Apple Support Couldn’t help..files won’t open

[Ron Lindeboom]

Are you using export from something 3rd party say like Telestream’s Flip4Mac in demo mode?

To me, it sounds like you have a 3rd party codec that is expired.

That is where I’d start the diagnostic process.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom

Remember: Burt Bacharach lied. What the world really needs now is an undo button.

[Paul Baker]

I wish I could say I was using a third party download. But nope.

Is it possible that I have a virus? is that even possible on a mac?

SPECS:

Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro2,1
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 3 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 8
L2 Cache (per processor): 8 MB
Memory: 16 GB

[Zane Barker]

Hard to say what is causing the issue, but it may be best to do an erase and install of your OS then reinstall FCS.

I am sure with enough time that someone could figure it out, but that may take more time then a clean install of the OS and applications may take.

There are no “technical solutions” to your “artistic problems”.
Don’t let technology get in the way of your creativity!

[Kevin Camp]

this may sound a little odd, but have you tried to create a new user account…?

apple>system prefs, click the accounts icon. click the ‘+’ button to add a new account (you may need to unlock the panel to make changes, just click the lock, enter an admin password if needed). give the new user the same rights as any user. then logon as the new user. see if ae will import the ‘bad’ quicktime files or open any ae projects that have ‘bad’ qt files that won’t open.

i have seen a problem where on both macpros that i use where ae suddenly forgot it could open p2 files… (yes i had the 8.0.2 update)… it worked one day then just stopped working the next, and it happened at different times on two different macs. the only way i was able to get it back was to create a new user account. it seems taht something went really wrong with permissions and there was know way to get them back, like the os was saying the i (or ae) didn’t have the right privileges to access the the importer file for that type of file. repair permissions did not help, but creating a new user did. maybe it will work for you too.

one thing, prior to creating a new user, if you have extra drives (other than the boot drive) select each of them in the finder and choose get info for each. inthe sharing permissions, set to ignor ownership for those drives, otherwise the new user may not be able to access files on those drives… other files ont he boot drive you may need to transfer over to the new user.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Paul Baker]

Thanks everybody for the help!

I just tried Kevin’s suggestion of creating a new user and to try opening the files.

and it WORKED!

that is awesome!

Kevin did you end up moving all of your preferences, presets, plugins…basically everything over? And then delete the old user? Or did you go back and forth?

Thanks so much for the help! I was on a big time crunch and that just saved me alot of work & time.
Paul

SPECS:

Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro2,1
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 3 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 8
L2 Cache (per processor): 8 MB
Memory: 16 GB

[Kevin Camp]

once i tried to move everything over to the new account but it broke the importer again. so there must be something in the user preferences that gets broken and won’t allow the importer to load. i’ve always wanted to go back and slowly pull over specific file until i found the offending file, but i’ve never had the time.

so, i just reset the main preferences to what i needed them to be for the system and other applications, which takes some time, but it doesn’t all have to be done at the same time…

when you get a chance, you might post this on adobe’s ae forum. i had posted my issue (and later the solution), but i hadn’t seen any others, and adobe support didn’t seem to be aware of any issues… i’m thinking that if more people post this issue then maybe adobe will fix it (this seems to be a real issue, not just my macs).

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Paul Baker]

Hey Kevin, I totally will post it.

But……this morning when I got on the new user name to open up the file. It won’t open anymore. And…I tried opening up a new user to just open it up under a new name…and it won’t open up under that user either.. pheww.. this stuff is getting confuzing.

Thanks for all the help
Paul

I have no idea what to do other than clean off the computer

SPECS:

Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro2,1
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 3 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 8
L2 Cache (per processor): 8 MB
Memory: 16 GB

[Kevin Camp]

my problem wasn’t this bad…

have you tried to run the disk utility (applications>utilities) to repair permissions and verify the disk?

other than that, there’s adobe tech support. they should help you for free on something like this… it may be the fastest way to get this fixed.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW