Can't add clips to my project by dragging to media browser

Hello, thanks in advance for helping me out. I just got a new mac studio that is giving me some trouble. I've used FCP for years, and my typical workflow is to make a folder with all the media I need for a video, then I make the event and project in FCP, then I drag the media from that folder into the media browser so that I can start editing. My new mac studio won't let me drag my files to the media browser, either by one at a time or multiple. It doesn't have the green +, and the animation shows the files shooting back to where I dragged them from, as if they aren't valid files. But here's the kicker. I can drag them directly to the timeline and they will add there just fine, and being in the timeline also adds them to the media browser. If I then delete them from the timeline, they remain in the media browser. My FCP is up to date. I have it on my macbook too, and it works as expected: when I drag files to the media browser they add and I can then edit them before adding them to the timeline. (These are the exact same files). On both machines, I have it set up to keep the original media in my folder, and not add them to the library. As far as I can tell, all the settings are identical on both machines. Most of my files are MPEG-4, but even the QT files made with my iphone won't work.

Sure, there is a workaround here, but making videos is my job, and this gets really annoying have to add everything to the timeline and then delete it. Is there a setting or something that I am missing? It is a new machine, and I didn't import settings or anything so it started with a clean slate.