my workflow. There is a 10 cycle backup, meaning that once 10 automatic backups have been saved, the cycle starts again. In a long session, you can easily have 10 or more backups created, thus there is soon no backup for what you did the day before, thus the second approach is a safety measure. Keep this in mind.

I export a movie which you can see in the red box above as : Vacation 2016 Hautes Gorges.MVD

Note the file extension is MVD. This is the same as a project file, it's just that it only contains a project with one movie. When you do this movie export, the movie tab does not disappear, so I don't know how yours disappeared. And of course, when you export to mp4 or wmv, this has no impact on the project file (MVP) as you noted.

All I can suggest is that you do a search for all MVP and MV_ files on your computer to see if one didn't get hidden away somewhere. Check the recycle bin. If you have automatic backups of your hard disk to another hard disk, you might check there for an older Video Z.MVP or MV_ file.

Otherwise, you will have to re-create you movies in your project.

Good luck!