Destinations resets ever time I launch FCP

Hello BenB, and welcome to the Apple Support Community.

Since the issue has persisted across Final Cut Pro 12.1 and 12.3, and you’ve already deleted preferences and reinstalled Final Cut Pro, this doesn’t appear to be caused by a corrupted installation.

If the same export destinations are recreated every time Final Cut Pro launches, it’s possible that:

1. A third-party Share Destination or workflow extension is reinstalling its destination automatically.
2. Final Cut Pro doesn’t have permission to save changes to its preferences or configuration files.
3. A user-specific configuration is being restored at launch.

I’d suggest trying the following:

1. Create a new macOS user account, launch Final Cut Pro there, and see if the same destinations reappear.
2. Temporarily disable or uninstall any third-party Final Cut Pro workflow extensions or export utilities, then test again.
3. Verify that Final Cut Pro has permission to access your user folders and that your startup disk isn’t reporting file system issues.

If the behavior occurs in a new macOS user account as well, it may indicate a bug in Final Cut Pro, and I recommend submitting feedback directly to Apple.

Helpful links:

Final Cut Pro User Guide for Mac - Apple Support

Feedback - Final Cut Pro - Apple

Could you let us know whether the unwanted destination is always the same third-party destination, and whether the issue also occurs in a new macOS user account?

That will help determine whether this is user-profile related or an application bug.

Please let us know the outcome.

Your feedback may also help other members of the Apple Support Community experiencing the same behavior.

🙏🏻

Have a great day.

And one more thing…

Never forget to think different.



Hi, Ben

This is really vexing.

I take it that this happens only when you quit and restart FCP, and not while you are using the application.

I wonder if there is a file that may have been locked and therefore it fails to change as needed, but FCP is failing silently instead of throwing an error.

Perhaps it is worth a try to go into this folder:

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.FinalCut/Data/Library/Preferences/

and seeing what files of the form

com.apple.FinalCut.UserDestinationsX.plist

(where X is either no character or some number) exist.

(mine go from no number to 8, the latter one being from the last time that I reset preferences).

You could then, with FCP NOT running, drag all these files somewhere else (to the trash or a temporary folder, should you want to keep them), and then see if the persistent set of destinations er... persists.

I tried opening some of these plist files in XCode but they have just a long binary data item, so no usable information that I could gather.

Did you search for it, or did you try accessing it directly?

To reach that folder, what I do is simply

In Finder, press Command-Shift-G and paste

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.FinalCut/Data/Library/Preferences/

and there I find not the destination plist files, but general preference file for FCP, which I know is being used, as its modified date is yesterday (these are the files that are supposed to be deleted when we do the Command-Option thing at start).

I tested a little more, and after manually deleting all the destination plists that I could find, and/or deleting custom settings, the only thing in common is that I also get a file with the number 8 (but no extraneous options in there, and not "stay up to date with notifications"...

Also, the modified date and time of this file, in my case, do not change unless I actually make changes.

I imagine that yours might, as it is being rewritten from scratch every time; and of course where is it saving these extra options remains a mystery).

Ben, I show the same directory with the same files that Luis has. Did you go into the Terminal to look or just do a Finder search? It did not appear for me in a Finder search.