FCPX Crashed - Can't Open Project File

Question. I/m on FCPX 10.4. I'm working on a new project that has crashed. I don't know why. The project file seems to be corrupted. I can open new projects in FCPX and other older projects, just not the one I've been working on the last couple days. I was literally editing the last minute of footage. I tried opening old versions of the project from the backups file and tried copying a new master of the file. It won't open at all. Any suggestions? i'd hate to have to redo it from the beginning when I was os close to finishing. Thanks.

If you have an app such as Final Cut Library Manager you can try deleting the render files from the project. Then you might be able to open it without it going south. Just a suggestion. I would also suggest restarting your computer afterward before attempting to reload the project.
Good luck!

Even without Final Cut Library Manager you can still delete render files within FCPX. Select the library and in the FCPX menu choose to "delete generated library files". This will delete render files and other analysis files. Selecting the project or event and choosing that will delete just render files from those areas. If that doesn't work, try Digital Rebellion's Pro Maintenance Tools to repair a corrupt project or library. I believe there is a free fully functional trial period and it works well.

JimCostaFilms wrote: Question. I/m on FCPX 10.4. I'm working on a new project that has crashed. I don't know why. The project file seems to be corrupted. I can open new projects in FCPX and other older projects, just not the one I've been working on the last couple days...

First I suggest making a file-level backup of the library in Finder by duplicating it. If it is too large, that's probably because you have render files and media files in the library. That illustrates the importance of maintaining a "lean library" and keeping those outside the library which makes duplicating the library at a file level easy.

If none of the backup libraries in /Movies/Final Cut Backups will allow opening your project, that is curious. Is all your media on HFS+ or APFS locally-attached drives? Is anything on an ExFAT or NAS drive? What type of Mac is this and what version of MacOS?

You could try creating a new "transfer event" in the current library, copy (not move) the project to that transfer event, then create a new library, then copy the transfer event to that new library. It will copy just the project and media needed for the project to that library. If media is external it will only copy the links. If media is internal and all media is on the same volume it will use hard links to avoid physical duplication and space consumption of the media.

There is an undocumented feature called "Verify and Repair Project". It only appears in the View menu if you have a project selected and press the OPT key.

Like any undocumented feature the behavior and results are not guaranteed. I personally would only try that if I had a full backup of the library.

You could also try exporting a project XML, then loading that in a new library.