“This project is unreadable or may be too new for this version of FCP”

[Todd Reid]

Not sure if this helps, but that is the error message that I get when I try to open a project created in FCP 6.0.2, on a machine that has an older version, say FCP 5.x.

From your description it doesn’t sound like this is your issue.

You may have some corruption. Try to create a new sequence, then copy/paste everything into it, see it that helps.

If not, try creating a new project, then copy/paste everything into it.

Might try deleting all your render files and repairing permissions.

[Bobby Holbrook ii]

Thanks Todd I’ll give it a go!!

Chief Editor/Cinematographer
P2 University Grad.
Holbrook Multi-Media

[Jason Adams]

We ran into the exact same problem last week after upgrading to Leopard. Not understanding it totally, it has something to do with system permissions and admin permissions. I went into the the terminal and command line changed the project files owners to different users with no luck, even whole folders and drives. In the end we simply removed the user with the user ID 501 (usually the first user created or reserved for an admin account). Everything works great now. All projects old and current, open and work fine now.

[Bobby Holbrook ii]

Good deal,I’ll give it a shot
Thanks Jason

Chief Editor/Cinematographer
P2 University Grad.
Holbrook Multi-Media

[Fred Miller]

I just ran into the same error message while opening an older project (from 2005). It does seem to be a permissions problem. I was able to open the project on a different system (same version software) and then “save as.” The new project would then open in the edit suite that I wanted to work in.

FCP Studio 2
Dual 3Gg Quad Core
5Gg RAM
KONA 2
OS 10.4.11

[Frank Laughlin]

Having the same problem. Could you clarify your post for me?

When you say, “I was able to open the project on a different system (same version software)” do you mean the ‘same version software’ as the original file was created? Or, do you mean the same version software that failed to open on the first machine?

I’ve tried opening my problem project on two different machines both running the same version of FCP (6.0.5) without success.

Thanks!

– Frank Laughlin
Digitonium

[Fred Miller]

What I meant was I opened the project on a different system – that had the same version software as the system that previously given me the error. That’s when I realized that it probably was some sort of permissions problem.

The best advice I can give is to try to find a system that WILL open the project, and then save it out as a new project. That worked for me.

Fred

Mac Pro 2X3 Quad Core Intel Xeon
5 Gigs RAM
AJA KONA 3
Leoapard 10.5.6
QuickTime Version 7.5.5
FCP Version 6.0.5

[Roy Daniel]

I ran into the same problem this morning and after searching and scratching my head for a few hours, I trashed my preferences, restarted the machine, tested FCP and created a new user on my system. Nothing worked.

***Fortunately, before I emptied the TRASH when I trashed my prefs, I took the last RENDER FILE out of the trash and placed it on my desktop.***

I emptied the trash and tried a bunch of things until I got an error code -600 (serial number/program is not recognized by Apple)(ie: cracked software). I turned off my airport, opened FCP from the render file icon on my desktop and it worked!

I had to reconnect all my files, then I copied my BIN, I opened a new project and pasted the BIN in there, I created a new sequence and copied my old one into the new one and, finally, I backed up the new project to a different external drive.

The only thing missing from my project was a few clips from before my last rendering on the original project but that took only a few minutes to fix.

Hope this help, good luck and, trust me, from now on I’ll back up my projects twice a day!