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# Soft-Imported Media

In a Visual Effects and Finishing application, soft-importing creates a clip that references unmanaged media. Unmanaged media typically resides on shared network storage, such as a SAN or NAS, where numerous applications can have equal access to it, avoiding data duplication. If soft-imported media is overwritten, the clip referencing it is updated accordingly. If soft-imported media is deleted, the clip referencing it displays a checkerboard pattern indicating that the media files can't be found. Inversely if, in the Effects or Finishing application, all clips referencing media are deleted, the source media remains unaffected. Basically, soft-imported media is unmanaged, whereas imported media is managed.