Failure To Import (for no good reason) HELP ME PLEASE!

ok I like to think I know my way around FCPX and have in general had no problems with it...

HOWEVER...

I have what I think is a wrapper issue on large (3-4gb) Canon DSLR h264's (and AVCHD's) - and I can't for the life of me figure out how to solve it:

So....

I filmed a week ago on two cameras (Sony FS700 (AVCHD) and a Canon T2i (.H264) B camera). I archived the rushes (via FCPX) straight from the camera cards to an external hard drive and then duplicated them to a third drive for back up.

NO errors and when I removed the camera cards - video played fine. After the shoot I imported a bunch of select shots and was met with this error on alot of them:

The following clip encountered an error during import and is still referencing media on the camera:

Clip Name: 2012-12-14 16:14:00
Event: Ford

Original Name: MVI_3490
Volume: CARD 001 (CANON).fcarch

Ok. So I power on with the edit and figure I can recapture from the archive later. When I try that I get the spinning beach ball of death and FCPX locks up. Now I can't even view the rushes on either back up or the original archive - as no picture will show and FCP X lock s up the moment I try and play them.

PANIC - RUSHES CORRUPTED!

Then I try them on another FCPX system and archive plays just fine (MAJOR PANIC OVER! Phew!) - but has the same problem - they will not import - and when I try and reimport them from archive - it locks up this system.

On opening the archive outside of FCPX - they all seem to play fine. And I can drop them into compressor to convert with no problem (from the small tests I have performed)

BUT MY QUESTION IS : why to god is FCPX doing this? Bug? User Error?


First time I have dealt with its archiving (and based on this experience the last) is it always this bad? I am guessing its a wrapper issue - but that should have been sorted out long ago.

Any advise on how I can get it to work as advertised would be appreciated.

PS. I'm on 2.6 Retina Macbook Pro with 16gb Ram and an SSD. FCPX 10.0.7 and latest Mountain Lion.

Anyone? this is getting pretty desperate.

Is this a bug or is my system screwed?

come on guys.

i know its christmas, but seriously no-one has any ideas on one of the most popular FCPX BOARDS as to whats causing this?

i have started a fresh OSX account and that seems to cure it, however this is far from ideal because I will need to reinstall everything from scratch.

so is it a bug?

Try these, in order, see if one will kick it back into working for you properly. This is pretty much standard trouble shooting.

1- Digital Rebellion (dot com) free app "Preference Manager" to trash preference files.

2- Try deleting render files.

4- Move the "Final Cut Pro" app from the Applications folder to the Trash. Launch the Mac App Store, go to the Purchased tab, click the Install button to the right of FCP X.

3- Run Disk Warrior to repair the directory on all of your hard drives.

What version are you on? I believe with 10.0.5 and earlier you had to select "camera archive" to import off of a drive.

You may consider upgrading to 10.0.7 if you haven't--although it's always a bit risky mid-project.

Big question, HOW specifically are you opening them up outside of FCPX?

No idea mate.

But at least you can open them outside of FCP X.
Just convert them to ProRes, do your work and then relax.
It's Christmas. Hopefully in the new year things will become clear as to why this happened.
Mayan's apocalypse perhaps?

BenB wrote: Big question, HOW specifically are you opening them up outside of FCPX?

VLC opens about everything.

Would it help him to have the good, old mpeg player plugin for QT?

QT MPEG-2 playback plugin is only for QT Player 7. QT Player X doesn't need it.

Yes, but couldn't he export his clips as something meaningful then via mpeg Steamclip? That's what I did when working with these beasty .tod files from JVC when dabbling with FCE at home.

Yeah I've found archiving doesn't work as advertised for H264 footage for FCP X , so I stay away from it. You should be able to edit fairly well natively with H264 especially T2i footage. Try manually bringing the H264 out of the archive and then re-import. IF you are doing a large project over an hour I suggest converting to proxy.

Same exact problem here! Its the reason for my search!! OSX 10.8.2 FCP 10.0.7.

I've been able to multi cam, and edit footage looks great, came up with my first rough cut, and cant export it! When I quit out of FCP, and then re-open, none of my footage appears- the project looks to be offline. I can re-import the footage; and playback the timeline, but cant export. When I import the footage, I get the error "The following clip encountered an error during import and is still referencing media on the camera:" on several clips...

Footage shot on 5D MKii, cards have long been wiped, pulling footage in from several external drive sources, and the main internal drive on the MBP- with same result. I have trashed prefs, and reinstalled FCP fresh, same result.

SOOO FRUSTRATING !!! HELP!!!

well finished this project and moved on to another - that I filmed with the same cameras (but different memory cards). And have experienced the exact same problem.

The way around it. Encode your canon footage to pro res outside FCPX and then bring it in. Not ideal, but workable.

Looks like there is a FCPX bug that relates to the archiving of Canon H264's. As said elsewhere its broken and DO NOT RELY on FCPX archive function. Real shame as I love the potential of the workflow.

Where do we report this to Apple?

Report any issues within the FCPX application. At the top menu under "Final Cut Pro" there is a selection for "Provide Final Cut Pro Feedback".