Final Cut Pro 7 now works in Mojave and High Sierra using Retroactive

[Nick Meyers]

wow, great news. I’ll be very interested to see / hear how this works out.

thanks,
nick

[Eric Anderson]

I just tried to use Retroactive. Have FCP7 and Mojave OS on computer. Each time I try and open FCP it starts to load then just crashes. Even when I unlock FCP with Retroactive, it still crashes as it loads. Any advice? Thanks, E

[Phil Snyder]

I’ve located Mojave OS in the App Store. After I download it, will it ask me where I want to assign it and will I be able to install it on my external drive? I do NOT want to install it on my main HD which is running Sonoma 14.3.1. After that, I will install Retroactive. FCP 7 is already on that drive in the Application folder.

[Martin Kløft]

Hi Bo, Nick, Eric and Phil… Do you have any solution on converting an old FCP file to a XML file that can be used in the new FCP-X???

[Stéphane Lambert]

Hi everyone !
Nostalgia striked again: tada , holly scoop !!!
Supposely Retroactive 2.1 let’s you seamlessly come back to FCP7 former projects.
I own a cranky mac mini 2012 Fusion with high sierra but my reality got different: I launched Retroactive and a so called seamless process searched for an existing fcp7 install file in my High Sierra partition. From then on, my FCP7 should have been ready to go! Great, but which install file? .mpkg, toast, dmg, .app??? Hurray, I reached the final step with a blasting success window complete with fireworks graphics, but when clicking on “launch”, zilch, nutin’ !
I just have a toast or mpkg file that works fine on the mac os mountain session, but I sense it’s bound to sleep there until the end of time. My heart thumped when I did a little progress as I manually showed the fcp.app to Retroactive on the mountain session, but then nothing again .

My original install dvds got lost, so I’ll just have to burn in hell I guess!

If anyone here can help me, I’d be really thankful for a tip for nostalgia, it’s the happiness of being sad !

[Dennis Couzin]

Hello Stéphane,

I installed FCP7 in a High Sierra volume last week for curiosity’s sake, since I’m happy to still run it in a Mountain Lion volume. I used Retroactive version 2.1(91) and a Final Cut Studio install.dmg. Installation worked, but strangely. Retroactive insisted on downloading its own ProApplicationsUpdate2010-02, from somewhere, although I had the .dmg for that too. I suspect your installation also worked, but you missed some final, strange cue from Retroactive.

It might be difficult to remove all that Retroactive loaded in your High Sierra volume in order to try FCP7 installation again. Wouldn’t it be simpler to set up a volume with an earlier OSX where FCP7 installs nicely? Macs are lovely for multi-boot. Or have you gone all-in with High Sierra, also updating your hard drive to APFS? Or do you need to do High Sierra things while editing?

Dennis Couzin
Berlin, Germany

[Stéphane Lambert]

Guten Tag Bo Jones !

Viel dank for your interest, it’s very kind of you to take note of my little plea 😉
I’d even like to upgrade to Mojave if possible, so that my mac mini wouldn’t look so old ! I must confess it feels helpless on mountain when working on a fcp7 session, for as you know, no other app works anymore when you’re buried in there 😉 !
What I’d need in fact is the fcp7 .dmg file, I’m not expert enough to turn my mpkg into dmg though I know it’s possible.
Otherwise not too familiar with APFS and putting my hands deep into the engine either !

How about AppCleaner to clean the preceding install leftovers ?

Biss bald ?

Stephan

[Dennis Couzin]

OK Stéphane, let’s “connect” over this. (Creative Cow member connection is something I can’t figure out.)
For the record, however, FCP7 works best in the earlier operating systems. And the software it needs to work with works best in the earlier operating systems. For example, FCP7 must communicate with Compressor 3.5 in order to make a Blu-ray. Concerning FCP7 removal, App Cleaner might do a fair job, FCS Remover (from Digital Rebellion) might do a better job, but I’d expect Retroactive to have done a funny installation of FCP7 in High Sierra causing those removals to be incomplete.
DC

[Stéphane Lambert]

Again, thank you so much for this new reply. I’ll try your suggestions and keep fcp 7 on my OS mountain lion session. But since I’m stubborn, I’d like to make a last try on my High Sierra OS.

I hope you won’t get worried but this little query of mine: I was wondering if maybe you could wire me the dmg file for fcp 7.0.3 by any chance with “grosfichiers.com” (10Go max!) if I sent you my email adress ?
If it’s not in your philosophy, forget it, I’d understand of course, but since I don’t have my install DVD anymore and do want to spend time and money on this adventure, I’m asking this favor from you. Please do as you please and I won’t mind at all if that’s not ok.
Thanks for reading me and understanding Bo, have a good day !
Stephan

[Dennis Couzin]

Stéphane

Yes, everyone should have the fun of installing FCP7 on High Sierra using Retroactive. Contact me for the .dmg.

DC