Q: Cinema tools crashes, and I am unable to install pro-applications update as a fix. I'm using fcp 6.5 on OS X El Capitan

Curious how you were able to install FCS 2 apps on 10.11.

Russ

The last OS that supported that version of FCP (FCP 6.0.3 I think was the last of that version, or 6.0.5, not 6.5) was OSX 10.5.  The last OS to support FCP 7 was 10.6.8.  Any time you update the OS past the supported version, you risk breaking the app.  I know, for instance, that Compressor and Motion and Cinema Tools that comes with FCP 7 (FCS3) no longer work under 10.9.  They work with 10.8, but 10.9 breaks them...they no longer function. Apple isn't making sure that their old apps, or any old apps, work under new OS versions...they are pushing forward. As any software company does (Microsoft too). Using old apps on new OS versions is always a risk.

SO yeah, those apps no longer work. If you need them to work, you need to run an older OS that supports them.

New machines cannot run the older software. The drivers their components require only exist in the newer OS versions. So if you bought a computer with 10.11 installed, you cannot take that down to even 10.10...unless it was first introduced when 10.10 was out. You can only go as low as the OS version that was out when the computer model was introduced. You cannot take a current iMac and install 10.5 on it.

Sorry.  The only way to run older software is to keep an older computer with supported OS on it. If you want a new computer, then you'll have to use current software on it. This is why I still have my MacPro 3,1 running 10.6.8...for FCP 7 and all the apps it came with.

Yes, you can install the older OS that that machine came with and run FCP 6 on that. NOTE!  You will have to completely erase your hard drive and install the OS from scratch in order to do this. You can't simply regress the OS. So you should backup that hard drive (clone it if you can, with Carbon Copy Cloner or similar) and then reformat and install the OS, and all the apps from scratch.