Chapter 20: Where Did My Templates Go?
Your templates now live in projects, and the console is where you browse and manage them. FX Express is the editor you open a template in — it no longer keeps its own list of files.
Nothing was deleted. This chapter explains where everything went and how the new workflow works.
Your Templates Are in a Project
To find a template:
- Open the console
- Pick the project the template belongs to
- Open the Templates tab
The Templates tab lists every template in that project, with the same names and folder structure you had before — a template that was called lidl/promo.fxt is still called lidl/promo.fxt.
”My FX Templates”
Everything you previously had in FX Express was copied into a project called My FX Templates. If you are looking for an older template, start there.
The copy is byte-for-byte, and your original files were left untouched, so nothing was lost in the move.
One thing to know: FX Express finds this project by its name. If you rename My FX Templates in the console, FX Express will create a new, empty project with that name the next time you create a template without picking a project first. The templates inside the renamed project keep working perfectly — you can still open, edit and save them — they are just no longer the ones FX Express reaches for by default.
Creating and Managing Templates
All of this now happens in the console, in the project’s Templates tab:
| Action | Where |
|---|---|
| New template | Templates tab → New template — the editor opens on the new template |
| Open | Select a template → Open — the editor opens on it |
| Duplicate | Templates tab |
| Rename | Templates tab |
| Delete | Templates tab |
The editor is only ever reached through New template or Open. Inside the editor everything works as before: scenes, elements, themes, preview, publish, Save and Save As.
Old Links Still Work
Bookmarks and shared links of the form …/edit?file=my-folder/promo.fxt still open the right template — FX Express looks up the copy in your project and opens that, updating the address bar as it goes.
If a link points at something that was not copied over, you get a short page telling you so, with a button to the console where you can search for it.
Published Movies Were Not Moved
Publishing was left exactly as it was:
- Movies you published before the move still exist and their URLs still work — nothing you have shared or embedded has broken.
- Those older movies are still listed under the Movies of the project you published them to, not under the template in the Templates tab.
- A template you just found in your project will therefore show no published versions at first. Publish it once from the editor and the new version shows up under the template.
Poster Frames
Templates in the Templates tab are shown with a poster frame — a small preview image of the first scene.
A migrated template does not have one yet, so it shows the note “Poster frame is generated the next time this template is opened and saved” instead. Open the template in the editor and save it once, and its poster frame appears in the list.
If Your Session Expires
Your sign-in is renewed in the background while the editor is open. When the computer sleeps — a closed laptop lid, for example — that renewal pauses, and a tab you come back to hours later may find its session expired. The editor notices when the tab comes back and renews the session on its own; media and preview frames reload, and you carry on where you left off.
If the session cannot be renewed silently, a Session expired dialog appears with one button, Sign in. Nothing is lost: the template stays open exactly as it was, and saving is simply held back until you are signed in again — no save goes out under an expired session. Click Sign in; if several identities are stored in this browser you are asked which one to use, otherwise a small sign-in window opens. Once you are signed in the dialog closes, media reloads, and any save that was waiting completes. If the browser blocks the sign-in window, allow popups for this site and click Sign in again; a further click signs you in on the login page instead and returns you to the editor.
A 403 (“forbidden”) error on its own does not mean your session expired: it is also what you see when a template or asset belongs to a project you cannot read or write. The dialog only appears when the session really is past its end.
← Previous: Keyboard Shortcuts | Next: Effects and Adjustment Layers →