Avid Media Composer - Common Unexpected Behaviors and Error Messages
(Last updated: 2025 Feb 28)
You’re using Avid Media Composer, you hit something weird, now you can’t work.
Chances are, you’re experiencing something that happens all the time. The problem? Once someone gets past that problem, it’s forgotten. Or the solution / workaround is buried deep in a thread. Or the remedy’s treated as institutional knowledge / oral history among a few.
Instead of sifting through community.avid.com posts or Avid’s Knowledge Base articles, here’s a dedicated, updated list of unexpected behaviors and error messages you’ll encounter when using Media Composer. The list is long, but trust me: these are common.
Before you begin, 99.999% of your troubles are preventable by applying Avid’s Requirements to your workstation(s). I compiled these here.
Also, you’ll find references to Mimiq by Hedge. Mimiq enables Bin Locking and Bin Refresh on any type of storage. I’m keeping the Mimiq references here because people tend to blame it when things go wrong in their Media Composer workflow.
Unexpected Behavior
Playback is now much slower
Mimiq doesn’t intercept any input/output between your workstation and where you store your media.
You may need to confirm you’re using a qualified combination of Media Composer and your operating system, all Avid Requirements are in place on that workstation, and your network and shared storage are configured for maximum performance.
I’m getting permission errors
Mimiq doesn’t alter any permissions on any eligible volumes, whether they’re shared folders, Workspaces created from folders, or native NEXIS workspaces.
If Media Composer reports permissions-related errors, the best place to start is to give Read and Write privileges to any users who will access that share, then progressively restrict access as desired.
Media Composer keeps creating a 1 folder in my managed media folders
https://isaact.micro.blog/2024/06/12/on-renaming-avid.html
Opening Bins gets slower and slower
Media Composer crashes when loading bins
https://kb.avid.com/pkb/articles/en_US/Knowledge/Media-Composer-crashes-when-loading-bins
There’s a .lck_conflicted file in my Avid Project folder
https://community.avid.com/forums/p/207593/925980.aspx
Media Composer hangs/is stuck on “Configuring audio waveform cache”
https://kb.avid.com/pkb/articles/en_US/Knowledge/MC-hangs-configuring-audiowaveform-cache
Exceptions
SYS_ERROR, OSErr:-5000
https://kb.avid.com/pkb/articles/en_US/Knowledge/Exception-SYS-ERROR-OSErr-5000
SYS_ERROR, OSErr:-61
“Project Settings not saved due to an error.” or “File (Project Name).avp not found.”
https://kb.avid.com/pkb/articles/en_US/Knowledge/en275137
ReadDomainWithMobs: failure opening domain on stream for bin
https://kb.avid.com/pkb/articles/en_US/Knowledge/en263983
Structured Exception, ExceptionCode: 3221225477, ExceptionString: Access_Violation
- https://community.avid.com/forums/p/122419/881542.aspx
- https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/ie/en-US/e8bad4fa-b640-4a39-ad88-74afda3504de/possible-heap-corruption-detected-exception-code-3221225477?forum=winservergen
CONSISTENCY CHECK FAILURE or “Core consistency check failure"
This is a common error.
There are multiple possible causes, but the workaround is to apply a “Divide & Conquer” approach to your sequence so you can locate and remove the culprit(s).
https://kb.avid.com/pkb/articles/en_US/troubleshooting/Divide-and-Conquer
SFPlayConsumer::Execute TIMEOUT
This is a common error.
It means something is getting in the way of Media Composer performing as quickly as expected.
https://kb.avid.com/pkb/articles/en_US/Knowledge/en388455
Also, confirm all Avid Requirements are in place on that workstation.
Couldn’t find your error message or oddity? hey@isaact.co