Final Cut wont start please HELP!

[markjones05]

I've been loading about 9 hours of foootage into final cut for this project. Last night final cut froze and I had to force quit. Today it wont open, I double click the app icon and the loading screen comes up but it quits before it opens the program. I erased and reinstalled but the problem is still occurring. all of the other apps in the studio still work such as soundtrack and livetype. I tried repairing permissions on the drive where final cut is installed. I really dont want to reformat and in reality I dont have time to do so due to the quick turn around this job requires. Can anyone help me?

[russed]

have you tried trashing the .plist file for the app?

[markjones05]

Originally Posted by russed

have you tried trashing the .plist file for the app?

No. How do I do that? And what does it do?

[russed]

well the .plist file hold all of your preferences for that programme. if you have deleted the programme by just dragging the app to the trash, i beleive that the .plist file will still remain and when you have reinstalled the programme, it is stil using the same preferences file (which could be the root of the problem).

if you are on tiger, in spotlight search for final cut.plist (or what ever the proper name of the app is, or something like that).

the file you wil want will be something like com.apple.final cut.plist just drag this to the trash, and delete. then the nest time you start up the programme, it will create a new .plis file!

i hope this works for you!

[markjones05]

Originally Posted by russed

well the .plist file hold all of your preferences for that programme. if you have deleted the programme by just dragging the app to the trash, i beleive that the .plist file will still remain and when you have reinstalled the programme, it is stil using the same preferences file (which could be the root of the problem).

if you are on tiger, in spotlight search for final cut.plist (or what ever the proper name of the app is, or something like that).

the file you wil want will be something like com.apple.final cut.plist just drag this to the trash, and delete. then the nest time you start up the programme, it will create a new .plis file!

i hope this works for you!

Ok i did a spotlight search and about 12 results came up. How do I know which one to erase?

[russed]

erm!!!

at the end of the day, deleting all of them would not be the end of the world, just the corresponding programmes will lose their preferences. this may cause an inconvenience in having to re set up programmes as you like them. i would say without seeing what they are called, try and take an educated guess on which one to delete first. maybe the one with the newest create/edit date

[russed]

sorry i have just seen the attached screen grab. i dont know basically which one to delete. maybe do one at once and inbetween try reopening the programme!

[markjones05]

Originally Posted by russed

erm!!!

at the end of the day, deleting all of them would not be the end of the world, just the corresponding programmes will lose their preferences. this may cause an inconvenience in having to re set up programmes as you like them. i would say without seeing what they are called, try and take an educated guess on which one to delete first. maybe the one with the newest create/edit date

It still wont open. Thanx anyway.

Nice lemon jelly reference.

[markjones05]

Anyone else have any clue? I really need to get the ball rolling on this.

[puckhead193]

did u try and restart the whole compute, that might clear out some kinks..

[markjones05]

Originally Posted by puckhead193

did u try and restart the whole compute, that might clear out some kinks..

Yea...

[MacFan25863]

Try trashing the final cut cache in the Documents folder.

[mduser63]

I had this problem once, only for some reason it was confined to one user (mine). Repairing permissions, deleting plist files and clearing the cache did nothing. Took a reinstall to fix it, but to be honest that's not too big of a deal. You won't lose any projects or anything; it just takes a little time to reinstall.

[markjones05]

Originally Posted by mduser63

I had this problem once, only for some reason it was confined to one user (mine). Repairing permissions, deleting plist files and clearing the cache did nothing. Took a reinstall to fix it, but to be honest that's not too big of a deal. You won't lose any projects or anything; it just takes a little time to reinstall.

I already reinstalled.

[markjones05]

Originally Posted by MacFan25863

Try trashing the final cut cache in the Documents folder.

That didnt help either.

[markjones05]

some of my other apps are acting up now as well. My photoshop wont open any previos projects... what can be causing these application errors?

[MacFan25863]

This is almost starting to sound like hard drive failure. Is your computer acting generally slow? Whats the S.M.A.R.T. status of your drive?

If I were you, I would start backing stuff up NOW.

Its more likely to be HD failure if you're on a laptop. Anything else weird about your computer (noises, etc)?

[markjones05]

Originally Posted by MacFan25863

This is almost starting to sound like hard drive failure. Is your computer acting generally slow? Whats the S.M.A.R.T. status of your drive?

If I were you, I would start backing stuff up NOW.

Its more likely to be HD failure if you're on a laptop. Anything else weird about your computer (noises, etc)?

No i dont have any clicking noises or any abnormal noises usually associated with a bad HD. Im not on a laptop im using a dual 1 ghz g4 powermac. I carbon copied my hd last night to my 2nd HD because it seems more and more likely that a reformat is neccesary. I'd still like to avoid that if its at all possible. More importantly even if i do have to reformat i just wanna know why this happened so i can prevent it in the future.

[RatVega]

Immediate action drill (in escalating order, for most FCP bomb-outs):

1. Restart FCP.

2. Restart the entire system.

3. Repair permissions.

4. Use MacJanitor to run the cron scripts.

5. Use Disk Warrior to verify/repair directories.

6. Trash FCP prefs (instructions on www.kwnstone.net) then get FCP Rescue if you don't have it.

7. Reinstall FCP.

If you already tried all the other suggestions in this post, you may as well go straight to Step 7 since everything is probably in bad disarray.

FCP is a very demanding app that does a huge amount of work "under the hood." Sometimes it breaks, and random attempts to do a quick fix can cause unpredictable results. The good news is that it seldom loses data.

Good luck.