Final Cut express help! It won't open for some reason:(

do you still have the "Final Cut Express Documents" in your users/yourusername/documents folder? also let me know what version of final cut express u have installed.

fobbyo said:

no i don't. being tired and stressed about a project that was due the next day, i purged stuff that i thought i didnt need. I thought the documents were the user manuals that came with it.
Oh yeah, and I have the most recent version of final cut express

Click to expand...

I think I know what's happening. If you have an admin account separate from your normal user account, it might be restricting write access to that Documents folder. If this is the case, you'll have to log in as the admin and modify the write privileges.

But I hate to say it, you might have bigger problems than that. If you purged your Final Cut Documents folder, you also deleted all your capture scratch to go with it, meaning that you're probably going to have to recapture everything. If anything, this would be a lesson in proper media management...

In the future, NEVER, EVER use your boot/apps drive as your Final Cut scratch disk. You always want to use a separate drive (like an external FW drive) for two reasons: organization and most of all, performance.

Alright...

1. When you set up a Mac machine for the first time (i.e. first power on), it has you create at least one user account and recommends a password. A lot of users create a second, restricted user account to use as their workspace in order to avoid changing system settings or installing software (like from the Internet) unintentionally.

Putting all of that aside, you might also want to check the permissions on Macintosh HD. Ctr-Click the drive icon and click "Get Info" from the pop-up menu. A window will then show up. At the bottom of it, expand "Sharing & Permissions" and make sure the user account you're logged into is set up for Read & Write. You'll likely have to click the lock at the bottom-right corner of the window and enter an admin password to change these settings. You would want to click the "+" button to add your login and set it to Read & Write. Then, Final Cut should no longer give you that error if you insist on using your boot drive as the scratch disk (which I don't recommend under any circumstance, actually).

Again, for the future, an external FW hard drive would be a good investment, especially when editing HD video, which will quickly gobble up disk space.

2. A DVD is a final render-out of your project that wouldn't be editable in Final Cut. If you still have the original FCE project file, it will still open, but if the referenced media (i.e. your captured footage) is not present, it'll tell you. In this case, you'd have to capture your footage from the camera all over again and reconnect the media. This is what I mean by recapturing.

create a folder called "Final Cut Express Documents" in your /users/yourusername/documents folder. Then open FCE. Keep us updated.

cool! nice to hear!

Same problem

I am having the same problem! I just received a Macbook Pro with Final Cut Pro 7 and when I tried to open the program, it gave me the same message that it gave the original poster.

I bought this laptop used, so I don't have the administration password. :/ I asked for it from the seller and am still waiting on a reply.

I am really inexperienced in Macintosh software...this is my first time owning one of their amazing products, so I would really appreciate patience, hah.

I am not set up as the administrator. It doesn't say my name anywhere...in the Macintosh HD folder, it has that little house thing next to the name of the previous owner, but when I log onto the computer, his name is not available as a user for me to log on with (sorry, bad grammar, ha) so I'm just logged on as User, and I don't even need a password to log on. That makes me wonder if I can set up my administrator user without the password from the previous user (if he even has it..I don't know)

If someone could tell me what to do, I would appreciate it greatly!

jeshiecarlson

I think the best for you to do is format the computer and start as if new, it will
put an end to all problems and you can then set it up as you want

final Cut Not Starting up and Previousely was Ok?

I found out it has something to do with your administrator account, to prove this, allow all discs read and write privileges then open a guest account, and open final cut, it actually starts well.