clip appearance sliders reset all time after exit FCP

This has been a bug in FCP X for years.

It has never been sorted out, probably because most users don't shutdown FCP often.

Well that was just what I wrote a minute ago before thinking that I would double-check.

Surprise! Surprise! My FCP 10.8.1 does not display the problem and repeated attempts to reproduce it have failed.

So I am surmising that either 10.8.1 or a recent update has cured it.

Possibly you had an old version and when you reinstalled FCP it naturally gave you the latest.

What OS and what version of FCP are you using? Do other preferences reset? I'm not seeing it in the current versions of the software.

I have just re-read your post and realise that we are not talking about the same thing!

The problem that I and many others faced was that after every restart, the clip length would always revert to the central (1 minute) mark when I always wanted it to stay on the extreme left and display clips as one "frame" irrespective of their length.

Anyway, regardless of that, whatever setting I give the slider now appears to stick.