Q: Is it true I should not update OS if I am mid-FCP7 project?

Upgrading an OS to another version can sometimes cause major disruption, other times it works well & everything is fine. Take a full bootable backup of your current system to an external drive to be able to undo it if an upgrade causes problems. Time Machine backups are useful too but they take longer to restore & are less practical.

If FCP 7 and your OS work OK now I would leave it alone, the old adage applies – 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'.

If you are having other problems (like being unable to browse to sites that you need because of older browsers), then update, but be sure that you have several days to investigate fixing anything that does not work.

The security of your Mac may be better on a new OS but simply following best practice should allow 10.7 to remain fairly safe e.g. do not browse to dubious sites with free 'hacked' software, avoid clicking links in spam email, don't install software from random places you do not trust, stay off other peoples wifi networks, use the Mac behind a router, use different passwords for everything…

You should look at the apps you rely on & see if they work on the OS you plan to upgrade to, look at this for reports from other users…

http://roaringapps.com/

Personally I never do OS upgrades in the middle of work that either pays bills or is critical in other ways.

P.S. Please indicate what OS you plan on using and if you have already purchased it in the App Store. Apple have removed the ability to buy many older OS's so you may not be able to go to anything but the latest OS release. It is ins't clear to me what model you have, use 'Apple menu > About this Mac' to confirm that for better help.

1) Make sure you have a verified clone of your laptop hard drive. Two verified clones would be better.

2) If your source media for your project is on external drives, make sure you have verified clone(s) of your source files

3) It's not the you can't update or upgrade software during a project, it is that you are opening up a huge can of worms if you do. Final Cut Pro 7 and earlier versions were abandoned by Apple a  long, long time ago - and new Apple computers and Operating systems are built without any regard to the compatibility or suitability of running FCS apps.

4) Anecdotal reports of running FCP 7 on latest Mac OS are all over the map - some get it to work, some don't and some get partial functionality. The app Compressor is known not to work in the latest OS. But in any case, if you choose to do it - you are on your own as Apple does not support FCP7 and so you'll have to figure the problems out for yourself.

Do you have the time/energy/resources to fix things if the upgrade does not work out? If you have made the clone back-ups, at least you can revert back to your current status - but even that will take time.

5)

cmp31 wrote:

I do not edit/render a lot on the laptop, just organizing footage to hand off to an editor.

Then your current laptop, properly backed up, should be fine. When you are ready to hand off. consult with the receiving editor how best to do it. Do you know what edit system they will be using?

6)

cmp31 wrote:

….just feeling a little behind the times and worried about security and app issues by still having 10.7.5 and FCP 7.

If those things concern you, buy your new iMac and to do everything else and keep the laptop, disconnected from the internet, for completion of your edit preparation.

No matter what you decide, you need to have a proactive back-up plan in place and functioning - backing up your edit computer as often as possible to minimize problems if you should have hardware failure or software corruption.

MtD

I'd suggest you still connect to the Mac App Store & 'purchase' 10.11 now. When it downloads simply cancel the installer by quitting it. You can delete the app if you want to recover the space.

El Capitain is free but Apple eventually remove these OS's from being purchased. Since 10.12 is being beta tested you do not want to get stuck using that version - I think FCP7 is even less likely to work on that OS. You will be able to re-download El Capitain provided it is in your purchase history.

Personally I think you may be better off with an earlier OS if you still want to run FCP 7 but Apple have made it practically impossible to obtain them. Ask at a store if you want to try to get 10.8, 10.9 etc they may help.