But I don't want to trash my preferences

For some reason lately, FCP has been taking 10 minutes to start up.

I backed up the prefs with FCP Rescue, then trashed them, and FCP started up fine.

The problem is...I have so many favorites (filters, transitions, etc.), that it would take a very long time to get them all back to the way I have them. Furthermore, I don't remember all the User Preferences and System Preferences that I have set, off the top of my head at least.

I'm wondering if there is a way to trash the prefs, but somehow easily recover my favorites and other settings...or am I stuck with just the backup in FCP Rescue?

Thanks!
Casey

Put your Favorites into a real project file's Browser bin, and save that project file.

I never use the Favorites bin for anything, for precisely this reason.


www.derekmok.com

You're stuck with the corrupt backup or the new slate. But the preferences you lose shouldn't take you that long to re-set.

You don't lose your windows arrangement, or keyboard layout unless you never saved it of course.

To recover your favorites, you COULD reinstate your old prefs just until you move your favorites to a project (as Derek suggests), then trash them.

Once you re-set your prefs, you can then lock them if you want. Locking prefs will prevent them from becoming corrupt in the first place. The down side is that locking prevents you from altering the preferences further unless you first unlock them.

Andy

I think that will help to move them to a project bin...then I can do this without taking a whole lot of time.

Andy....do you mean locking the prefs as you would in the Finder and going to Get Info? I don't remember the names of the preferences files...since FCP Rescue came along, I haven't needed to!


Thanks!

Okay, I created a "Favorites" project and copied everything there, trashed the prefs, and moved the favorites back into the real favorites bin, and that worked great.

All the settings are back to normal except one which I can't figure out.

I had been working on a project with 48K 16bit audio, and I had a Compressor/Limiter filter on one of the audio tracks, which was over music. It didn't have to be rendered before, but now it's giving me the old red bar on my timeline. I can't figure out which pref that was. Any ideas? I changed Audio Playback Quality, but that didn't do any good.

UPDATE:

I just changed the Real Time Audio Mixing setting from 8 to 12, and it cleared up all the red, and it's all playing back fine. Does that make sense??? Maybe I don't understand what exactly that means, or maybe the higher number allocates a bit more memory towards it.

Quote

do you mean locking the prefs as you would in the Finder and going to Get Info?

Yes. That's what I mean. The preference files are all in the same basic place:

library/preferences/com.apple.FinalCutPro.plist <~~ for one
library/preferences/Final Cut Pro User Data/ <~~ for the others

It's a matter of preference (no pun intended). I discovered years ago that locking the FCP preferences prevents them from becoming corrupt. So for me, I'd rather have them not go bad ever, than be able to restore them quickly with FCP Rescue when the inevitably do.

To me, the problem with FCP Rescue is that you forget to back up your prefs whenever you make a change to them. So when you get the corrupt prefs, your "backup" is not as up-to-date as you like.

As far as the audio setting you're looking for, have you adjusted the number of Real Time tracks? Default is set to 8 which may be why you're getting a red bar now.

Andy

definitely check al your preferences.

undos are probably set to the default 10!

in fact,
spend a little time going thru the prefs, and setting them the way you like them,

- user prefs,
- system prefs

- selected render types in sequence menu
- default transitions

- all export/import window sizes

- favorites,
- keyboard & window layouts

when you are done, QUIT FCP,
and NOW back up your FRESH! preferences,
either with a preference manager, or manually.


nick

>I discovered years ago that locking the FCP preferences prevents them from becoming corrupt.

Interesting. Do the preferences stick after you change them? Kinda curious, which capture card are you using? Coz I suspect that the BMD cards have a tendency to corrupt FCP preferences. I don't recall having to trash FCP preferences when I'm on machines that use an AJA card.



www.strypesinpost.com

"Do the preferences stick after you change them?"

no.
i haven't used this system,
but i guess you'd have to unlock them,
change the prefs, and re-lock.


im having a lot of pref corruptions in FCP7, by the way.
had to trash them at least twice so far.
mainly timeline display weirdness.


nick

Nick is right. You can change the preferences while working in FCP but when you quit and re-open, your default preferences are re-established.

If you need to make changes stick, you have to unlock, quit FCP and relock.

I've had corrupt preferences over the years no matter what capture card I've used, including AJA. Corruption has been less frequent in recent versions (FCP 7 notwithstanding because I haven't worked with it enough), but it still happens.

Andy

There's a utility available called UserMatic? which allows trashing/restore plus different sets of users, projects to select, all before you even launch FCP. More like Avid's startup module. There's even a Launch button.

www.editgroove.com

And check out their Bit Budget tool for iPhone/Touch.

- Loren

Today's FCP keytip:

Enable timeline A/V links with Shift-L !

Final Cut Studio 2 KeyGuide? Power Pack.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

Interesting. Yea, I guessed the prefs won't stick once you locked the files. I thought pref corruption may have something to do with the card as I had to trash preferences on quite a few occasions when I was running off the BMD decklink cards, and usually I work for months off an AJA card without having to even touch the prefs.



www.strypesinpost.com