Viewer in Final Cut Pro X is blank.

Have you tried trashing the preferences?

Many weird things happen as a result of corrupt preferences which can create a vast range of different symptoms, so whenever FCP X stops working properly in any way, trashing the preferences should be the first thing you do using this free app.

http://www.digitalrebellion.com/prefman/

Shut down FCP X, open PreferenceManager and in the window that appears:-

1. Ensure that only FCP X is selected.

2. Click Trash

The job is done instantly and you can re-open FCP X.

Regarding downloading FCP X, I believe you can do it an infinite number of times ........ there is no limit.

I would start by deleting preferences, which is easy to do with Preference Manager (free from Digital Rebellion).

If that does not work, then I'd trash FCP X and redownload from the App Store. There is no limit on the number of times you can redownload.

Since it plays audio and not video, I would suspect you are missing codecs or that somehow FCP is not accessing them the way it should.

First thing I would try (after following the trash preferences advice you've received) is to open FCP in a new user account. If that doesn't work…

There is a utility app named FCS Remover which I recommend to trash FCPX and all related files.Not sure whether it removes supplemental content as well but I wouldn't make any attempt to retain it. Download FCP and then run Software Updates to make sure you have all the QT codecs you need.

Good luck.

Russ

What do you mean by, "Start again"?

Erase hard drive and reinstall Operating System etc. or erase FCP X?

The latter only takes a second to erase and a few minutes to re-download.

FCS Remover is available (free) from the same place as Preference Manager

http://www.digitalrebellion.com/fcsremover/

You might also take a look at these FCP X troubleshooting tutorials

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/troubleshooting_fcp_x_03_taylor.html

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3893

http://fcpx.tv/troubleshooting.html

http://www.lafcpug.org/Tutorials/basic_fcpx_troubleshooting.html

So open FCP from your normal user account and move the projects and events to another drive at the root level.

Russ

I fail to see any reason to reinstall the whole OS.

It is quite clear that something in your user account is causing the problem.

Did you try: in FCP X, do "Window->Revert to Original Layout"?

or delete the folder ~/Library/Application Support/Final Cut Pro/Layouts ?

One other thing I would try is to run OnyX and let it clear caches and do other maintenance things.

Glad to hear you're back in business.

Deleting the User Account was an obvious candidate but another possible cure has occurred to me .......... something I do regularly and which should be done after installing new software etc.

Repair Disk Permissions using Disk Utility.

I'm not entirely sure exactly what "Permissions" are, but I suspect this problem may have been connected with corrupt permissions.

It's great to be wise after the event. 😉

PEC1 wrote:

Does 'Root Level' mean from Finder or from within Final Cut Pro.

A little late responding to this; I over-looked that part of your follow-up.

After you created a new account, FCPX worked fine from that account. But you couldn't open the original project – because it was in your original home directory in Movies. So were you to open FCP from that original account and (working within FCP) move both project and referenced events to another drive, you would then be able to open the project from your new user. The project and events would be moved to a Final Cut Event folder (and project folder) at the root level of that drive – rather than in the Movies folder of the user.

Hope that's clear. And glad it's now working for you.

Russ