The Furore Over Third Party Plugins.

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The Furore Over Third Party Plugins.

I have been following the update furore over the past 2 months.

I can sympathise with FCP users who find that an update renders their TP plugins useless and I realise it is extremely frustrating and Apple is taking a long time to respond but it's not exactly the end of the world.

A number of thoughts come to mind.

Nothing works 100% correctly 100% of the time and there are almost invariably workarounds. The absence of a plugin should not bring video editing to a standstill.

I also think a lot of the emphasis should be put on the term "Third Party".

Is it Apple's job to ensure that third party apps (which are nothing to do with Apple) work with FCP or is it the responsibility of the third party app producers to ensure that their apps work?

Furthermore, anyone claiming to be professional should have backups, the simplest being to have at least a copy of FCP so that if an update causes problems they can revert immediately and automatic updates should be disabled.

Apple could help in this matter by making the default setting of all updates "disabled" and sending a message informing users that an update is available to download together with a warning to make a copy first.

iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 12.6

Posted on Jul 27, 2023 3:55 AM

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Answer 1

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fox_m

Level 6

13,258 points

Jul 27, 2023 10:20 AM in response to Ian R. Brown

Please don't lump all "Third Party Plugins" in the same group. Those TP plugins from FxFactory, PixelFilms, MotionVFX etc. that rely on FxPlug extensions will fail with almost every new release. [I refer to them as "toilet paper" plugins because you generally have to "tear off" 25-40 plugins to get the ONE or TWO you're actually going to use on a regular basis...]

Some of us... independent... template makers, ME in particular, always create 100% pure Apple Motion templates.

Templates I created going back to Motion 4 (and maybe even Motion 3) converted to Final Cut Pro 10.0, STILL WORK in Final Cut versions released (I'll just say: ) recently. (I don't have 10.6.7 and cannot test my individual templates... but I also haven't received any complaints!)

I don't have to update them or do anything else with them. THEY JUST WORK (so far). [If they don't — it's not the template's fault! Like that Title Opacity problem that popped up with 10.6.7...]

Everyone SHOULD expect that upon each release of an update to Final Cut that all those "factory" produced plugins [that utilize external plugin "services"] will need to be updated and that in some cases (particularly Pixel Films Studios) those updates could take WEEKS. Everyone using these plugins SHOULD always wait until the updates have been "synchronized" before updating their version of Final Cut...

There's more than one way you pay for convenience!

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Since most of "those" TP plugins I'm referring to have a "custom installer"... I'll make the point that you're actually installing a "sanctioned" virus. It's "sanctioned" because it is allowed by Apple. It's a virus because it constantly checks up on your use of their product, ostensibly... you know - free trials, when the time's up, etc... I always wonder what else they could be checking up on...

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The Furore Over Third Party Plugins.

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