Help! Can't open compund clip, leads to spinning beachball and FCP freeze

Hi all,

I'm on FCP 10.0.8 (Yeah I know I should've updated by now but I'm always in the middle of multiple projects) and OS 10.9.5.

I use compound clips as my main timelines/versions and duplicate new ones as I work on the next version. I did a ton of work on a complete version of my timeline that is a compound clip. It's about 5 mins long and contains video footage, music, photos, text, graphics and the use of one plugin (Flicker Free by Digital Anarchy to de-flicker slo-mo footage). Last night, everything was working fine and I exported the compound clip and sent the cut to my client. I completely shut down my Macbook Pro (early 2011, 16GB RAM) and external G-Raid Thunderbolt working drive that houses all the footage and project files.

This morning, I boot up everything, open FCPX and the event. Everything fine. I'm able to open all my other versions that are compound clips but when I try to open the latest and most complex finished version, I get the spinning beach ball and FCP freezes. I have to force quit to get out. This also happens even just slow double clicking the title of the clip and changing the its name. I change the text, hit enter, then beach ball. I have been using this work flow for a good while and this has never happened. This is the first time I've used this plugin though, and it's pretty CPU intensive for my old laptop. When I click once on the clip to highlight it, it takes a few secs to load the preview, while the other compound clips load their previews right away. Not sure if that has something to do with it...

I've tried:

• Shutting down and restarting - Same issue happens
  
• Opening other events - everything seems to work as normal
• Opening from the backup by re-naming it as current and putting it in the current's place - same issue happpens
  
• From my backup HD, taking the Current database file there and putting it into my working drive to replace the Current - Same issue happens

I'm not expert at trouble shooting and don't know what to do. I have a deadlinein two days and kinda freaking out. Can anyone help?! THANK YOU!

This reply is obviously beyond your deadline, so hopefully you solved your problem. But, here is a suggestion anyway in case you still have issues. Try deleting FCPX preference files. For your version, you can download the free Prefs Manager program from Digital Rebellion to safely do this. FCPX will rebuild new preference files the next time you launch it and you'll have to reset the few options in preferences to your liking. Then see how your compound clip acts. If you have the same issue, I would suggest the next step would be to delete the render files manually thru the finder. Post back any results if this is still an issue for you.

…I use compound clips as my main timelines/versions and duplicate new ones as I work on the next version. I did a ton of work on a complete version of my timeline that is a compound clip

:lol: :lol: :lol:
There are very rare cases, where you need compounds; and, even those who never had issues with compounds, have to admit: compounds within compounds result in 'issues'. So, avoid'em; they are NO replacement for 'sequences' used in obsolete versions of FCP.

Plus, get familiar with the new features 'Auditions' and 'Snapshots', if there's any need to keep the evolotion of your project.... aahh, sorry: not in your version of FCPX ... one more good reason to upgrade.

Thanks for the replies,

I got some advice elsewhere and was able to solve the issue . Trashing the preferences using Digital Rebellion's Preference Manager worked. I guess that's something I should have done right away. I'm not great at knowing what to do or how to do it in FCP X. I used to do that in FCP legacy all the time. Go figure.

Anyways I think it def had to do with the plugin. In that latest compound clip that I couldn't open, I had used Flicker Free on a handful of clips. But what I think might have really made the clip heavy was that I was using the end of the timeline as a sandbox for diff settings and experimenting with the plugin on like 8 clips, sometimes putting the plugin twice on the same clip. After I trashed the prefs, I was able to open the compound clip. I immediately cut those sandbox clips and created a separate compound clip just for messing with settings and pasted them in there. Actually, after that, when I opened the original problem compound, then tried to open the new sandbox compound that I just created, FCP froze up again. This makes me think it was def that sandbox of clips with heavy use of the plugin that was freezing things up. I restarted FCP and immediately deleted the sandbox compound. Everything totally fine for now.

I guess I have to really limit my use of that plugin because it's so processor heavy? Do you think that if I had a newer computer it'd still be an issue? or latest version of FCP? or latest OS? What was the bottleneck?

Yes, I seriously want to upgrade to the latest version of FCP but am in the middle of a few long term projects and I assume upgrading in the middle of them would screw everything up, right? I can't have two versions on the same machine either, correct? If there's away to work it, please let me know. Otherwise I'll have to find moment when I have no open projects and upgrade then.

I would personally stay on the version of FCPX you have until your project is complete. Running multiple versions of the app is not recommended and likely to cause other problems. The new version also functions quite a bit differently than what you have regarding media organization so there is a small learning curve. A new computer may help with processing power for the plugins you mention, but I would first see if the plugin manufacturer has an update or a specific version for 10.0.8.

Bottom line, get your project done and then look at upgrading everything you can. Tackling an update of FCPX, the Mac OS and your computer hardware all at once is going to require some time, configuration and patience. Don't risk that task during an ongoing project.