# Resolve says "Media Offline" — triage

The most common Resolve panic. Work this list top-to-bottom.

## First — what does the offline screen look like?

| What you see | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Red "Media Offline" still frame | Resolve can't find the source file |
| Black with no error | Codec missing or unsupported wrapper |
| Frozen on first frame | Cache mismatch — clear render cache |
| "Optimized Media Offline" | Just the proxy is gone, source is fine |

## Step 1 — has the drive moved?

The clip remembers its full path. If the drive renamed (Apple loves
appending "2" to remounted volumes), Resolve breaks.

- Disk Utility → check the drive name matches what it had when you
  imported
- Eject and reconnect once if Mac added a "(2)" suffix
- If you can't restore the original name, use **Relink** (see Step 4)

## Step 2 — was the folder moved or renamed?

Even within the same drive, moving a folder breaks links.

- Inside Resolve, right-click the offline clip → **Reveal in Finder**
- If Finder shows the file, the issue is upstream of media (cache /
  decoder)
- If Finder doesn't find it, do **Relink**

## Step 3 — codec / wrapper issue

- Hit the offline clip with QuickTime to confirm playback
- If QuickTime plays it but Resolve doesn't: H.265 from a phone often
  needs to be transcoded to ProRes Proxy first
- ARRI ALEXA Mini / RED — make sure you have the Studio version of
  Resolve; the free version drops camera RAW after import
- For 10-bit H.265 from iPhone: transcode to ProRes via `ffmpeg -i in.mov
  -c:v prores_ks -profile:v 0 -c:a pcm_s16le out.mov`

## Step 4 — relink

When the file exists but Resolve forgot where:

1. Media Pool → right-click offline clip → **Change Source Folder**
2. Point to the folder that contains the file
3. Resolve walks the tree and relinks every clip it finds
4. If you have multiple bins offline, do it from the **bin level**, not
   per-clip

## Step 5 — cache mismatch

If a clip plays for a second then freezes or shows a black frame:

- Playback menu → Render Cache → **None** (temporarily)
- If it now plays clean, you had a corrupted render cache
- Re-enable Render Cache → Smart, then **Delete Render Cache** → All
- Resolve regenerates the cache as it plays

## Step 6 — optimised media regenerate

If only the optimised version is missing (source still plays):

- Playback → Delete Optimized Media
- Then **Generate Optimized Media** on the affected bin

## When nothing works — the nuclear options

1. **Save current project, close, reopen.** 30% of "media offline" issues
   are just a stale media database.
2. **Switch to a fresh project**, import the offline clip directly. If
   that works, your project DB is corrupted. Export your timeline as
   FCPXML / DRT and re-import into a fresh project.
3. **Disk First Aid** on the source drive. A bad sector can leave a
   clip "present but unreadable" — Resolve treats this as offline.

## Prevention going forward

- Never rename a card backup folder once the project is imported
- Use `filmkit new` so every project lives at a stable path
- If you must move footage, use Resolve's **Media Management** (consolidate
  + move) which keeps the database in sync