Missing Plugin error for every export?

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Level 3

789 points

Missing Plugin error for every export?

Suddenly I'm seeing "Missing Plugin" in compressor whenever anything is qued, even if the file does not have any preset attached to it. Compressor 4.8

I send projects to compressor daily from FCP (10.8.1) and this is the first time I'm seeing this happening. It could be some macOS 14.7 bug as we recently updated between projects, but I'm not sure.

Bizarrely, projects will export "successfully" but they're silent with just a large red screen with the Missing Plugin icon. So weird. I've tried rebooting, relaunching Compressor, Reseting it's que and "repairing" it (all from within its Advanced prefs). Any ideas? We're kind of dead in the water without Compressor today (at least it's Friday though :)

Posted on Sep 20, 2024 7:01 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 20, 2024 8:03 AM in response to W. Raider

Usually one looks at what changed between then and now, so it is quite possible that the update to 14.7 may have played a part in this.

Does this happen only with FCP projects, or also when using Compressor with video files?

You could create an export destination in FCP using Compressor settings, therefore using all the power of Compressor straight from the FCP interface.

An alternative would be to export a master file in FCP and then bringing that to Compressor to produce different output versions.

The former is great if all you need is one format export, and in that case avoids opening Compressor altogether.

The latter is at least an alternative if you are using Send to Compressor in order to produce multiple versions at once. (FWIW: I am no fan of using Send to Compressor, it is less stable than either of the two alternatives, and furthermore if offers limited opportunities for parallelism)

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Answer 2

W. Raider Author

Level 3

789 points

Sep 20, 2024 8:49 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Right now anything brought into Compressor has the error.

I'm going to try an export destination later today and see if that works. I use Compressor at this place because they export so much, just tons of content that needs VERY specific parameters for airing that I've made presets in Compressor for.

Plus using shared computers to batch process stuff speeds up exports enough (most times) to be worth it since sometimes I'm editing longer stuff that has changes that I need to make sometimes minutes before it airs. And yeah, that's not fun hah. I'll try and report back here if anything changes :)

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Answer 3

Sep 20, 2024 9:00 AM in response to W. Raider

I see. I could be wrong, but I was under the impression that you can only actually a cluster of computers when compressing actual video files, not FCP projects. In that case, one would export perhaps a ProRes master and bring that into Compressor. Am I wrong about this? Always eager to learn.

Did you try deleting Compressor preferences (now confusingly called "settings", but not the same thing as the export settings you created)? It works just as in FCP. To delete preferences, hold down command and option while starting the application and click Delete Custom Settings. I have checked, and the export settings with specific parameters that you create are not deleted by this process.

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Answer 4

W. Raider Author

Level 3

789 points

Sep 20, 2024 9:56 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

No you're correct, you can't send projects from FCP to Compressor and cluster process them; only actual video files. I do that here for their feature-length projects.

I'm playing with what's causing Compressors Missing Plugin issue now.

Trashing Compressor's prefs didn't make a difference. One clue so far is one older project in FCP will work when sent to Compressor! While this new project won't. So far only differences is the one that does work compared to ones that don't work is the ones that get the missing plugin error are vertical and HEVC (although they have been optimized to ProRes)

Exporting from FCP as ProRes then bringing into Compressor works. There's something up with this particular video clip inside FCP then sent to Compressor OR this particular FCP project, I think. I'm messing with permutations now.

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Answer 5

Sep 25, 2024 3:18 PM in response to W. Raider

Did you find a solution? I am having the same issue. I can export on FCP but not in Compressor

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