Avid Behaving Badly #27: 2023.3.1 linked media goes offline if relinked to a different folder from the original

 I know this title is a little clunky, but I'll explain:

UPDATE: Avid 2023.12 mostly fixes this issue! Hooray! But only "mostly."


I make a lot of graphics. I keep these graphics in folders based on when each batch was made.

231002 GFX Renders is my latest batch.

230929 GFX Renders is the batch before that.

230928 GFX Renders is the batch before that one.

And so on.

This workflow was rock solid in Avid 2018. I'd import v1 of the graphics (something you literally cannot do now because go fuck yourself, I guess). Then, when I revised them, I'd delete media, but not the master clip, and batch in the new version. This would update everything in the edit with the new media without me having to edit a single goddamn thing. And if I needed to go back to an earlier version, it was easy to find.

But NOW, with avid 2023, I can take this amazingly easy to use and manage workflow, I can sit on a large spike, apparently.

Because:

(a) you can't import graphics at all (okay, you can import PNG and TIFF sequences, but seriously fuck THAT noise just as hard)

(b) you're stuck linking to your graphics media, which can only be very specific formats because otherwise Avid won't even recognize the transparency.

(c) as far as I can tell, the linked files sometimes break, and show up as offline each and every time you relaunch Avid, regardless of how many times you've relinked them to either their original location or the location of new versions. What's more infuriating about this is that if you get info on the offline linked files, avid knows the exact path to the file it needs to be relinked to.

Why the ever-loving FUCK did Avid decide to break the import functionality that has been a hallmark of their software for decades? If they insist on us using link to original files instead of importing, Avid is just turning their product into After Effects, but shittier.

We're discussing back-reving to 2018, back when Title Tool was usable and Avid wasn't complete trash. Get your fucking shit together, Avid. No one will give a flying rat fuck about your AI text transcription service if they can't keep their media linked.

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