Can’t Work on Project – CRASH

[Craig Seeman]

Lets try a simple yet radical test.

Create a New User Admin account.
Delete all login items for that account.
Remove all peripherals from your system including internal hard drives.
Reboot the computer and log into the New User Admin account.

At this point the User and FCPX will have a completely set of fresh preferences and empty cache.
Open FCPX (now completely empty) and close it. That will ensure fresh preferences are saved.
Hook up your external hard drive and move one file of your choice, ideally ProRes if possible, and short duration also if possible, to your desktop.
Import the clip (new Event), drop it in to the timeline (new Project), Export it.

At this point if you have a crash it is system rather than user or event or project based.

[Fred Roberts]

I did something close to that on another machine, new account, no external hardware, etc.

Based on getting the same error message after the crash, I’m convinced it’s crashing when it tries to render, either a retimed clip or something else.

I’m just trying to figure out how to salvage a week’s work and not start over. I just can’t find a way to remove the effects before they begin to render. I just need FCP stable long enough to remove the effect causing the crash.

[Jeremy Garchow]

Are your retimed clips connected or in the primary?

[Craig Seeman]

[Fred Roberts] “I just need FCP stable long enough to remove the effect causing the crash.”

First you need a verified stable FCPX. You need to confirm FCPX and the user account is table.
There are so many reasons you could be crashing that it would be difficult to troubleshoot an account where any number of things may have become corrupted due to the crash.

Get to a known verifiable clean state and test with a single new event and a single new project with a single clip. Consider it the “control” in the experiment. It’s way too easy to overlook something or make a wrong assumption. Once you get there it’s becomes much easier to troubleshoot.

[Fred Roberts]

There are both types in the project.

[Sandeep Sajeev]

Fred,

– Have you exported out any versions of your edit? If you’re running out of time, it might be quicker to piece together any segment exports that you may already have.

– Have you tried opening your XML file on another FCPX system?

– Do you have XML Versions? If so, have you tried loading an earlier version?

Sandeep.

[Fred Roberts]

Hello Sandeep-

Thanks for trying to help us out with this, we still can’t access the project.

We’ve exported one, incomplete version in h.264.

I’ve tried loading the XML version on the same machine and on a different one, no luck.

Best,
Steven

[Bill Davis]

Fred,

Understand your frustration.

Also, do you have access to iChat or FaceTime via an iPhone or iPad separate from the machine you’re having the problems on?

If you do, I’d be happy to try to connect with you in real time that way and talk you through some problem solving steps.

Good luck, and keep us up to date.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Fred Roberts]

Hello Bill-

That’s a very generous offer. Thank you.

We’ve begun to reedit for obvious reasons, but I have the ear of a very qualified person and I will report back to this thread. Thanks again.

[Fred Roberts]

Have had a good back and forth about this particular corruption of the project file with Jon Chappell at Digital Rebellion. I provided him crash reports from the only piece of software that offers some hope in these situations, Pro Maintenance Tools. His semi-conclusion:

“Something strange is happening here. It looks like FCPX is trying to render or process a clip and is ending up in recursion hell and probably running out of memory. This may be because a compound clip or secondary storyline is involved or because the database links between some of the clips have been corrupted.
The difficult part isn’t identifying the problem though, it’s trying to work out what you as an end-user can do to fix it. And I don’t really know the answer to that. FCPX unfortunately has a lot of bugs that fall into this category.”

Terrible to know that all the footage, edits, etc. are there, but FCPX project file can’t read them.

Thanks to all who offered suggestions and help.
Steven