Issues with exporting (invalid video)

Hello guys, I have a pretty complicated problem so I’ll do my best to be as detailed as I can:

chronology:

  1. I worked on a video on Shotcut after creating several proxies (mp4 files).

  2. I saved the video I was editing and closed shotcuts.

  3. The next day when I opened shotcuts it didn’t show this video in “recent works” (basically I couldn’t find it but I also didn’t try) so I ended up starting a new project (with completely different material) - the new project works as usual I should mention.

  4. I was curious to see if I can somehow revive the old lost video material so what i did is - dragging the MLT file from the folder to shotcut - all the material was present and saved and the edits I did on the timeline were saved. So I thought, business as usual.

*) I should say here I didn’t move any file or folder - the proxies, the mlt file - everything stayed where I left it on the laptop.

  1. I also added new videos to this edit (and proxies).

  2. after exporting the timeline nothing was there, I hear the sounds but no visual - not of the old proxies (which I revived using the mlt file) or the new proxies (which I made during the same session).

  3. The exported (invalid) video is very small, 129mb when it should be around 1GB

** of course on the timeline I can see the proxies and I worked and edited them for several hours.

Is there anyway I can still get my video?
Can I somehow copy the timeline I worked on for hours and make a video using the timeline without starting from scratch?

You guys are my last resort, I would greatly appreciate a solution to this frustration.

Thank you in advance,
Pisces

Can you clarify what this means? Did you delete the .mlt file?

Thank you Brian,

I saved the video I was editing and closed shotcuts. The next day when I opened shotcuts it didn’t show this video in “recent works” (basically I couldn’t find it but I also didn’t try) so I ended up starting a new project (with completely different material) - the new project works as usual I should mention.

I didn’t delete the mlt file

Ok. But then you did find it, apparently, because you dragged it into Shotcut to open it? you can also open a shotcut .mlt file by clicking “File->Open” and browsing to the file.

So the file was lost but now you found it. Maybe this is a distraction from your export problem?

Before you export, does everything look OK in Shotcut?

Can you open the exported file back in Shotcut and see if the video works there?

If you right click on the export job, you can save a log file. You can attach that log file here so we can see it.

yes, I uploaded the mlt file to shortcut and everything was present and the editing i did on this project was saved on the timeline.

yes before I export it looks ok as far as I can judge.

I will add the log to the next message. I hope this is what you mean

Turn off proxy mode, open the project, and export without clicking anything in Export besides Export File. If the problem continues, turn off Export > Use hardware encoder and try again.

It worked! thank you guys!
You saved me a lot of frustration.

I turned off proxy mode and switched the proxies with the original files and that’s it… Thanks again!

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