How to tell if .fcp was made in FCP7 or FCPX?

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Level 1

8 points

How to tell if .fcp was made in FCP7 or FCPX?

I'm un-earthing a ton of old projects that we created by someone else and I'm wondering if there is a way to tell whether a .fcp file was created in FCP7 or FCPX. The iMac I'm using doesn't currently have FCP installed, but I don't want to just go pay the $300 to buy/install FCPX to find it it can't open any of these projects (because FCPX is NOT backwards compatible... correct?).

I figure there's gotta be a way to check the metadata within the file, or that someone has created a program that can scan the file and determine it's FCP version origin. Hopefully....?

Posted on Nov 25, 2019 9:21 AM

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Answer 1

Alchroma

Level 7

23,809 points

Nov 25, 2019 9:39 PM in response to ryoga402

Creation date as Larrie suggests is a good idea.

FCP X Project files look like this:

Al

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Answer 2

Nov 25, 2019 8:51 PM in response to ryoga402

Try looking at the .fcp creation dates on the original media. If they are before June 21, 2011, FCPX release date, then they are most likely version 7. After that date they could be either version.

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