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Been up all night, FCP still has bugs..
It’s time for me to go to bed but I’ll be dreaming that maybe y’all will have a potential solution that I couldn’t figure out staying up all night. Here’s my dilemma.
Over the past couple weeks of editing I’ve had bugs start to creep into a project I’m working on. It’s a cooking show with three scenes, the longest of which (the cooking part) was shot multicam with 3 cameras. It’s getting edited down to 40 minutes but it’s a lot of footage. (all converted to pro-res)
The types of bugs that have been popping up are things like, it won’t let me create a new sequence. Nothing happens when I click file, new sequence. No error message, but nothing happens. I’ve been able to keep working by copying a previous sequence then deleting the timeline and renaming it. Then I have my new sequence. Trying to do a freeze frame won’t work. It says, error 34. Sending the project to Soundtrack pro wont work, so I had to export an XML file (which did work). Little odd things like this.
I took my computer (2008 Mac Pro 8-core, 16 gigs ram) to the local Apple store and was relieved to hear that after various testing and troubleshooting they were fairly certain it wasn’t any of my hard drives. They recommended I reinstall Snow Leopard over the old one and likewise with Final Cut Pro. In the store they went into disk utility to Verify Disks, Repair Disks, etc… I had already trashed my FCP preferences earlier hoping that would help. I told them I had an extra hard drive laying around and asked if it might make matters easier to just delete my spare drive, then use it as a boot disk and do a ground up re-install of OSX and Final Cut Pro. They said that would be best. All my media files are saved on my Scratch Disk [Internal Software Raid-0 (I have all my original footage backed up)]
After deleting everything off a hard drive I booted the computer to it and installed Snow Leopard and Final Cut Pro Studio 2. The last sequence I had been working on was an intro sequence to the whole show using little clips from throughout the show and introducing what the show was going to be about. I was then going to send it to After Effects for motion graphics and finishing touches. So now I have a fresh OS install, fresh FCP install and all updates have been run. When I opened up the last project I had been working on (this “Intro Sequence”) everything seemed to be perfect. I had to re-render a couple files but everything was there and the bugs are gone. I can create a new sequence! I can make a freeze frame, I can send to a soundtrack pro multitrack project. Problem solved. Till I went into the other sequences and they have the same problems… Can’t create new sequence, etc… What is up? Should I just open Final Cut Pro project files reverse chronologically and hope eventually If I go back far enough one of them will be without these bugs? I’ve tried putting everything in a new project, I’ve tried, well, building the entire boot drive from the ground up. And the sequence that’s now working is using media files that came straight out of copy pastes from these Sequences that aren’t working… so I don’t think it’s corrupted media files. Maybe I just need to look at it with fresh eyes. Sorry for the essay but I figured I’d give all the details I could, I hope I didn’t vent too much in the process. Thanks to all.
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14 Replies
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They recommended that you install ON TOP OF the existing OS? Boy, that was wrong advice. You need to backup all of your files, and then ERASE the drive, install the OS fresh, update it, then install FCS fully, and update it.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
I agree with Shane.
Nothing to blame FC about, but your System.
But I don’t agree on the solution.
A fresh installing is not a warranty of an optimized system.
I woud run DiskWarrior or TechTools.
rafael -
And, did you update the new intallation of the OS until receiving the “all software is up to date” message? Then, did you do that for FCP as well?
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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Shane. Yeah, I agree, it seemed pretty bizarre to just do an overwrite installation which is why I ended up starting from a blank hard drive and doing a ground up installation of OSX and FCP. I’ve never done this before when I was in the middle of working on a big project but it seemed like it would be a good thing to try. Also, I figured it would be nice to have just the OS and FCP and not install my Adobe CS5 creative suite or any Plugins or Cinema 4D etc… Just have the operating system and Final Cut Pro.
Rafael. Thanks for your input. You say you would not recommend trying a ground up reinstall of OSX and FCP? I’m curious as to why, could you see this as posing new problems or just taking too much time? Would your recommendation of Disk Warrior or Tech Tools be for my boot drive, or more for my scratch disk/raid? I have been thinking the re-install of OS and FCP on a blank drive would help me eliminate that drive as having problems in my search to troubleshoot the source of these bugs.
David, I’d be pretty mad if it was something as simple as me forgetting to run “all” the software updates. Yes, I have made sure “all the software is up to date”. Thanks, though. I actually keep hoping these problems are all from something simple I have overlooked.
It is confusing that the sequence I had created on a new project was fine when I opened FCP for the first time having done the total reinstall. I could create new sequences, freeze frames, send to Soundtrack Pro multitrack project. All the problems I was having seemed to have been fixed. This sequence had been pieced together with footage copy/pasted directly from sequences in my main project. Then I opened my main, large, FCP project file and was getting all the same bugs. Now when I go back to the project that was just working fine, it once again has the problems itself.
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This is definitely a strange issue. When troubleshooting FCP problems it usually comes down to one of 4 things.
1 – Hardware
2 – Software
3 – Project
4 – MediaThe trick is being able to isolate which one of these is causing the problem. However your explanation is telling us that the “Project” is carrying the problem which is effecting the “Software”.
How about if you create a new project and you copy your bins into it? Or even better, create a new project, create a new sequence and copy and paste your timeline into it.
Now close the old project and don’t go back to it. Obviously this might not be practical if you have a complex project with lots of bins and lots of sequences. I’m just trying to get you to a point where you’re no longer accessing your old project which seems to be causing the problems.
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FCP and Avid Technical Support
Air Post Production
Shoreditch – London -
[Richard Johnson] “Rafael. You say you would not recommend trying a ground up reinstall of OSX and FCP? I’m curious as to why, could you see this as posing new problems or just taking too much time? Would your recommendation of Disk Warrior or Tech Tools be for my boot drive, or more for my scratch disk/raid? I have been thinking the re-install of OS and FCP on a blank drive would help me eliminate that drive as having problems in my search to troubleshoot the source of these bugs. “
Well, I’m not the best example to fallow.
I’ve installed Snow Leopard on top of Leopard, and refreshed FC and everything works here without a glitch.Of course installing from scratches is the most recommendable way, however EVEN AFTER A FRESH INSTALLING YOUR SYSTEM IS A MESS. If you check with DW you will find, at least, a “30% of Items out of order”.
Perfect to have every kind of problems and miss functions.
I’m sure David will rebuke me because my installing, but he will agree on using DW or TechTools.
rafael -
[Richard Johnson] “After deleting everything off a hard drive I booted the computer to it and installed Snow Leopard and Final Cut Pro Studio 2.”
For Studio 2 I would be running OS 10.5.8, not Snow Leopard.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” Winner, Best Documentary, LA Reel Film Festival.
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Gary to the rescue!!! I had tried copying sequences over to a new timeline (even copy and pasting from the timeline) but what ended up working is very close to exactly what you recommended. What I did was open up a FCP project file from about a month ago (lets call it project file A), when everything was working fine. Then I opened up my most recent project file that had all the work I’ve done up to this point(Lets call it project file X). Then I copy pasted sequences from out of the timelines from my latest project(X) to the old project(A). The bugs were still there….until I then quit final cut pro and started it back up opening only the project file A. Now I have all my work and nothing is acting up (knock on wood). It seems the bugs were indeed being brought into final cut pro from the Final Cut Pro Project Files and would actually affect all projects open if one Project file had the bugs. Now, none of the previous bugs are present, I have not lost any of my work, and I can once again see the light at the end of the tunnel for finishing the show. Thanks to all. -Richard
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Good catch to Gary, and once again we see Rafael dishing out off the cuff nonsense.
Corrupt projects are much more likely to be the cause than the OS. That’s true in both Apple and Windows products that I’ve used. It points to problems with FCP error handling rather than Apple OS issues.
In the future, always start with a fresh sequence or project,before reinstalling the OS and Application! If some boneheaded geek at an Apple store wants to reinstall an OS or application that you’ve spent months tuning to your needs, first check using Disk Utility to make sure there are no disk errors. You don’t need to go to some expensive third party utility as Rafael suggests. Apple disk utility is plenty good for most issues. I’ve restored corrupt RAID arrays with no problem using it. It finds the issues just fine.
Alf
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To be fair, I too dished “off the cuff” nonsense. I told him how to reinstall the OS and the apps fully as well. Instead of Gary’s GREAT advice to take a couple steps before getting all drastic.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def
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