Upgrading project file error

I emailed myself a project file so I could edit while on holiday, but I'm unable to open it now. Once I download it off Gmail, it shows up as a Quicktime file, or Text file instead. Opening these in FCP, gives the File Error: wrong type message.

To add to the fun, the project file was created in 4.5 under Tiger, and I'm hoping to upgrade the file to 6.0 under Leopard.

Is there anyway I can get this file to read properly as a project file now? It happens to be the one project which isn't backed up where I can access it remotely.

Do you have all the mdia that is in the project too? If not, even if you manage to get it open, all the media will be listed as 'offline'.

If you do have the media (all the stuff you captured that is used in the project) on an external drive or something and you think you can get it to reconnect properly, try adding the suffix .fcp to the end of your project name. This might help, but it could also be that your project file should have been zipped before emailing, because sometimes parts of the file get mucked up during email processes.

Also, if you do have the media on an external drive, next time add the project file to the external too. It's bound to be less than 100MB and it means your whole project can be moved anywhere you like.

Oh that worked, thank you!

All I had to do was add the .fcp suffix.
My brain isn't working so well! Thanks for the help.
I have everything else I need on my firewire, so I'm all set now.

Adding the File Extension to any file is an important act when sending emails or FTP that may go through PC or Unix servers as they often strip Mac files of their identity and then you get exactly what you found here.

Try to get into the habit of adding the .ext to any file you use.



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

Also, I've found that zipping a project file before email or uploading keeps things from getting altered by know-nothing servers.

deb