Reload Motion templates on FCP

The exact functionality you're looking for is not possible in Final Cut.

Personally, as a template developer, I consider the way Final Cut works as a feature — I can incrementally make changes to a template and test as I go along with each instance applied in FCP showing the state of the template when it was applied.

Once you get all the changes you make working like you want the finished template to work — restart Final Cut — all of the templates applied to a storyline *should* update to the last saved version of the template when the project reopens.

Bear in mind — you have to make changes to the actual template you applied to the storyline. Any name or category changes will make FCP see any updates you make as a new, separate template. Therefore, if you're worried about "bashing something", ***make a backup of the template*** before you start to edit it (just copy the template folder to another safe location outside of the Motion Templates folder.)

I am not at my mac to confirm if this will work but it’s worth a try:

export xml of your project, then import that xml ito make a fresh copy

I do this quite often with great success. Once you save the modified template in Motion, go back to FCPX, do a replace edit, simple as that. The issue comes in when you save the Motion project to a new name, now you are flipping a coin. Technically, doing replace edits with title templates should preserve all text, but it's not all that reliable.

As for non-title templates, well, yeah, that's a whole other story. And no, I've never, ever seen FCPX update the copy in the timeline, ever. And yes, I do this often.