FCP 10.5.6 on an iMac (27-inch, Late 2012) running macOS Catalina 10.15.7. Just a few hours ago, smooth running, but now I cannot zoom in or out of the timeline. Work has come to a stop! How do I fix this?
iMac Line (2012 and Later)
⌘ = zooms into the timeline. If that is not working for you trash your preferences. Hold ⌥ ⌘ as you launch the application.
There are a number of things of note in the report.
Your system drive is nearly full. This degrades performance, perhaps severely.
There are some old things, which may not work well, or at all, in your OS - can you still run EyeTV on Catalina? You have Soundflower version 1.6.7, and you would need 2.0b2 in order to work any fairly recent OS.
I wonder if having installed Duet may have played a part. This may be great to work with an iPad as an additional display, but I wonder if it may be causing any issues.
Also, if your version of FCP is not 10.5.4, you may consider updating; and it is, you could try deleting and downloading a fresh copy.
Please call off the dogs, Tom and Luis: FCP is now back to work! I thank you guys very much for pointing out the issues that possibly prevented me from zooming in (or out) on the FCP timeline. Reinstalling from the App Store made the difference, I would say. I will also look forward to moving my huge iTunes music and videos collection off my internal drive and onto an external drive, this in order to free up space on the startup drive.
And just to repeat myself: You guys rock!
Do delete the preferences as Tom said.
In addition: you did not say how you are zooming. There are several ways to do it.
With the keyboard shortcuts, as Tom mentioned; with a trackpad gesture; by pressing Z to activate the er.... zoom tool.
Do they all fail?
On occasion, I have had Command-= stop working for a bit, whereas I don't recall Command-minus ever failing.
On a pinch (pun intended), the trackpad gestures always worked.
Please run Etrecheck and post its full report here. Use the "additional text" button and paste the report into the text box.
Do you have Chrome on this mac? Weird problems can come from it. I had not seen zooming problems, but given all the trouble it has caused, I wouldn't put it past it.
Can you post a screenshot of the timeline pane with the playhead in it?
What FCP version is this? Make sure MalwareBytes is not set to autorun or to run continuously. Try rebooting into Safe mode; hold the Shift key as the computer is booted.
Sorry. Not from the FCP page. You need to go to your Account Purchased page. If you see an open button there move the application from the Applications folder to the trash. Don’t empty it. You should be able to download from the Purchased page.
Thanks for your response, Luis. My answer to the question is NO METHOD of manipulating timeline zoom works for me. My go-to method has been the command key approach, but the (new-to-me) slider and the zoom tool both fail as well. Unfortunately, my current editing project is at a standstill. Resetting FCP preferences hasn't resulted in success ... yet.
Response:
• When my original Fusion Drive crashed and burned, I shoulda gotten a 2TB SSD instead of 1TB!
• EyeTV runs, but I don't do much at all with it these days. Same with Duet; someday a new computer, iPad, and SideCar.
• Running FCP v10.5.6 now. I'll try to re-install it (again).
• Haven't attempted Soundflower; perhaps it needs to go away to Trashville.
I wish this were so, Tom. The Apple App Store insists that my iMac doesn't support what they're putting done right now, requiring the macOS 10.5.1 install. Yes. my iMac is old; it's actually stuck on Catalina 10.5.7. (Are there safe ways to upgrade this old Mac to Big Sur?) Methinks they want me to buy a new computer, which I would do if I were, like, rich or something. (A new Mac Studio, I'd like to get me one of those!)
Your Purchased page does not link to the Final Cut Pro page. Click on the icon in the lower left. If necessary enter the Apple ID and password used to buy the application. It will take you to a page that shows purchase applications like this
Final FCP in that list. If the application is not in the Applications folder you will see the cloud download button. If it's in Applications you'll see the Open button. Neither will take you to the application page.
Dunno quite what happened here, but I was able to get FCP 10.5.4 from the Mac App Store! I had vanquished the former, misbehaving app, and the clouds in the sky opened wide enough to allow the successful download. Now, I am too scared to launch and see if the zoom issue has been cured ...
Here is what I suggest is the following:
1) Copy the iTunes folder - which sits inside your Music folder - to the desired location on your external drive
2) Delete the original iTunes folder
3) Replace the iTunes folder with a symlink to the new location
To achieve the last step, all you have to is:
3a) Open Terminal
3b) Type
ln -s ~/Music/iTunes
but do NOT press enter; leave a space at the end of the above line
3c) Drag the actual iTunes folder from the external drive onto the Terminal window - the full path to this folder will be added to the line above
3d) Press enter
Now, as far as Music is concerned, it will look like everything is still there and it should work like nothing changed.
Can't zoom the FCPX timeline
