Production workflow · DaVinci Resolve workflow
DaVinci Resolve: media offline or actually deleted?
Why does DaVinci Resolve report media offline?
Short answer
Rarely a deletion at first: DaVinci Resolve flags Media Offline as soon as a clip's saved file path breaks. Switch the Media Pool to list view, read the File Path column and look for that filename on every drive. If you find it, relink the clips; if the file is gone everywhere, scan the last source read-only.
The situation
DaVinci Resolve shows a preview or edit decision but cannot open the original media.
The Media Pool is an index of file paths plus grades and metadata, so an offline flag reports a failed lookup. Nothing has been judged about the footage itself until the stored path has been tested against the drives that are actually mounted right now.
01 / Diagnose
Work out what actually disappeared
DaVinci Resolve is often set up with several storage locations at once, so material lives on a shared volume, a local scratch and sometimes a cache disk. An unmounted or renamed volume takes out everything on it, a database project opened on another workstation carries paths that are valid only there, and a clip deleted during a cleanup produces the identical offline state.
A changed volume name, missing drive, moved folder and deleted file can trigger similar messages. For DaVinci Resolve, this matters because DaVinci Resolve can keep references or helper media without containing a complete independent original
Check the last known path, trash and backups without writing to the original device.
02 / Protect the source
Preserve the best recovery chance
- 1
Leave the project database alone and avoid deleting clips from the Media Pool while the cause is unclear, since that discards the grades attached to them.
- 2
Read the stored file path of one offline clip and check, drive by drive, whether that volume is mounted under the same name on this workstation.
- 3
Mount the missing volume or search every attached disk and the camera card for the filename; a found file is relinked, not recovered.
- 4
Scan the card or drive that last held the clip read-only when it appears nowhere, export to a free disk and relink the Media Pool afterwards.
Do not start a fresh project and import everything again, and do not run a cache or optimized media purge to clean up first. A new import loses the grades, and a purge deletes the working copies that still let the timeline play.
03 / Choose the method
Match the tool to the source
For stable, readable exFAT, NTFS and FAT16/FAT32 or uncompressed IMG, DD, RAW and BIN images.
Unconfirmed exports are marked .UNVERIFIED.
Grades and timelines survive in the project database, but they cannot substitute for footage that no longer exists anywhere. File Recovery Hero works on macOS and Windows with exFAT, NTFS and FAT16/FAT32 sources and does not read shared Linux storage.
04 / Verify
Check the recovered content, not just its name
The clip is genuinely back when the Media Pool shows no offline marker after reopening the project, the File Path column points at a mounted volume, and scrubbing the full length in the viewer produces frames everywhere instead of a placeholder.
Keep the source until two verified copies exist. One working preview is not enough.
Sources and technical references
FAQ
Questions about this recovery case
Can DaVinci Resolve workflow be recovered in this situation?+
The Media Pool is an index of file paths plus grades and metadata, so an offline flag reports a failed lookup. Nothing has been judged about the footage itself until the stored path has been tested against the drives that are actually mounted right now. The result still depends on what remains readable on the source.
What should I avoid before scanning?+
Do not start a fresh project and import everything again, and do not run a cache or optimized media purge to clean up first.
Does scanning write to my memory card?+
Your memory card is only read. Nothing is saved to it.