Project Browser

Browse or search for files then restore from archive

Export reports

Project Browser

Open Project Browser

Click the book icon at the bottom of the main panel to open the Project Browser.
Click in the top left on the Collection and Project information to see all your Collections and Projects.
Collections are a group of Projects.
Collections names could be clients, years, type of work or there can be just one collection for all projects.
Select a collection, double click a project or select a project and click Open.

Opening a project does not affect existing jobs. Existing jobs will retain their current project.
New jobs will use the current project open in the Project Browser.
Each job can be assigned to a different project, the project name is shown in the job table.
Open the Source Browser to change the project for an existing job.
See Assigning a job to a different project.


Project Browser

The table at the top shows three kinds of snapshots.

  • INDEX : Created by clicking Store Index in a Source Browser or if Index tapes after verify is enabled
  • SOURCE : Created automatically when a copy job starts
  • COPY : Created as files are copied and verified

The dropdown menus allow any of these items to be hidden if required.

The Browser in the middle shows a Finder style view of the folders and files in the selected snapshot. Use it to navigate around tapes and drives that are offline.

The File table in the middle shows metadata for all files selected in the Media Browser. Use it to navigate around the snapshots of archived tapes and drives. The media does not have to be online at this point.

Both the Media browser and the File table have + and - buttons. Use these to choose which files are restored.

Select a snapshot and check that it has the files you want to restore.
If restoring from drive or a shared volume ensure that it is mounted.
If restoring from tape load the tape into a standalone drive. Or load tapes into an LTO library. No need to mount the tape. Then click Add Job.

If the drive or tape source is not online, then no job will be created. Connect the drive or load the tape (no need to mount the tape) into the LTO drive or library. Then click Add Job again.

This snapshot is part of a job that archived the ALEXA LF folder to a RAID1 and to an LTFS tape YY6342.
COPY #2 includes the files copied to YY6342.

SOURCE snapshots are useful to see where files came from. However when the job completes they would probably have been erased, so they are not needed when restoring. Select Hide Sources so they are hidden in the Media table.

If files have been added or removed from a drive or tape and it is indexed again, then another snapshot will be created with a new time and date. Selecting All Indexes/Sources/Copies will show the history for particular media.


Restore the entire archive

After clicking Add Job if there is a preset called RESTORE, this will be automatically recalled to setup the paths and reports.
Click Edit Paths to adjust the destination paths and setup any required reports. Click the start button to restore all the ALEXA LF files from the tape.

Selective restore

Turn off everything

By default all files in the selected Media snapshot are included. This time we only want to restore some files so ensure the base folder is selected in the Media browser and then click the - button at the right of the Media browser. The green dots will disappear next to every file and folder.

If alt/option is held down whilst clicking the + or - then all files will be added or removed from the job regardless of the items selected in the browser.


Select some files

Choose a folder in the Media browser, select some files for restore. Then click the + button below the File table.
Here it's the B001R1ZA folder and three Alexa LF MOV files have been added to the job. They now have green dots in the file browser and their parent folders have orange dots showing a selective restore.


Select a folder

Choose a folder in the Media browser. Then click the + button below the File browser.
The entire ARRIRAW folder has been added to the job. This folder has a green dot in the browser and all the files in that folder have green dots as well.


Start the restore job

Now connect the drive or load the tape. Click the Add Job button. Assuming the drive or tape is available, then a new job will be created. Five ARRIRAW clips and three ProRes movies will be restored. Add a destination drive and click the start button.


Multiple source restore

You can continue to choose files and folders from different tapes and drives. Here we need to restore files from SOURCE13 and YY6342. Ensure they are both online, select them both in the media table and click Add Job

Drives must be online, tapes sources must be in a desktop drive or inside a library (they do not need to be mounted) for files to be added to the restore job.

If the restore is from more tapes than will fit in the LTO drives or library, then load as many as possible and click Add Job. Then on completion swap in the remaining tapes and click Add Job again.

If using YoYotta with an LTO library then files from multiple tapes can be restored in a single job.


Search for files

To locate a particular clip select all the snapshots in the Media table. Then type part of a file name, path or codec into the filter boxes below the File table. You can also filter by resolution, video rate or camera speed, for example entering 3840 in the Resolution filter will show UHD clips.
The table columns can also be sorted, making it easy to locate particular timecode or file sizes for example.
Selecting the file in the File table will also select the same file in the Media browser. So it's easy to see what drive or tape you will need. The files can then be added to a restore job.

If there is no metadata shown in the table then for future jobs ensure that Extract metadata is turned on in Preferences.
Alternatively if the media is still available then Store a new index as long as it's not tape media (extracting metadata from tape is very slow)


Export Reports

Select one or more INDEX, SOURCE or COPY items and click the PDF button in the Export panel to create a job report.
CSV and other report formats can be exported.

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