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I can’t open my project file in Final Cut Pro 6
Unfortunately, my operating system is very old (Apple OS X 10.5.8). I use Final Cut Pro 6 and while I sometimes hit snags and slow spots, it usually works ok. Tonight, however, I ran into a problem. A video I have been editing all day, with several layers of video and titles, etc, stopped opening. Here’s exactly what happened:
– I added new titles over a spot that had previously been rendered. To save space on my computer before re-rendering, I decided to delete the previous render files since they were now redundant. I’ve done this before without a problem.
– I saved my project and quit FCP, since it wouldn’t let me delete the render files while it was open.
– I deleted the render files.
– I attempted to re-open the project and FCP crashed. This happened repeatedly (I kept trying). Other projects opened fine.
– I checked the autosave vault. Everything saved after a certain point (when I added a lot of video clips, bringing the file size from 132 KB to 420 KB) ALSO would not open.
– Fearing it was something to do with the size of the file, I quickly created a new project that was also about 420 KB – we’ll call this Project #2 (Project #1 being the one that won’t open). I saved, quit, and re-opened and it worked fine. So apparently it’s not a size issue.
– Wondering if it was because I deleted the render files, I rendered part of Project #2 and then did the same thing: closed the project, deleted the render files and re-opened. But FCP didn’t crash when I re-opened Project #2.
– Figuring it was maybe something to do with the volume of render files deleted, I’m now rendering the whole Project #2. I will then delete all of those render files and see if it will re-open then.
That’s the stage I’m at now and while I’m waiting for it to render, I thought I should ask for some advice. Even if I can figure out what caused the issue in the first place, that isn’t necessarily going to help me get the project back (or rather, be able to open it on this computer, the only one I have access to at the moment).
This is potentially really grim news for me, not only because I will have lost a video I put a lot of work into but because it means I probably can’t use this computer to edit complicated videos anymore, including some I would be getting paid for (this particular video is for my personal YouTube channel). I unfortunately can’t invest in a new computer or editing software in the near future so the implications could be disastrous.
Any help that anyone could provide to troubleshoot this, and get that program to open again, is GREATLY appreciated. Thank you.
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6 Replies
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Yes, unfortunately, I’ve tried all 4. Since opening the project crashes FCP, that means I’m restarting it every single time (dozens at this point) that I try to open the project. I rebooted and/or shut down the computer several times (once for 90 minutes) and trashed the 4 key preferences suggested in another thread. None of it worked – every time I open it I still get the good old spinning rainbow wheel, followed by the message: “The application Final Cut Pro quit unexpectedly” (etc). Occasionally, usually when I am transferring files to a thumb drive ody enough I will get the “reading project” window which makes it as far as 50% in a few seconds before freezing.
I’m close to redoing the project from scratch/memory unless anyone has other ideas how to open the project that’s just sitting there, intact but unusable. Although even if I go ahead with that it would be good to know any workaround in case (shudder) it happens again.
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I still don’t know why the file went screwy in the first place, but happily I was able to find someone who could import the project into Final Cut Pro 7 on their own computer, and then send me my project back as an xml. I had to bump it down to version 2 in TextEdit to import it, but when I did, the project was back online and able to open.
That said, I’d still love to know if anyone has further explanations of WHY this might have happened or other troubleshooting options if something similar happens again without a generous soul on hand to send me an xml.
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one solution i have heard of is to open your project with the media drive disconnected.
a common reason for the project not opening is a particular piece of media that is giving it trouble,
so opening with the media offline can work.
you then reconnect, and possibly in the process discover the problem clip/s.nick
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Since I was able to successfully export the video and am thus done with the project, I decided to delete all the media files completely (they were on my desktop). But the project STILL doesn’t open.
Incidentally, when I received the xml yesterday I created a whole new project name. And now that I’m done exporting and have closed and attempted to re-open THAT project, it won’t open either. Very strange.
So now two different project names (albeit spawned from the same initial project file), with media disconnected, crash FCP every time they are open. But all my other projects are fine, including some the same size or bigger. I guess there was just some weird corruption somewhere along the way deeply embedded in the file, to the point where even when opened on another computer and sent back to me as an xml which I successfully imported back into my own FCP…it still won’t re-open when closed.
Very weird.
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Ok, now it’s happening again to ANOTHER project. It seems like if I close a big project, and re-open it many hours later it won’t re-open. (Again, when I go into the autosave vaults everything of a smaller size is available but once it gets up to a certain level – in this case jumping from 44 KB to 276 – it just keeps crashing.)
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Further update: apparently what I have to do is keep a separate backup project available where I copy and paste the sequence from time to time. My autosave vault past a certain point is inaccessible so I have to actually “physically” back the file up myself repeatedly or I risk losing everything. This is nuts – there’s gotta be some workaround. Besides getting a new computer with an operating system that isn’t a decade old…but that’s not an option right now unfortunately.
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