Final Cut Pro not working

I finally have it working but required a week and a half of lost time of several people, and trying all the standard FCPX solutions.

Had to get another iMac that was on Catalina and upgrade it to Big Sur, because apple doesn't make it easy to downgrade software that isn't working! Several techs said I'd have to wipe the machine clean and restore from a time machine backup. This is really criminal.

Got is working though -- we think. At least it is loading and opening. we will see if there are anymore problems. I was on High Sierra on this edit that has been going on since 2016. For independent filmmakers, whose projects last many years, FCPX is not a viable option if they can't make it easy to collaborate with other editors and professionals or to do basic post-production activities how the bulk of professionals out there do it. The only way we go it to work was to be on the exact same OS and version of FCPX, but to do this, is not straight forward.

The issue is widespread and affects all processors, intel and SOC. And in the latter case, the M1's (like mine) but also the M1 Pro (like the poster above). In a way that is good news, to me that spells that a very wide user group is affected and it is not architectural. Also I was concerned this was Apple's way of getting us all to buy their new M1 Max or M1 Pro machines.

But the longer they take fixing it, the more people will discover new software and discard the FCP platform. Someone mentioned raising the point but where would one do that? I have bad experiences phoning their customer service, they are very defensive and assumed I was out to get the better of them. Hope someone else can get through...

My export speed is 4x slow compared to 13 inch MacBook. Import speed is 10x slow compared to 13 inch m1 MacBook. All comments are being removed not sure why? These are all facts we are posting. I hsbe deleted preferences, reboot, crested new libraries. Sometimes a file stops transcoding and gets stuck. The same file works in a different library. Something wasn't tested in Monterey

Also several plugins are not working which used to work on 13 inch m1 macbook big Sur

Several of my plugins don't work either, the only way I get them to work is open another project first then keep it open when I open the current project and bizarrely they all work, which is a shallow victory because when I attempt to do any audio work it crashes.

Actually that reminds me. The first thing I noticed was when trying to toggle on and off a third party plugin from iZOTOPE RX9 it constantly caused crashes so I stopped trying to clean up my audio working FC.

I have four libraries open in the browser. Under 10.6, it would take a good two minutes to load. It just loaded them all in under 10 seconds. Switching between libraries is near instantaneous now. It's suggest updating to anyone that was having the library loading problems. The full release notes seem to indicate it's fixed too: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201237

Thanks to advice received here a long time ago, I'm a big proponent of making a zip archive of FCP before every upgrade so you've got an easy way back if there are problems. I recently saved one of my producers who inadvertently upgraded to 10.6. Make sure to disable App Store->automatic app updates and System Preferences->automatic software updates!

10.6.1 was just released earlier today. Removing FCP won't affect any of your libraries. The app is separate from your libraries. (Although I have read here that one? some? plugin developers installed directly into the FCP application so if you happen to use a plugin like that then you'd have to reinstall the plugin, and hopefully not directly into the application.)

The big lesson, and one that is too easy to forget, is never ever jump on board to a new operating system! Switching from Big Sur to Monterey is HUGE and I should have known better. Always, always, always WAIT! It's a very hard lesson to remember. Yes, I lost my Final Cut Pro plus I lost iMovie! And I am not going to be gaslit by anyone trying to convince me that it's somehow my fault or if only I deleted my preferences this will all go away. Remember, we are all too dependent upon Apple. We need to be on our guard every time and not believe the hype.

Hi AnsonSyd, Monterey is giving a million problems to FCPX, I read it everywhere To me, for 3 days, it does not bring up the titles and generators in the browser.

For me it is a drama, because I work on it.

Regards..

(PS: if out of 1000 users, at 800 it works and at 200 it doesn't, it means it doesn't work)

It is an operating issue.

Perhaps thats the best solution to go back to Big Sur, till they figure out what's wrong with FCPX?

@JimMerkelBelfast - did you also rollback to 10.5.4?

The problem might be something entirely different. You might post a EtreCheck report and see if anything stands out.

Delete the application preferences.

To delete preferences, hold down command and option while starting FCP X and click Delete Preferences.

The application will start in a default state, and open an "Untitled" library. Reopen the library you were working on, set the preferences the way you like them, and try again.

Also: Please run Etrecheck and post its full report here. Use the "additional text" button and paste the report into the text box.