FCP7 AutoSave works, Project Restore Doesn't

This is driving me crazy. We're running Final Cut 7 on OS 10.7.4, on three networked MacPro Towers - we upgraded it from a stable FCP6 system, and almost everything is working fine - except for one maddening problem.

While FCP autosave is saving files correctly, if I select "restore" during a session, I can only restore versions from the current FCP session. If there's a crash and I restart Final Cut and choose restore, a message appears that there are no autosave files available for the current project.

All the autosave files exist in the correct location. I can access them directly, rename them and open them manually - but not using Project Restore.

Have anyone had this problem?

Thanks!