Joe’s Resolve FAQ

How do I submit a bug report

The DaVinci Resolve Forum is the right place to file bug reports. Staff does read them.

Before posting to this forum, please:

• Read this FAQ. It might have your answer!
• Search the forum to see if your question has been asked and answered - or is actively being discussed.
• There’s also lots of resources available online. Here are a few:
• Reddit's Resolve forum
• We Suck Less – Extensive Fusion resource
  
• YouTube Tutorials
  
• Blackmagic Design's Official Channel – Offers a playlist of support videos
  
• Casey Faris – Known for beginner-friendly tutorials on editing and color grading
  
• Darren Mostyn – Professional colorist sharing advanced grading

Please don't use ALL CAPS when posting. This is considered shouting and feels disrespectful. You have a much better chance of receiving assistance from the community if your posts are detailed and respectful.

When you write a report, please try to include:

• A concise specific description of what’s going on,
• Steps to reliably reproduce the problem,
• If it’s hard to describe clearly, a link to a narrated screen capture video showing the problem can be very illuminating. Upload it to YouTube and put the link at the end of your report. The forum software knows how to display YouTube videos with your post.
• If Resolve is crashing or reporting an error, please also use “Help / Create Diagnostics Log on Desktop” to create a zip of logfiles and upload the zipfile to something like Google Drive. Do this right after the error occurs. Then paste a link to the zipfile in your report. If your account is new you may not yet be allowed to post links. In this case, add a space before the colon like this: “https ://google.com” and your post will go through.

Finally, add a description of your system (hardware and OS) to your signature in the User Control Panel.
Happily you only have to do this once.

Why is Resolve crashing

The most likely reasons are:

• On Windows and Linux: You've got the wrong device driver for your video card. Resolve runs its graphics code on the GPU which is on your video card, so it exercises the graphics driver much more than most apps. So your computer can seem fine but still have the wrong video device driver. (discussion)
  
• You've got a program installed that interferes with Resolve. Here are a few known ones:
• Topaz (discussion)
  
• RivaTuner (discussion)
• You've installed the DaVinci Resolve Control Panels app but you don't have a BMD control surface attached to your computer. That'll crash Resolve. Uninstall the DaVinci Resolve Control Panels app to fix it. (discussion)
  
• You've got a bad plugin installed. Plugins are programs too, and if they crash Resolve crashes as well. Turn off you plugins to see if that fixes it.
• You've got a bad config file. Sometimes, especially if Resolve runs out of disk space, its config file can get corrupted. Try removing it to see if that fixes things. (discussion)
  

Why can’t I see my video. I hear the sound.

The free version of Resolve doesn't include all the codecs (encoders/decoders) that the paid version does. In particular, the free version on Windows doesn't include the 10bit versions of AVC, H.264, or H.265. Many higher end prosumer cameras record in these formats. You can either pay for Resolve Studio, re-encode your video to another format, or change your camera to record in another format.

I paid for Resolve. Why is it saying I’ve reached a limit?

There are two versions of Resolve. The free one is called Resolve. The paid one is called Resolve Studio.

Many people accidentally download Resolve thinking it's the paid version. It's not. Go back and make sure you're downloading Resolve Studio.

What’s this I hear about Windows and Graphics Card drivers

Resolve runs its graphics code on the GPU which is on your video card so it exercises the graphics driver much more than most apps. So your computer can seem fine but still have the wrong video device driver. On Macs this is taken care of automatically but on Windows and Linux it's very important to use the right driver for your graphics card. Search the Resolve forum for your graphics card and you'll probably see the right driver to use.

Where’s the Android version of Resolve

There isn't one! Android has a great many versions from various vendors. ipadOS is pretty much the same as macOS. Since Resolve already runs of macOS, the iPad version is naturally the first tablet version to come out. BMD doesn't share their development plans so we have no idea if or when an Android version of Resolve will appear.

Does Resolve support ProRes raw?

No. There's been a great deal of discussion and speculation as to why.
BMD doesn't share their development plans so we have no idea if or when it will. (discussion)

How do I run multiple versions of Resolve on my computer

There are tutorials on YouTube describing ways to accomplish this, but for various reasons the only really safe way to do this is to dual-boot your computer and put a version on each boot volume.

Why is my media offline

[Insert answer here]

Why am I seeing media offline when it’s obviously right there

[Insert answer here]

Why are my files offline in my cloud project

[Insert answer here]

Relink won’t find my media

[Insert answer here]

What’s the bright red offline media mean

[Insert answer here]

What’s the difference between relinking and conforming

[Insert answer here]

How can only some frames in my clip be offline

[Insert answer here]

Why won’t Resolve run on my computer. Premiere or FCPX runs fine.

Both Premiere and FCPX can run their graphics code on the main CPU if the GPU -  which is on your video card - isn't strong enough. Resolve runs its graphics code only on the GPU.

Why is playback so slow? Premiere or FCPX runs fine.

Both Premiere and FCPX can run their graphics code on the main CPU if the GPU -  which is on your video card - isn't strong enough. Resolve runs its graphics code only on the GPU.

What’s the most important hardware to make Resolve run well

Resolve runs its graphics code on the GPU which is on your video card. So the most important thing to make Resolve run well is a fast GPU with plenty of RAM. 16GB is a good base. Any of the Mac M series with 16GB or more should work fine as they share all of their memory with the GPU.

Why is my phone or gaming capture video playing poorly

Resolve doesn't handle variable frame rate video very well. Professionals use fixed frame rate video and it's only with the advent of phone and gaming capture that variable rate has become common. The best way to make Resolve work well is to re-encode the video in a fixed frame rate using something like Apple Compressor, Adobe Media Encoder, or Handbrake.(discussion)

How do I render in to out so I can play back effects and stuff in real time

Right now you can't. Many people have asked for this. Resolve's caching system is very extensive but somewhat tricky to use. Here are various ways to get what you want. (discussion)

Will things work better in the paid version

Resolve Studio is the same as Resolve (the free version) except for additional codecs, hardware codec acceleration, and these added features. Other than that they're the same program. So don't buy Studio expecting that the free version is just a demo - it's not.

How do I output in the background

Right now you can't. As a workaround you might export a master version and then use Apple Compressor, Adobe Media Encoder, or Handbrake to make other versions in the background.

How do I make proxies in the background

You can use the Blackmagic Proxy Generator app to create your proxies in the background, but there are a few limitations.

• There are a smaller number of proxy formats to choose from
• If you rotate your clips, flip them, or change a few other attributes the proxies won't match (discussion)