Final Cut Pro Updating Old Sequences on it's own.

Hello everyone. I've come across a problem within FCP that I have never encountered before, and quite random, so I was hoping someone can help!

I am running FCP 6.0.6. My media is on 3 GSpeed Raid drives. Currently three machines have access to that media. Our main edit machine is connected via eSATA, and the other two machines are networked via ethernet to the main edit machine. We have used this set up for at least 6 months, with no major issues besides reconnecting here and there. There is also another machine, with clones of the Raid drives that the director uses at home to edit in the evening. So there is a bit of back and forth of the project file.

So the problem is:
Recently, my project file will update old sequences that haven't been touched in weeks or even months on it's own. The "Last Modified Date" will update to the current day and time from when I saved the project. We started to notice this behavior when going back to old edits for comparison, and they would now contain the most recent changes from today.

This problem became more concerning when we would actually SEE the system reverting to an old edit, or a new edit. I would make a change, switch over to a different tab, come back and the change would be gone. Another oddity that has happened, is even when my timeline appears correct, and plays correct, it will sometimes output to QT without those correct edits. It won't match the sequence.

What I did to try to resolve this problem is:
Trash preferences
Trash the FCP plist
Clear out old Render files, Autosave files, Waveform and thumbnail caches.

Things seemed to be working for about a week, but I just recently noticed old sequences are again displaying Modified Dates of today, when they haven't been opened in weeks.

Any thoughts? Thank you so much!

Weird. Are either of the other machines working on the same FCP project file that's on the main Mac?

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SCQT! Self-contained QuickTime ? pass it on!

Hi, thanks for your response!

The other machines/editors are never working in the same project at the same time. We may copy it over to our machine, open it up, and copy something out to make changes... But because you can't save simultaneously in a single FCP project between multiple people, we have never shared the project at once.

"Date Modified" information, both in OS and in applications, has never been reliable. If you want to record when a certain Sequence was modified, put that information in the Sequence names.

Of more concern is the content changing. Sounds like a permissions issue to me. Check your networking. Also, you should be doing manual backups at least once per session anyway. So cross-check those manual backups against Autosave versions and your current version.


www.derekmok.com

Good to know about the date modified info. I just always trusted it.

Thankfully, we have been doing daily backups. But even when we open those backups, it updates the sequence info and content as well.

Also, I tried to open the project, any project, without the media connected (so maybe it couldn't automatically update itself) but on the two networked machines, it would not let me start up the project. It would require me to connect to the main edit machine before it would even open. When I took the project off our edit machines, and onto my laptop, I was able to open it without needing the media connected.

SO... I think your prediction about a permissions error does make sense. What specifically should I be checking? The FCP persmissions? The File Sharing permissions? I set it up the most basic way I knew how... but I am not a permissions pro, so I could have overlooked something.

Thanks so much!

Human error is still the most likely. All it takes is one careless editor or director who, say, uses "Open Last Project on Launch" or "Open Recent" without looking. There are too many variables right now to be able to pin it down.

I say every single person on the network should create a new project file on his/her local drive. You can still access media, but make sure every station uses only its own project file. When copying Sequences for work, rename it on your local station by adding a date/time suffix as well as station suffix (eg. "Scene 12 v08b Edit_B 011910). Watch those Sequence names carefully as you work. Observe behaviours for a week and see if the problem is still there.

Also, take some of those manual backups (grab the Autosaves while you're at it), move them to a non-networked laptop, and open them to check. Theoretically, it should be impossible for them to be altered.


www.derekmok.com