The whole timeline has turned all red on FCP X

[Eric Santiago]

Check your view options for Proxy/Optimize?
Check if the original data exists?

[Joe Marler]

[Varun Trikha] “I have been editing a film for almost 2 months and suddenly the whole timeline has turned all red. This is really scary.

I am using iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014, High Sierra) and FCP X 10.3.4”

First, save on external storage all FCPX auto-backup libraries, which by default are in /Movies/Final Cut Backups. These are quite small because they don’t contain cache or media.

Next make a file backup of your currently library – if possible. If it contains cache and media it might be too large for this. If it uses only external media the cache can be deleted with File>Delete Generated Library Files>Delete Render Files>All. That might make it small enough to backup using Finder. This gives a file-level restore point after any subsequent troubleshooting.

As Eric said, if you’re using proxies, switch the viewer back to orig. media. If still red, see if the media files are still visible in Finder. It could be something simple like a drive off line.

If timeline clips are red but they are not red in the Event Browser, that could imply a project issue. What is the history? Have you ever copied any projects or clips between libraries? There is a scenario with cross-library copy where optimized/proxy media exist and you answer “no” to the checkboxes, the clips in the destination library can be read or black.

Is all media and library on HFS+ or APFS volumes? If any are on ExFAT or NAS volumes, please indicate.

In general I’d recommend running a precautionary Disk Utility First Aid on all volumes. To run properly on the system volume requires you be in Recovery Mode, else it’s read only: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314

If that works without error and you have a file-level backup of your current library, the easiest solution might be loading the next-most-recent backup library which is automatically backed up by FCPX. That can be done in FCPX from File>Open Library>From Backup, or you can navigate to that folder in Finder and double-click on the library bundle.

If that backup is recent and right before you did the retiming operation, that may fix it. If not try successively older backups.

In general (after the current situation is resolved) I suggest running a later version of FCPX and MacOS. There have been many fixes and upgrades since High Sierra and FCPX 10.3.4. If you have any issues with Catalina such as no 32-bit support, just upgrade to Mojave and FCPX 10.4.8. Save file-level backups old libraries and save a copy of Final Cut Pro.app in /Applications. This will allow rollback in case the upgrade doesn’t work right.

You can get Mojave here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210190