Moving between macs-> losing audio in projects

I'll try to compress the issues as much as possible.

my main machine in my studio is a imac 2019 maxed out with 40gb ram.
my on the run machine is a base mbp 16 2019 with only 8gb ram.

My FCPX library with generated proxies is always on an external ssd and the full res source material on external hdd which I connect when I have to export the final master.

what happened to me repeatedly: I was in the final stages of a 40 minutes documentary and my general export method is to have the master audio mix on roles in a compound clip of my final timeline.
then i would have the final cut built in compressors and limiters on my dialogue and so on.

as for covid and also lazyness when main editing tasks are done I go home and would do maybe some corrections on lower thirds or audio levels we only noticed after our first export attempt on my macbook pro 16.
BUT: often when opening that final project which I last closed on my imac the compound clip in the project would show up without audio roles! When I then restart final cut pro and open the project again, the roles are there again... but without my audio effects and mix, so all the work is gone.
I realized only snapshot projects with the exact same content which I then open after I opened the damaged one, show up correctly.

This is really a no go, cause risking to lose all the mix is panicking me. I was always able to retrieve everything. But it renders my macbook pro useless to be a device that helps me not going back to the office to do some small changes.

I somewhere heard that might be due to the small amount of RAM and final cut using a lot of it for big libraries with tons of projects... but I mean, i would accept slowness, but not losing stuff.

wonder if anyone has the same issues.

2nd BIG ISSUE: sometimes when using 3rd party audio effects from izotope for denoising etc. fcpx didnt render out the audio from a clip with that effect. that was horrific, as i had to re export the masters again. just activating and deactivating the effect again made final cut export all the audio correctly. 

these two issues are really big for me, as final cut to me is the weapon of choice, but if it behaves like this in stress situations I kind of get frustrated with it.

About your first issue I don't know how to fix it because I've never used this workflow. About your second question, What is your MacOS installed? Only RX8 is compatible in OS11. I've also got this plugin and to my knowledge RX doesn't work as you explain in your post. According to Izotope how use RX:
          To edit audio from your Final Cut Pro project in RX:
- Select the clip you want to edit in your Final Cut Pro project
- Hit Cmd-Shift-R to Reveal in Finder
- Open the revealed file in RX and edit it- When you are done, in RX go to File > Save
- Save your audio file to it's default location and when prompted to authorize please select Replace to automatically replace your audio clip*
(*Your audio file's waveform may not update in Final Cut Pro until you reopen your session)
- Please note, video files cannot be overwritten with RX Audio Editor. In cases where audio from a video file is imported into RX Audio Editor, you will need to first export the edited audio from RX and reimport that into Final Cut Pro.

Best Jose

Hi Jose, thanks for the reply.
My Systems are both Catalina and yes I have RX8. But I only have to export it like you describe for some specific correction effects (like de rustle). most of the others like voice over noise reduction work within final cut. You can tell they require quite some system power though! thats why for future project I will try more to stick to the stock effects. Though RX8 is so much more powerful!!!
But weird stuff happens also with it. for example the vocal denoiser makes the clip delay a little bit... so your original cut, is not 100% the same as the original audio file. but this is just me maybe missing some specific settings

I use RX, have since version 5. I find that it is flakey as a plugin, and always export my audio to process in the stand-alone app. Just my personal experience.

Can't commend on your rx plugins as I don't use those.

But I can comment on your library workflow as I do it almost exactly the same way. I do not use 2 computers but don't see why that would make a difference if your library is stored on an external drive that you connect to whatever computer you use. After reading your post twice let me summarise what I understand is happening: After you finish editing on your project you compound all clips. Then you apply Apple audio plugins (doesn't matter which) to the subroles of your compound clip. Then you close the library on your iMac and take the drive and connect it to your laptop. There open your library on your external drive and then the subroles are missing and if they are not missing your audio plugins are missing. Is this what is happening to you?
What confuses me a little is your mentioning of snapshots being a safe way to protect your projects.

I think what you are seeing should not be happening and I can't explain why it is happening to you. 2 possibilities: there is a bug we don't know about, or you do something that causes this problem.

Would you be able to explain in a bit more detail your workflow from final edit to making a compound to applying audio plugins. Best with screenshots from each step. Also what are your library storage setting? Where does media/cache/backup etc go?

Hi Carsten,
yes I do it exactly like you described. The typical adviced compound clip subrole audio mix workflow.

And yes when I reopen that same project on my laptop, the compound clip looks like it has no audio at all. so also the subroles are missing. then I restart final cut after the heart attack and i find myself with the compound clip and the audio this time. but without my previously applied effects. 

I think screenshot is unnecessary as you got it 100%. 

About the snapshots. So if on the first machine (imac) I did a snapshot of the project (which I do after every editing day) and then on the macbook I open that snapshot instead of the main project, it doesnt have that mistake. which is hilarious, because it should be the exact same project as the snapshotted one. 

btw. the RX8 effects where not on my main mix, so this is another issue. 

This makes me really insecure with that audio mix on compound clips workflow. because if i would forget to snapshot, the mix would be lost or i have to dig it out from a backup.

it doesnt happen with regular projects though (well, basically the inside of my compound clip). 

Very puzzling indeed!
making a snapshot basically severs the dependency on the compound clip. So something happens to the compound clip between closing and reopening the library. 
Has it ever worked before?
where is your cache stored? In the library or somewhere else?
Does it always happen with the same library or with multiple libraries?
Does it always happen with the same project or with any you tried?
After you compounded all clips and done your audio work do you then change anything inside the compound clip?
Have you tried to move the project after you done the compounding and audio work into a new library?
Not sure where else to look other than either a corrupted library, project, or compound.

or have you tried to delete pref of FCP on the MacBook or even reinstalling the app? Maybe there is something wrong with the installation of FCP on the laptop? Any chance you could try a diff laptop of a colleague?

it’s a game of elimination unless somebody has the same problem and knows the answer.

What third party audio effects are you using?

Thanks a lot for the tip with the cache , will check that out as soon as I can. I suspect the cash was stored on the iMac locally and not within the library but I have to re-check

Ben Balser wrote: What third party audio effects are you using?

only R X8 but on the named compound clip there were only the internal effects applied.

mmh, cache was within the library in the end... so that was not it.

I would really try to see if you can replicate the problem on another laptop to eliminate the FCP installation on your laptop. Or start by isolating the project into its own library to eliminate the parent library as the problem. 

i just tried to recreate the situation and obiously this time it didnt happen... well. i dont know. for now ill leave it to it. i have to get back to edit the next project. if i stumble across a solution i ll post it here!

I actually managed to capture it on screen. it now happened even on the same maching (my imac).
So kind of crazy.
as you can see, I reassured myself to have a backup in form of fx presets.... but still.

Sorry to say but I do not see all of what you are describing in your video?

What I see is a project containing one compound clip which audio is offline. I do not not see any effects applied and then disappearing? You load a diff project and yes it doesn't contain audio. Looking at the inspector I never see the effect applied to the the music role (or any other) and then disappearing when you load the other project?
What happens when you open the compounds contents. Is the compound contents audio offline too? Non existing? In which order did you create the 2 diff projects?

I have never seen this behaviour before and not knowing how you exactly built the compound my only guess is that the library is possibly corrupted and I would copy/move the project to its own library and see if the problem persists? What is most confusing is why all of your audio is offline and you do not comment on this in your video? What's the reason for it being offline?

Ah ok. Maybe it wasn’t well explained by me in the video.
Don’t worry about the offline. That doesn’t matter. It’s just because of some offline clips within the compound.
The project I open first lost its audio like I have describe in my initial post (not on video). Then when I reopen the same project you can see it has audio again, but without the applied effects and keyframes. I only open the second project where you can see the effects to show how it looked before the incident.
Hope that’s clear now. Haha. It’s so unusual behavior. Kind of difficult to describe apparently.