INVALID error message fix needed

Hello,

I’m new to the Shotcut community and have a recurring problem with my project. When I reopen my project, several files (.jpg, png) will show as INVALID. The number of files this happens to seems to increase as the size of my project grows. The location and names of the files are unchanged and the version of Shotcut is the same (v19.04.30). Running on the latest version of Win10. Wondering if anyone knows of a solution to this problem. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Can you please locate an image file with the problem on your disk and upload it here. It might also be helpful if you can upload your .mlt project file.

Thank you for the quick reply.

I’ve attached the image files and the mlt file.

Moms 90th Jun 27.mlt (162.0 KB)

For some reason when loading a project, the image reader fails, and Shotcut replaces it with the INVALID text. Then, when you next save, it saves as a text clip. I am not sure what is causing the image reader to fail because your image is valid and fine, and there are other valid images in the project. I wonder if you are running low on memory.

How much RAM do you have?
Are you running the 32-bit or 64-bit version of Shotcut?

Meanwhile, I can try to repair your project and replace each INVALID text clip with an image clip because the image filenames are still saved inside the project file. However, this will not prevent the problem from occurring again.

Running 64 bit with 32 GB of RAM. However, it makes me think I should run Shotcut alone when editing just in case. I noticed there is a new version out. Maybe I should upgrade? Appreciate your offer to replace invalid clips but I’ll have to do that anyway.

Thanks again!

Here is your repaired project file anyway.
Moms 90th Jun 27 - Repaired.mlt (162.1 KB)

Here is what I did to fix it - you might be able to do it yourself the next time it happens.

  1. Open the .mlt file in a text editor - anything besides notepad because it does not read the line endings correctly.
  2. Search for every instance of INVALID.
  3. Several lines below the line <property name="text">INVALID</property> look for
    <property name="mlt_service">qtext</property>
  4. Change qtext to qimage
    <property name="mlt_service">qimage</property>
  5. Repeat for every INVALID
  6. Save

Meanwhile, I will think more about what can be causing this or how to avoid it. I think the amount of memory you have is fine unless… yeah, you do not have enough free mem.

Thanks Dan! FYI - when I open the file, a window will open saying I’m “missing files.” I double click on each file and confirm the file’s location. “Repaired” is added to the file name when I go to save.

One other question - when I open an image/audio clip, it doesn’t get added to the playlist but I can load the clip to a track. Is it a requirement that clips be added to the playlist?

Maybe this is how the problem occurred in the first place: you moved or renamed the image file while Shotcut had the project open. Do you think that is possible? Do you recall having done some file management?
In the files you provided me, that image was believed to be in G:\Sally. When you uploaded it, did you go there to find it?

No, Playlist is completely optional! You can make a playlist-only project, or you can use it as a staging area. For example, when you open something or drag it to Source, it opens in the Source player. You can find the shot you are interested in, use the trim controls to select only that portion, and add it to Playlist. Repeat this for other shots from the same clip and additional clips. Now your Playlist is full of just the shots or sub-clips you are interested in before you begin adding to the timeline. However, for things like images and music you might not find the Playlist helpful because you do not need to stage sub-clips. That’s just one example of how to use Playlist.

That IS how the problem originally started. Once I realized filenames, etc…changed I made sure to keep those elements the same with no changes. BTW - when I opened the file you repaired, the window opened with 2 files missing. I ignored the window and proceeded to open the file without incident. I may start over making sure to not change any file location/names. Wonder if that would solve the problem permanently? Thanks for the info on Playlist. I find it helpful to see the order of clips in a list vs. looking only at the timeline.

OK, the bug here is that I need to figure out a way to show INVALID temporarily while a problem is occurring, but I need to prevent changing it to a text clip. Such that if you revert changes you made to files, the images will return.

If the file is just in Playlist it may not be a problem until you try to add it to timeline. However, if it is on Timeline, that will be a problem.

I fixed the bug for the next version 19.07 - trying to prevent saving the INVALID and try to recover old documents that did have the INVALID saved.

It seems that since you edited your film, you have mislaid the folder that you put your images in. go into your picture folder at the top right-hand corner enter the picture number in the search . it should tell you where you left them . Or did you have them on a SSD card or USB . plug that in it should work well. Do not forget to save them to a folder on your computer.
Regards Pete

I restarted the project and solved the problem by avoiding renaming/moving files around. Very much appreciate the help provided!

Tom

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