Viewer blacking out on portions of timeline

Hi i'm having an issue where final cut pro x is blacking out all of the visuals of portions of my project. I've tried restarting fxpx and the computer but it keeps happening. Whenever I start it again, the visuals will show- but then after i watch it once (or if i try to edit it like make a compound clip then ) then it will go black. I havent found any way to get them back unless i restart it, and its happening in at least 3 places in my project (i've only tried to work on these 3 places today- thought it worked fine for the first half hr today in all three spots).

Its a very complex timeline, so thats may be contributing, but it didn't happen at all while working on it last night for hours (in even more complex parts) and my mac/fcp never has this type of problem.

Why is this happening and how can i fix it?

Thanks, Dan

Here is pic-



[img]http://https://www.dropbox.com/s/4312ok92j6ov6h2/Screen%20Shot%202017-03-20%20at%2012.21.14%20PM.png?dl=0[/img]

update-

1- its happening on clips all over the project. if i work on the section, then the clips constistently black out. but even some clips that i havent worked on are just blacking out too (randomly every other or one in a few clips it seems)

would running proxy media help with this? I don't think its just a computing power issue though, the mac is running at full normal speed still.

i tried duplicating a project as well and that didn't help anything either

They look like you muted them. "V" is the keyboard shortcut for mute. The clip will go dark in the Timeline and be invisible on playback. Select those clips, hit V. Be careful you're not hitting V by accident. Especially pasting with Cmd-V, get in the habit of pressing modifier keys first, then the letter keys. Then let off the letter keys first, then the modifiers.

I had a student once who couldn't stop letting off the modifiers first, and it created a mess. We worked that out after awhile. Wasn't easy, he just reflexively did that.

Thanks for your input. I don't think that these parts are muted. There is one muted clip at the playhead, but all of the others are in brighter coloring, and hitting V does not bring the visual back. I use muting often, but it doesnt seem to be happening here, unless I am missing something?

just did some tests and here is some more of info for diagnosing the issue-

- the problem is not just occurring on this project. it seems to be happening on all projects, even very small ones

- the problem is also occurring in the browser. when i try to play a clip from the browser in the viewer, they are all showing black. audio is fine in all occasions

- It also goes black any time i add transition to a clip

- i am unable to add any clip from the browser into the timeline, without it going black in viewer


I'm thinking about re-installing FCP. Is that a good idea?

Or maybe there is some wierd setting i accidentally set? Has anybody ever heard of this issue?

(i've been having alot of other problems with my imac, so maybe its not just FCP, but related to the mac itself?)

This looks like hardware issue. Select About this Mac and check if all your RAM is available and active.

Viewer going black can relate either to a RAM issue, a failing media drive or a GPU failure. As this issue happens with different media and across projects, and it has occured suddenly while everything worked well the day before, I think we can rule out a problem with the media or the software.

Reinstalling FCPX only takes a few minutes, so there's nothing lost with trying this. But I think the cause of the issue is somewhere else.

- Ronny

Thanks Ronny. I just did what you said with About this Mac and it looks like its available... it says there's 40Gb of RAM as it should be saying and I don't see it saying that any RAM is failing anywhere ... not sure if i'm missing something though, this is the first time I've ever checked on my RAM from there and not sure if there's something I should be looking out for.

Any recommendations on what the next steps are? Look more closely at the About this mac screen? Run tests? Bring it to apple store? Something else?

You might try to create a new admin user account, log in with the new account and try again to see if those black clips appear. If not, and if it works for a while with the new user you may have a corrupt user account. There are procedures for repairing that, but check first to see if that is the issue.

Thanks dgwvideo. I misread your text and tested it wrong but it showed some results that matter i think. I didnt create a new account, but i used an existing admin account (that i never really use , it was first time i used final cut pro x with it). Does that make a difference? Should i try again with new account?

I tried importing some clips and all of them seemed to work fine- there were no blackouts from the browser, timeline, and no blackouts were created when i added transitions or compounded clips.

This was with a new project, which did have these problems on my normal user account. I wasn't able to test it with any of the projects/videos that i am actually working on because the other user didn't have access to those videos and im not sure how to provide access to them or copy the files to the other account. Do you think i should test it with the actual project i was working on? If so, how do i access the project from that account?


Also, I tried to re-install final cut pro x, but i stopped because I wasn't sure about the best procedure to do so. I want to make sure i don't lose any work on projects or internal/external media. What is the best way to do this? Just putting it in the trash and clearing the trash (then download from the app store again)? Or should i use an app like mac cleaner (which cleans out all associated data too- i wonder if this would be more effective at fixing glitches, but am not sure if this would delete my important stuff). Or any other recommendations?

Any recommendations on the best next steps to take in general?

Thanks, Dan

update- i just tried the same procedure again in final cut pro x in my regular account and it worked totally fine today.

i also just tried working on the original project in my regular account and its working totally fine today too. no blackouts at all...

what would account for this? i don't think that i actually did anything or made any changes. was there something i did and fixed it without realizing it? or could this mean that there is a problem with the software or hardware that might come back soon and is just finnicky where it works some days and doesnt on others?

Well it certainly sounds like there is an issue with your existing user account. I would suggest actually creating a new user admin account with your credentials rather than using another persons admin account that doesn't have access to all your projects, but it was good that the other admin account seemed to solve the issue. Try the new account that lets you access the specific project just to re-confirm everything.

Reinstalling FCPX will not alter your projects or media. It can be done easily. Here is Apple's official procedure - follow step 12: support.apple.com/en-us/HT203477

A more thorough process would be to use Digital Rebellion's Final Cut Remover which is free and handles FCPX as well as legacy FCP.

I was replying to the post before your last one. As I was typing you submitted an update to your post. I'm not sure why now it is working for you, but if it occurs again it may be as Ronny indicated - a hardware issue. You may want to back up a bit more regularly while working on projects since the problem is erratic. Hopefully it stays fixed