FCPX Titles & Generators sidebar not showing up

This is a reproducible bug in Final Cut Pro where having too many Motion templates installed breaks the list in Final Cut Pro.
We have already submitted this bug to Apple in the past. If you are interested in prioritizing this bug at Apple, you can help by leaving feedback through this page:https://www.apple.com/feedback/finalcutpro.html
Let them know that you are affected by Final Cut Pro’s Effects list not working if you have too many Motion Templates installed.
Here is our feedback number you can reference:FB9928467 Final Cut Pro: any effect browser will stop working when a large-enough number of templates is installed
Based on what we are seeing, this is not linked to plugins, or to FxFactory. It happens with any type of Motion Template, as long as enough of them are installed.

Hello everyone, I'm Italian, I'll try to make myself understood.
Stop everyone: the problem of the pipeline of titles and generators that disappear is a worldwide problem, already reported by the Technical Staff of FxFactory. Anyone who has a lot of models on Final Cut can run into this bug.
Just today, Niclas from FxFactory's technical STaff told me to send feedback at this Apple link www.apple.com/feedback/finalcutpro.html , helping the FCPX community with this issue. Until now, Apple has been pretending nothing happened.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH, REGARDS - STEFANO (Italy)

Thanks Niclas..Great

@niclas -- I have come to agree with this, even before seeing this latest post. I had this problem recur several weeks ago with no FX Factory plug-ins installed. I ended up

1. Closing FCP
2. Moved everything out of Motion Templates
3. Restarted FCP (with just the default Titles showing)
4. Quit FCP again
5. Moved third-party items back into Motion Templates
6. Restarted FCP for third and final time.

This seemed to have done the trick and everything in the Titles pane—including those from FX Factory—are just fine. I have over two hundred title "packages" installed (from FX Factory, Motion VFX, and LenoFX) and everything is fine.

I DO agree there's a bug in FCP and not sure what ends up causing the Titles pane to go south, but I think the actions described above will get things back on track.

Apologies to FX Factory and any associates for my unfair judgement of them!

I would say that I solved the problem of not displaying TITLES / GENERATORS-
It is not a real resolution, but a trick...
To do this, I acted on FxFactory, but obviously it can be done anywhere, I'll explain how, is of a disconcerting banality.
Maybe somebody has already arrived at this solution, maybe I look like a fool, but here's how I got around the problem:

I have a lot of plugins, and having too many creates this limitation: I tried to deactivate about thirty plugins on Fxactory, simply unchecking, and the TITLES and GENERATORS pipeline now appears.
If you think about it, not all plugins I need every time and for every video, so I can deactivate the ones I don't need and activate only the ones I will use for the video.
In the same way, for example, I can uninstall some plugins that I rarely use (they can be from MotionVFX, Pixel FIlm Studios, etc), and then install them in real need.
In this way, having less weight, the TITLES and GENERATORS appear. Kindly watch this little video:

I had the same problem, and I have found a fix for it that is potentially easier and quicker than some of the other suggestions.

With FCPX closed,I made a folder called Motion Template REMOVED and moved everything that was in the Motion Templates folder into there.

Then I went through that folder removing all the tutorial video, text files, and URL links that I could find.

Then I opened FCPX while holding down ALT and CMD which reset the preferences.

Interestingly FCPX then recreated the missing sub folders Effects, Transitions, Generator, and Titles, and replaced a few of the plugins that I had moved out. No idea why it replaced some of them, they weren't all the standard ones, there must be some other reason for them reappearing...

Anyway, then I tested a library and a project and obviously there were lots of red errors as all the colour correction, transitions, effects etc were all not available. BUT, I could now see the handful of titles etc that had been replaced.

Then I exited FCPX and dragged a few of the titles and effects back into the same place they were in the original folder. A few at a time I checked them and they all seem to be working now...

So far I haven't added all the plugins back in (My Motions Template folder was a crazy 50Gb in size!) but one by one I'll keep adding them back in until we find the one that caused the issue.

Hope that helps someone.

Ah that explains it! I just added loads to my already full collection... and it stopped working. 

iProVid wrote:

So far I haven't added all the plugins back in (My Motions Template folder was a crazy 50Gb in size!) but one by one I'll keep adding them back in until we find the one that caused the issue.

It's not a specific template that is causing the trouble. It is that Final Cut Pro fails when there are too many templates. It is not a fixed number that will trip up Final Cut Pro either. Final Cut Pro is probably running out of Memory (or time) when loading the templates. Which is why the number of templates changes every time we try to reproduce this. Please read my previous post and contact Apple and let them know you are affected by this bug. 

Quick note to say I had this problem today and the later posts sorted me out. Thank you. Have reported the bug.

I too have a lot of assets - mainly from FX Factory MotionVFX and LenoFX, so I was sure the plugins themselves were not to blame.

Apple promotes plugin use but provides poor tools to manage the plugins we buy. If only FCP had a native asset manager like those FX Factory and Motion VFX provide.

A workaround that I have stumbled on when this happens is to:

1. Quit Final Cut.
2. Navigate to ~/Movies/Motion Templates.
3. Drag out the Motion Templates folder to the Desktop (yep, the whole dang thing).
4. Restart Final Cut. Because the Motion Templates folder was moved, the default titles and generators will be all that appear.
5. Quit Final Cut.
6. Move back the Motion Templates from the Desktop to your Movies folder. Final Cut created a new one in the background when you restarted Final Cut in step 4 above; just replace that new one with the one from your Desktop.
7. Restart Final Cut. Things should be fine now.

I think this rebuilds some cache or something like that. Hope this helps!

Hello, after years of following I can contribute with various experiences of mine.
I confirm that Sapridyne suggested:
after quitting FCPX move all Motion Templates folder to another location and delete it.
Restart etc...FCPX rebuild all missing folder.
Re-move all Motion Template folder to its original position.
It works for me.
MACPRO 2011 - dual Xeon - Mojave and 24 Gb RAM

Hi everyone!
I did the same experiment posted by MediaSound and on my experience it is only a temporary solution, the problem reappears in a randomic way.

I'm thinking that the problem could be created by the manual installation of some titles or generators or effects.
Could you tell me if you have some plugin that you install manually?
Thank you all.

hello, I hope I can translate correctly in your language. I don't know if the cause is the same for you, but I found out what's going on. I spoke at length with an FxFactory technician, and in this case, the computer does not support too many movement models installed with FxFactory. There is nothing to do, if the cause is what I have described above. The only partial solution is to deactivate some FxFactory plugins, but it is a solution that leaves something to be desired. I have consulted many blogs on the planet, and many users complain about this problem.On this forum, a while ago, an administrator of the FxFactory had posted reaffirming what I wrote.Although I own a very powerful iMac, I'm thinking of changing it and buying another even more powerful one. It is the only solution (again, in case the conflict with FxFactory is the cause). Bye thank you. Stefano Laguzzi 

Not sure if a more powerful computer is the fix here. It might help some, but you'll still hit a wall. I have a Mac Studio Ultra with 128 GB RAM and 8TB drive and the problem still happens to me from time to time. It doesn't happen as often, but it still does.

I have 125 installed FXFactory plugins (full versions not trials) on a 2019 27" iMac with 2TB HDD and 64GB RAM.

I get this happen intermittently and have found the quickest way to fix it is to uninstall FXFactory, run FCP, then reinstall FXFactory and wait for it to reinstall all of the registered plugs.

Fortunately I am on a fast connection so it only takes about an hour.

Pixel Film Studios plugs will also set it off very quickly and I have to keep them uninstalled unless I absolutely need one of them.

Hi, sapridyne ...thanks for the suggestion. But I think so, and by "powerful" I mean levels really above the standards (I made a summary calculation, I'd spend €18,000). If the nature of the problem is, as I believe (and as FxFactory has reaffirmed), a memory problem, it makes sense to implement computer power.
I have sent feedback to Apple, but I doubt they will respond.
. ... no one has proposed a winning solution, only solutions that (perhaps) have given results in their specific case, but unfortunately not solutions that are valid for everyone.
Anyway, thanks for the quick response. Greetings!
PS Sorry for bad English!

stefanolaguzzi wrote:

hello, I hope I can translate correctly in your language. I don't know if the cause is the same for you, but I found out what's going on. I spoke at length with an FxFactory technician, and in this case, the computer does not support too many movement models installed with FxFactory. There is nothing to do, if the cause is what I have described above. The only partial solution is to deactivate some FxFactory plugins, but it is a solution that leaves something to be desired. I have consulted many blogs on the planet, and many users complain about this problem.On this forum, a while ago, an administrator of the FxFactory had posted reaffirming what I wrote.Although I own a very powerful iMac, I'm thinking of changing it and buying another even more powerful one. It is the only solution (again, in case the conflict with FxFactory is the cause). Bye thank you. Stefano Laguzzi

Thank you Stefano.
Ok so the issue is not a mystery on itself, is sure that the source of the problem regards FxFactory and all its models.

Great to know it. It isn't a good news, but in some way we can have an idea of the problem and choose how to manage it.

Thank you!
Ps. I'm Italian too. Buon anno!

Hi everyone. I found out yesterday that "FxFactory" is not necessarily the cause in this case.
I deactivated many MOTION VFX plugins, which like those of the Fx Factory reside on the Mac, and the pipeline of titles and generators, now appears!
This is the demonstration that it is precisely the excessive amount of active movement models that creates this bug.
THANKS.... Ciao!!!( E BUON ANNO - HAPPY NEW YEAR)

I just logged on when I read stefanolaguzzi's last comment, which is exactly what I was going to write, too. Though I've stopped using PixelFilm's plug-ins for other reasons, it's not the vendor/developer of the plug-ins that's the problem here. Instead, it's the number of plug-ins. What's that magic number? It's anyone's guess.

It would be fantastic if Apple gave us the ability to manage plug-ins (turn on/off) directly from within Final Cut, instead of having to moving folders out of the main templates directory. Even better I guess would be this problem to just go away... 😉 

I'm not sure, but maybe I found a trick/solution to have titles and generators windows always correctly available.
Independently of the initial state you have on Final Cut windows layout, you need to open the Generators folder before, to show all the elements you installed. It could be that doesn't appears correctly, but if you move your cursor over that area, you can see the preview of the generator selected or moved on. Don't do anything else, but go on the Titles folder and try to open it too.
It could be that the title will be open correctly. It could be that titles will not open correctly. Doesn't matter.
Try to go on the library/event brower windows and close FCPX.
Then reopen it.
It could be that FCPX will crash or sometimes could be that FCPX start correctly but the timeline windows is wrong. Sometimes you don't see nothing on the timeline space, but the scrub preview is going correctly. It could be that FCPX goes in a infinite spinning cursor.
Doesn't matter, close again FCPX (maybe with force), and reopen it.

At this point FCPX will be ok. Title window and generators windows are ok. Timeline is ok. Everything works.
Sometimes you can have a sort of crash (infinite spinning ball) but not so often.
If you can use correctly FCPX, effects, transitions, titles and generators, work with it BUT NEVER try to close the title folder or the generator folder!
Leave it as you find it opening FCPX.
The bug never presents again (I think....).