REAAAALLLLY old project

A friend of mine gave me some drives and an FCP project file supposedly created on FCP 2.1. He's been trying to bring it up to date or at least export the finished sequence. He gave it to me because he hasn't been able to read the project files.

So far, neither can I. I pulled out my moth-balled G4 400mHz with OS 9.2 and tried opening it in FCP 3 which I have installed on it. No joy. I hunted around for my old FCP 2 disks and found both them and my FCP 1 disks (yes, I've been using this program that long). Aside from the quaint feeling I have puttering around in OS 9.2.2, and scoping out the old FCP interface, I've been unable to open these files.

I'm not sure why 3.0 won't open it, but I know that older versions can't open newer versions of a project. But that's the problem. The version it was supposedly cut on is 2.1. I have my 2.0 disks, but not the updater that would get me 2.1. How then, can I hope to open this file?

Andy

Was there a 2.1? All I know about is 2.0.2, which you can get here [docs.info.apple.com]

If that's not it, the 2.1 download is probably still available somewhere in the Apple archives.

Thanks, Jude. Personally, I can't remember one way or the other, but Jerry Hoffman agrees with you over at the apple site. I wonder how you found that link because I searched on Apple's site and came up with nothing.

Regardless, I tried it, at it still doesn't work. I'm kinda stumped. If I attempt to open it in 4.5, I get the following message:

(approximately) Final Cut version is too new to open this file.

But if I try to open it in 1, or 2, or 3.0 it says:

Error: Wrong file type.

I wonder if it's corrupted in some manner but I can't tell because I can't get it to open.

Andy

Hmm. Sounds corrupted. I do have a client still running FCP 2 natively on 9.2.2 (were you were running in Classic, by any chance?)

If you like you can ship me the project file and I'll see if it can open on his machine - it might be that the .0.2 bump was not a backwards compatible problem. Or not. No idea, really, but I'm happy to give it a shot.

Otherwise you might be at the 'export a reference movie' stage.

Has the project been emailed at any point without archiving? (eg .sit .zip)

Sometimes the email chain will scramble edls and projects.

[ Final Cut version is too new to open this file.]

Oh, no, not reverse app-nesia!! I would never have expected that.
Newer versions have always been able to update older projects.

I don't have a solution.

- Loren
Today's FCP 5 keytip:
Preview effects sections with Option-P or Option-Backslash!

The FCP 5 KeyGuide?: a professional placemat.
Now available at KeyGuide Central:
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What was the extension for a file that old? I don't think the .fcp extension appeared until FCP4, but I don't have a clue.

Does the file size make sense -- eg. not under 1MB?

Thanks for all the help.

Jude:

Thanks for the offer. If you don't mind, I'd like to zip it up and email it to you, if only to cover my bases.

I was running 2.0 and 2.02 in OS 9.2.2, not classic. My old G4 had both OS 9 and OS X (Jaquar) installed on it. When I tried with FCP 3, I tried first in OS 9. When that didn't work, I uninstalled FCP and reinstalled it in OS X (not technically necessary, but I wanted as few variables as possible). Of course neither worked.

Eddie:

Great point. I have no idea unfortunately if it had been emailed without archiving since this kinda came to me 3rd person. However, I suspect not. The drives I received are organized as if the files have always been on them. The previous editor actually did a nice job of keeping things organized (is it sad that I was so surprised by that?). Still, I suppose it still could have become corrupted just sitting on the drive. That's why I burn copies of big project files periodically. CD's are cheap and wise editors are paranoid.

Derek:

I'm not sure about that either. The thing is, I had no way of telling for sure what version of FCP created the file; only the word of my friend. When I get info in OS X, I only get a creation date. The icon looks like any other FCP project. In OS 9 or with old versions of FCP installed, it looks like an old project file, and get info produces no better results. There is no indication what the extension was.

The most recent version I have of FCP 3 is 3.0.4. Were there any later versions than that? That's reaching I suppose, but it doesn't hurt to check.

Again, thanks for the help.

Andy

3.0.4 was the last version before 4.0

I managed to get 5.1.1 to open this file, but 4.5 chucks a spazz with it.

Also, I just now tried to open it again in 5.1.1 and FCP broke! Dammit. Some sort of secret killer code in that one Actually, I think it was possibly the 10.4.4 upgrade. Beware this upgrade, FCP people - I'm off to find out more.

I mean 10.4.7. All of a sudden it's demanding quartz extreme support.

Oh dear, Jude. Don't wreck your computer tyring to get that open. I have the 5.1.1 version which is more than I expected. Thanks again for your help.

Andy

This is hillarious, but apparently, the root of all my problems was a faulty premise. My friend told me the file was from FCP 2.0 (actually he said 2.1) and in fact the file was named as such.

But there never was a version 2.1 of FCP. When I handed the file to Jude and Patrick (from Apple forums), they both were able to open the file in 5, but not 4.

Conclusion: The project wasn't REEEEAAALLLY old. It was REEEEAAAALLLY new. It was actually cut on FCP 5. All the clues were there, if I had only looked closer.

Clue #1: Though I couldn't open any of the 3 project files in FCP 1-3, two of the 3 opened in 4. In addition, those 2 files didn't give me the, "Updating project" message.

Clue #2: If there was no FCP 2.1, why did my friend insist that the project was cut on FCP 2.1? Answer: He assumed that's what the number at the end of the file name indicated. Instead it likely indicated a version number of the project.

Clue #3: Jude was able to open the final file in 5.1.1, but not in 4.5. Essentially the same thing I went through with the other 2 files and FCP 4.

Finally, it clicked. It just goes to show you how crippling a poor assumption is to your diagnostic skills. I don't have 5.0 at home, and never even thought to try it on our work systems.

Sorry to waste everyone's time.

Andy

PS: As a rant...if Apple is going to make versions of FCP that aren't compatible with each other, the least they could do is put a piece of meta-data in the file that tells you which version of FCP it was created on, so you could just "get info" and decide how to proceed from there.

Let's just hope poor Jude gets her Mac back.

I'm fine. FCP just decided suddenly to do a system check and decided I didn't qualify for FCP 5.1.1. Dunno why it chose that moment, but I'm sure it wasn't anything to do with you, Andy.

Luckily if you know how you can just delete the bit of code that demands compatibility and everything works perfectly.

That's funny about the version Andy - I mean, FCP was telling us all along that it was a newer version than FCP 4.5 and we all just decided that the error report was wrong!

And don't feel it was a waste of time - I love these things, cause next time I have to deal with one like that in the field, I know damn well to listen to the Mac, not the client, no matter how sure they are.

Actually the irony is that we were reading the error message wrong. It said: "The file format is newer than this version".

I took that to mean that FCP's version was too new, but in reality, it was saying that the project file was too new.

Must be a kinda ambiguous message if you and I both read it wrong.

Andy

No - remember I said in the email it was weird that it said that the file was newer, when we thought it was the other way around. Like you say, it told us exactly what the problem was, and we laughed scornfully and then looked silly later.

> Actually the irony is that we were reading the error message wrong. It said:
> "The file format is newer than this version".

Andy, Andy, Andy...

Huge difference between "too old" and "too new", ya know!?

> If there was no FCP 2.1, why did my friend insist that the project was cut on
> FCP 2.1? Answer: He assumed that's what the number at the end of the file
> name indicated. Instead it likely indicated a version number of the project.

I suppose we've all been there -- led astray by the mind-bogglingly faulty information from a client/producer/director with no technical knowledge whatsoever!

I had a film professor back in film school who confused "DV" and "DVD" when I was cutting her daughter's bat mitzvah video.

Note to filmmakers, clients everywhere: If you don't have real information, it's okay to tell us you don't know!