desperate: FCPX hangs on boot up

[Pat Horridge]

We don’t edit with FCPX, only do training for others on it currently.
But I find it hard to believe it doesn’t have autosaves and a attic for recovery of work.
However I suspect it’s all embedded in the database and that maybe the issue. But again if Apple have decided to use a database in that way they must have database management tools and recovery tools.

Not that I’d risk FCPX on something that had such a massive time input but I know you can save out a seperate database related to a particular project (sequence) and it would seem to make sense to do that periodically so you can at least recover to there.

Pat Horridge
Technical Director, Trainer, Avid Certified Instructor
VET
Production Editing Digital Media Design DVD
T +44 (0)20 7505 4701 | F +44 (0)20 7505 4800 | E pat@vet.co.uk |
http://www.vet.co.uk | Lux Building 2-4 Hoxton Square London N1 6US

[Michael Hadley]

Did you add any media yesterday that might have corrupted the projects? Stills that were larger than 4,000 pixels? Any non-standard footage with a weird codec like photo jpeg? That’s caused corruption of events for me. Delete the offending media manually, manually transcode the media and then re-import.

If that’s not issue here are some other things to try:

If you can at least open the project, select all, copy it, create a brand new project and then copy-paste the old timeline into.

Use Digital Rebellion’s free app to trash use preferences for starters. Then repair permissions on the volume where the event and project stored (using Disk Utility). Then, use Disk Warrior to repair to directory on the same volume.

Good luck.

[Jack Niedenthal]

Thanks, Michael. Yes, I did put some pictures in. I ran digital rebellion’s corrupt file finder and 3 of the jpgs were bad, so I removed them. FCPX now opens but when it goes to load the event I want I just get the beach ball. Other events open fine. Understand that I haven’t even made the project yet, I just did all the work as compound clips and was planning on pasting all of those scenes into the project for the first time tonight…

When you say “manually transcode the media and then re-import.” I don’t even want to use that media anymore, I just want what I had before I tried to use the pictures… I tried repairing permissions on both discs (external and internal), but still have the beach ball issue. Should I trash preferences?

Thanks so much for helping.

Jack Niedenthal
Microwave Films of the Marshall Islands
http://www.microwavefilms.org
iMac i7 using Lion 10.7.x, HPX 170 using only one 64GB card
I live on an island in the middle of the Pacific, YOU are my only resource.

[Jack Niedenthal]

I used the Digital Rebellion preference trasher, still get the beach ball. This is so frustrating, this is a project that is over a year old and I face a July 13 deadline…

Open to suggestions, offering first born male children as a reward for anything that works…

Jack Niedenthal
Microwave Films of the Marshall Islands
http://www.microwavefilms.org
iMac i7 using Lion 10.7.x, HPX 170 using only one 64GB card
I live on an island in the middle of the Pacific, YOU are my only resource.

[Steve Connor]

First make a copy of your event folder.

Then in the COPY of the event folder go to the “Original Media” folder you should find copies or aliases to the pictures you imported in there, drag them to the trash. then see what happens.

If you still get the problem then it may be another file you can try deleting the aliases to the last few files you added.

Worse case is that you may have to relink some good files in FCPX

Steve Connor
“The ripple command is just a workaround for not having a magnetic timelinel”
Adrenalin Television

[Steve Connor]

I forgot to mention you’ll need to take the original copy of the event folder out of the Final Cut events folder temporarily.

Also if none of this works you could try something else

In the COPY of the event folder, drag the CurrentVersion.fcpevent file to the trash

Then go to the backups folder and rename the .fcpevent file in there to CurrentVerion.fcpevent and then move it to the root of the event folder.

Steve Connor
“The ripple command is just a workaround for not having a magnetic timelinel”
Adrenalin Television

[Michael Hadley]

Oh yes. Trash preferences. That’s really the first step.

[Jack Niedenthal]

I am now able to open FCPX, all the other events are fine, it is just the event I want to work with that won’t work. Every time I click on it I just get the beach ball and eventually I have to force quit.

I am now making a copy of the event, unfortunately it is 700+GBs, so that will take hours.

Jack Niedenthal
Microwave Films of the Marshall Islands
http://www.microwavefilms.org
iMac i7 using Lion 10.7.x, HPX 170 using only one 64GB card
I live on an island in the middle of the Pacific, YOU are my only resource.

[Bill Davis]

[Jack Niedenthal] “I am now able to open FCPX, all the other events are fine, it is just the event I want to work with that won’t work. Every time I click on it I just get the beach ball and eventually I have to force quit.

I am now making a copy of the event, unfortunately it is 700+GBs, so that will take hours.”

Jack,

That’s probably your original problem. If you have 700gigs of content, then X is going to require a massive amount of processing time to transcode those unless you’re trying to work with original media. And if you do that, depending on the file types, you’re going to be working REALLY slow.

The whole point of how X operates is that it likes to see clean, properly compressed source files in the events – since everything that happens is just pointers back to that.

I suspect your beach ball issues is that X keeps trying to get it’s underlying database sorted out – but with that massive amount of content, instead of giving it the time that it needs to process stuff behind the scenes, you keep force quitting so it never has the time it needs for that housekeeping.

I used to do the same thing a lot until I started to understand that X is kinda like an employee with mild OCD.

They sometimes perform poorly until unless everything is neatly arranged in the storeroom before they can come out on the floor to sell stuff – but if you just let them get those “back of the house” tasks done – they become content and turn out to be incredibly productive at their jobs.

FWIW.

“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

[Jack Niedenthal]

Hi Bill,
So what should I do? Open the event, let the beach ball spin as it tries to sort itself out, then come back (many?) hours later to see if it is there spinning? How much time should I give it?

I guess one question I have is that if I had some corrupt files, then I get rid of them, when I go to open the event is it somehow looking for those files? Could that be what is taking so long? Could it have something to do with the files I have already rendered that no longer have the corrupt media there?

I was thinking of going through and trying to dump some of the rendered files, but I am not sure what that will do to the project. I guess I have to be careful not to get too desperate.

Thanks for your response.

Jack Niedenthal
Microwave Films of the Marshall Islands
http://www.microwavefilms.org
iMac i7 using Lion 10.7.x, HPX 170 using only one 64GB card
I live on an island in the middle of the Pacific, YOU are my only resource.