Repair corrupted project file

[Michael Sanders]

Yes I know that and OK, maybe that’s enough to protect you from a corrupt file after a computer freeze, although the jury still appears to be out on that.

However, I would still like the ability to have the autosave live on a different drive. I have had hard drive’s crash on me at the wrong time and I can do without the rise in my blood pressure thanks.

Personally I have a USB thumb drive that lives in my computer all the time and that worked perfectly under FCP 7.

Michael Sanders
London Based DP/Editor

[Jonathan Page]

And now me….. I’ve just spent a long day doing a final edit in FCPX 10.0.4, checked it through and exported it to Compressor that came up with the spinning beach ball until I did a forced quit on it after 5 minutes and ‘not responding’ message. I’ve tried most things I can think of, though every time FCPX is launched – it crashes when trying to load that particular project. I’ve gone through all the folders and files in that project and isolated it down to the ‘CurrentVersion.fcpproject’ file (9.8mb) that’s obviously now corrupt and causes the crashes. The trouble is the only other backup files (90kb ea), in the Backup folder, were created 10 hours before – when I duplicated the project at the start of this edit. No other backup files to be found that I can see.
I’ve copied the Event and project onto a FCPX copy on another Mac and the same happens as above. Regretfully Time Capsule was being used as an emergency back up H/D, due to another external H/D failure, the replacement arrived today and is sitting in it’s box…… Oh well.
Does anyone have a magic answer or is it a rebuild edit from memory and an a grovel to the client?
Thanks in advance, Jonathan.

[Sam Lowe]

So I just now, for the first time with FCPX, experienced the same problem.

I was option-dragging to copy a generator and text so I could use it again later in the timeline, and I got the beachball of death.

FCPX crashed, and now, after discovering the wonderful program Event Manager, I’ve learned that everything is well EXCEPT THAT PROJECT FILE.

A backup wouldn’t have saved me if I had it, because all my editing today is toast. The autosave file won’t launch, either.

FCP simply won’t launch when it sees that Project.

This…is bad. If anyone has determined how to “un-corrupt” a Project file, I’m all ears…er, eyes.

[Michael Sanders]

Hi.

First of all I’m really sorry to hear this.

I don’t have an answer but suggest you do the following..

First fill out a feedback form on the apple website https://www.apple.com/feedback/finalcutpro.html , apple do read this and in similar instances apple have contacted people.

2nd, repost this here as a new topic – more people will see it and might respond.

Good luck.

Michael Sanders
London Based DP/Editor

[Frank Coleman]

Here is the work around, found in Apple Discussions after much furtive Googling.

Close the project that is corrupted and make sure it is highlighted in the Project Library.
Go to File/Export XML and save that file (I saved mine to a different drive).
Re-import that file, generating a new project.
Close and Restart the FCPX App.
STAY AWAY FROM THE PROJECT FILE WITH THE CORRUPTED TIMELINE.
Open the newly project created via the XML import.
Everything should be there and working fine.

[Ted Irving]

i had a power failure today. of course it would happen when i don’t have my battery backup in place. but once i rebooted and launched fcpx 10.05 the entire project/timeline was gone! i tried opening it and got the, “this could be corrupted,” message. however, i do have the nice Sans Digital RAID timemachine backup. i copied the project file from there and deleted the corrupted version. when i relaunched fcpx all was well. Whether its the old fcpx, avid, perm…doesn’t matter, we have to have a backup, backup and backup to the backup thats backing up the backups. LOL

Ted Irving
Freelance Content Creation
CBS MaxPreps/BBN3
http://www.tedtv.tv
tedirving@yahoo.com

[Ryan Underwood]

I had some luck using the following method.

Go into the project folder and find the current project file. There should also be a backup folder with a saved version. Replace the current version with the backup version. You will have to rename it. Hopefully this doesn’t set you back too far, but it’s better than not being able to open the file. I suppose this assumes it is the actual project file that is corrupt and not the event or render files…

[Sue b. Gahn]

Frank – it worked with the below added info/tweaks:

Here is the work around, found in Apple Discussions after much furtive Googling.

Close the project that is corrupted and make sure it is highlighted in the Project Library.
** MUST USE ARROW KEYS ON KEYBOARD TO NAVIGATE TO PROJECT TO HIGHLIGHT, OTHERWISE PROJECT WILL CONTINUE TO CRASH – ONCE PROJECT IS HIGHLIGHTED — SLOWLY …
Go to File/Export XML and save that file (I saved mine to a different drive).
Re-import that file, generating a new project.
Close and Restart the FCPX App.
STAY AWAY FROM THE PROJECT FILE WITH THE CORRUPTED TIMELINE. – MY SUGGESTION WOULD BE TO MOVE TO A SEPARATE FOLDER ON ANOTHER HARD DRIVE, THUS IT DOES NOT APPEAR IN FCP X

NB: THE OTHER ISSUE WAS I HAD OVER-EXHAUSTED VIDEO IN VIDEO AND FLY-INS WHICH WAS THE ISSUE FOR THE CORRUPTION – ONCE I OPENED THE PROJECT, I IMMEDIATELY DELETED THESE CLIPS & TRANSITIONS, ETC SO AS NOT TO RENDER AND CRASH AGAIN

Open the newly project created via the XML import.
Everything should be there and working fine.

[Wkilla Tello]

THANK SO MUCHHHHHHH!!!!!! I WAS LIKE A CRAZY FINDING WHAT HAPPEN TO MY PROJECT AND REPLACE IT THE BACKUP TO CURRENT PROJECT SAVE MY LIFEEEEE 😀

[Kenneth Rogers]

I just wanted to throw a little helpful advice in here that may or may not apply to someone’s problem – I had a problem opening a very important project; I was getting the spinning beachball and the program would freeze. Very distressing as it was over a year’s worth of work! I tried substituting the back ups as suggested in this thread, but it didn’t work. Then I realized that since a few updates ago, FCPX has been crashing every time I tried to use any of the “C2” effects or transitions. AH-HA! I removed the C2 stuff from the library and presto, everything opened just fine! I had used those effects in the project before the updates but now the new FCPX was choking on them. Dumped ’em and I was good to go!
I hope this helps someone as I know how frustrating it can be when you’re hung up on technical problems.
Thanks to all who contribute! 😀