Library and Backups don't have Project in Timeline

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Level 1

8 points

Library and Backups don't have Project in Timeline

Hi

My partner created a video of text titles and music that was over half an hour long, which was put together over a period of weeks but when opening it now the Timeline is blank and shows New Project.

When opening the Library it has the original imported song but not the second one that was imported later and all of the text and titles that were in the timeline are nowhere to be seen. Where the Timeline is just has the icon for New Project and the Projects bit of the Smart Collections is empty.

There are three backups from different intervals over the several weeks but all have the same problem of the blank timeline. I have opened Time Machine and restored from various points but again none of them have the timeline of audio and title text.

The item wasn't rendered and I wasn't there when the library and project were created but it would have been done in the same way as all of her others which are all fine. It looks like nothing was ever there but I know that is not the case as I have watched it several times over the time frame it was created.

I'm conscious that there may have been an update whilst that would have been the most recent project open in FCP. There is a message that pops up about loading from a previous version when opening the backups but either press of the options doesn't bring the project back.

Any help as I've run out of options and am hoping that someone has had a similar problem and solved it.

Regards

Graham

iMac 27" 5K, macOS 10.14

Posted on Dec 26, 2019 4:53 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

fadetograham Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 27, 2019 3:03 AM in response to Alchroma

Hi Al, Tom

I did a full time machine restore back to when it would have been the session she was working on and found the root issue.

Turns out that the library was created whilst several others were still open and the project got created in one of the other libraries. As it was all titles, the only media imported was audio for which there was nothing already in that section of that library so was not noticed that it was in a different library. Then when she started a new session and did close the other libraries, the audit trail was gone.

This explains why there was backups but nothing in them as the library she created was open but everything was happening in another one that was open.

Thanks again for all the help. Have learnt more about FCP and it will help my partner with better working practices such as rendering projects and closing libraries when something is finished!

Once again Time Machine saves the day! One of the greatest things Apple ever did.

Thanks again

Graham

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Answer 2

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,167 points

Dec 26, 2019 5:00 AM in response to fadetograham

I'm assuming there is no project in the Project smart collection in the library. The most common cause of this is that the content wasn't edited into a project. How long would the project be? Check the lengths of the content in the browser to see if there is a clip like that. It may be the first thing you used when you started to edit.

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Answer 3

fadetograham Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 26, 2019 5:22 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Hi Tom

No there is no Project in the Project section of the Smart Collections. The project would be about 30 minutes I think. There are no video clips at all in the project as it was just the music and titles used to display text.

There may have been another library open at the same time, and there tends to be a lot of very long clips in the libraries, how could I check to see if it's in one of them without removing the timeline in the other project?

Thanks

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Answer 4

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,167 points

Dec 26, 2019 5:27 AM in response to fadetograham

It's hard to image that you're editing across libraries. You would get warnings when you do that, and also clips get copied over. It's more likely it's in the audio then. Is that about 30 minutes? Select it and use the Open Clip function in the Clip menu.

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Answer 5

fadetograham Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 26, 2019 5:54 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Unfortunately it's not in the audio when I Open Clip both in the current version and the back up.

The backups I've got are for 10.4.6 version of FCP and I'm now on 10.4.7, could that have anything to do with it? Did anything change with the update from 10.4.6 to 10.4.7 of FCP with relation to the titles or could that be responsible for clearing the timeline?

Is it worth restoring back to 10.4.6 using Time Machine or restore the machine completely to before the update to FCP?

Thanks for all your help so far Tom, although I've had no success yet you're pointing me in directions I haven't explored.

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Answer 6

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,167 points

Dec 26, 2019 6:11 AM in response to fadetograham

There's not much difference between those versions, though the libraries are not interchangeable, as between .7 and .8. I really don't think this has anything to do with it. If you retrieve the TM backup of the application and of the pre-10.4.7 library, there is no harm in trying.

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Answer 7

Alchroma

Level 7

23,815 points

Dec 26, 2019 2:17 PM in response to fadetograham

Are your backups from the Home> Movies>Final Cut Backups folder?

A backup is created every 15minutes under normal circumstances.

Al

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Library and Backups don't have Project in Timeline

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