FCP quit unexpectedly…won’t open project

[Jeremy Garchow]

If you trash prefs, does it open? If it still won’t open, disconnect your scratch drive and try to open the project.

[Amy Wilson]

I tried both suggestions and the project still has the same error and will not open.

[Jeremy Garchow]

Can you open a new blank project?

[Amy Wilson]

I can open all other projects, as well as blank projects without any problem. I’m assuming my project just got too large and i will try to keep the size down from now on. I’d love to be able to open that one to get my most recent sequence though, so if you have any more suggestions, please let me know. Thanks!

[Jeremy Garchow]

is there media that is connected to that project that is NOT on your scratch drive? That is, is there media that is on your boot drive? If so, rename that folder or move the media temporarily to the desktop, then try to launch that project.

Jeremy

[Kevin Hamm]

It’s not your preferences, otherwise no file would work. It’s not your scratch disks or your files on your boot drive, or again, other projects would crash as well. It’s just a corrupted project file.

Yes, I said that like it’s no big deal. And it’s not. You know why? Because unless you foolishly turned off the Autosave feature, you have a series of versions of this project in there that should work just fine. just go into your Autosave Vault and open the project using one of the last versions in there. You should be fine, then.

I’ve had this happen when stuff is stored on external drives, it’s a pain, and it sucks if you lose a ton of work, but amazingly, Autosave Vault really works brilliantly. Oh, and it should be “Save Your Ass When You Most Need It Vault”

kev~!

[Peter Gagnon]

I had this same problem, but all of my autosave files have the same problem. I went back through 10 of them already and they have the same issue.

[Saya Hillman]

Peter or anyone else with this issue, were you able to find a solution? I’m in the same boat, with a corrupt file, and all of my autosave vault files are the same. I threw out my render files for the project, to make room for something, would that have corrupted it? Any solutions?

[Brad Wagner]

Did you ever sort out your “Unexpectedly Quit” issue? I’m experiencing the same thing right now. My only suspicion is that the Software Update app interfered with the normal operation of FCP. Software Update flashed onscreen during my session, and although I didn’t update anything, I feel that the sudden competition for my CPU’s resources may have caused the corruption.
I have not been able to restore that project, nor do the Autosaves open (from that day. The autosaves from two days ago function properly). My only suggestion is to make sure that your Update app doesn’t automatically check for updates.

[Patrick Sheehan]

i just ran into the same problem. here’s what i did:

i saved a copy of the ‘corrupt’ fcp project file to my desktop. then i turned off the external drive that has the files and the original fcp project (that won’t open). i then opened the fcp project that i’d saved onto the desktop. it opened fine (of course, it’s asking me to re-link the files that are missing which of course i didn’t do). now the project is open and i can get to the last sequence. from here you can do a few different things:

1. go in and highlight all of the files in the sequence and copy them. create a new project and paste the files into a new sequence. save a copy of the new project and then turn on the drive with the files on it, open the project and it should work fine. of course, this is the “quick fix” and will create other problems down the road but, if all you need to do is get to that last sequence so you can output it this will work. NOTE: i tried this and it worked. you could ALSO try copying everything from the ‘corrupt’ project into the new project (just drag all files across from the browser into the browser of the new project and save it as a new project-different name). i haven’t done this so it may not work (because you might be copying over the problem that’s making the ‘corrupt’ file not work) but #2 below isn’t much different and it worked. if it doesn’t work you could try adding one thing at a time until it doesn’t work and then you will have isolated the problem.

2. what i did: i opened the replica ‘corrupt’ project that i’d created on the desktop (with the external drive still off). i also saved a replica of a previous version of the fcp project onto the desktop (that wasn’t corrupt but was a bit out of date). having both opened, i copied over the newest sequences from the ‘corrupt’ fcp project to the older fcp project and attempted to update the older fcp project as much as possible looking at the ‘corrupt’ project (copying over links to video files, music, sequences, etc) and saved the updated/older fcp project as a new file. i then closed fcp, turned on the external drive with the files on it, opened the newly created fcp project and ‘voila’ it opened with my newest sequences and other updates intact.