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Activity Forums Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy “This project is unreadable or may be too new for this version of Final Cut.”

  • “This project is unreadable or may be too new for this version of Final Cut.”

    Posted by Andreas Zeitler on August 27, 2012 at 7:12 am

    I get this error message when opening a project I have been working on in July. With OS X Mountain Lion and Final Cut Pro 7.0.3. I’ve installed all updates and I’ve been editing this project just fine.
    Recently my client wanted me to make some adjustment. Unfortunately I can’t open the project file anymore. I get the error message this topic is titled with.

    I’ve removed (with FCS Remover) and reinstalled all applications, but still no chance to get this project to open.

    Then I thought it might really be the project file itself. I’ve installed Project Repair, but it didn’t fix it. Now I scanned through my Time Machine backups, and I’m still getting this error, even with the original file I started this edit with.

    What is the problem here?

    Thanks.

    Jeremy Garchow replied 14 years ago 3 Members · 11 Replies
  • 11 Replies
  • Jeremy Garchow

    August 27, 2012 at 3:12 pm

    Can you open FCP at all? Try launching FCP first without the project and opening the project from the File > Open menu.

    Jeremy

  • Pratul Gaikwad

    August 27, 2012 at 3:31 pm

    open any of the earlier version of this project. It happens when you import unsupported files into FCP .. e.g – .MKV files ..

    give it a try

  • Andreas Zeitler

    August 27, 2012 at 6:47 pm

    Yes, FCP7 opens fine. I was actually having that problem before this one. Final Cut wouldn’t open. No matter what. The I deleted all preferences, run FCS Remover once more and installed again.
    Now Final Cut itself opens, but not the project file.

    Thanks for the help, guys!

  • Andreas Zeitler

    August 27, 2012 at 6:49 pm

    Pratul, read my reply to Jeremy. It might answer your question.

  • Jeremy Garchow

    August 27, 2012 at 7:12 pm

    OK.

    Is all of your media on an external drive?

    If so, eject that drive, and open the project.

    Does it open?

    Jeremy

  • Andreas Zeitler

    August 28, 2012 at 7:49 am

    Well, not exactly an “external” disk, but I have the media on a second internal disk. I moved the media files to a disk image and ejected it before trying again.
    Negative. Any other idea?

  • Jeremy Garchow

    August 29, 2012 at 7:35 am

    [Andreas Zeitler] “Negative. Any other idea?”

    Negative meaning the project won’t open?

    Are you absolutely sure all media is on that second disk?

    What I am trying to do is open your project without any media to see if the media is corrupt, or if it’s the project thats corrupt.

    An easy way to do this is to temporary dismount the drive in the disk utility (you can always remount), or temporarily rename the drive.

    Jeremy

  • Andreas Zeitler

    August 31, 2012 at 7:30 am

    [Jeremy Garchow] “Negative meaning the project won’t open?”

    Yes, the project still won’t open.

    [Jeremy Garchow] “Are you absolutely sure all media is on that second disk?

    I think you are right. I’m on vacation (that’s why my answer take so long). But I had a friend who’s taking care of our apartment turn on the media server we have at home. I accessed it via VNC to install FCP7 and open the project. It opened just fine! So it has to be the media in some way. Some tests later I still couldn’t find the defective clip unfortunately, but I was able to open and render the project, and reconnect all the media from the backup volume. I finished this project now over the Internet.

    The gist of this: It was the media indeed! Thanks very much for your help.

    I wish there was an easier way though to find the media. I don’t know where Final Cut was searching.

    Andreas

  • Jeremy Garchow

    August 31, 2012 at 1:33 pm

    [Andreas Zeitler] “So it has to be the media in some way. Some tests later I still couldn’t find the defective clip unfortunately, but I was able to open and render the project, and reconnect all the media from the backup volume. I finished this project now over the Internet. “

    Your own personal cloud. 🙂

    You can try and run Digital Rebellion’s Corrupt Clip finder.

    A more manual process would be to try and reconnect a group of files at a time, once it won’t reconnect, you will can start to narrow down what clip(s) aren’t working.

    Glad you’re up and running!

    Jeremy

  • Andreas Zeitler

    August 31, 2012 at 4:09 pm

    [Jeremy Garchow] “Your own personal cloud. :)”

    lol. Yes, sort of. It’s just a media server we have at home. It’s running OS X Server and has all the Time Machine volumes attached to it. Back to My Mac makes this really really useful.

    Thanks for your help again, Jeremy. Really helped a lot.

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