Problems with Final Cut Pro? Solutions from Digital Rebellion

First I should say that I've used FCP (6) for years without a hitch. While I was editing the last Tracing Arcs movie, though, it became erratic. I muddled on and completed the video but when it came to capturing footage from last week's Trellis conference, FCP wouldn't launch at all. Instead I got the dreaded spinning beach ball and "Force Quit" didn't force a quit. For each time I tried a fix I had to reboot the Mac.

So I did my research and tried deleting the obvious preference files, etc., but to no avail. I realised I'd need to reinstall the entire Final Cut Studio package, but Apple don't offer an UnInstall program, and deleting all the files involved by hand is practically impossible. Then I found a free uninstall program (FCS Remover) which I downloaded from Digital Rebellion. I uninstalled FCS and re-installed it. Still the spinning beach ball on launch...

Maybe it's a system thing, I thought, so I defragged the hard drive and tried again. Beach balls!

Then I remembered that Digital Rebellion had another program I might try out (15 day free trial). If only I'd tried that in the first place. I'd have saved a day and a half of total frustration and zero productivity.

Pro Maintenance Tools (PMT) sorted the whole thing out. There were files that I had saved in places that FCS Remover would never have found and which were corrupted. PMT found the stuff I'd saved "temporarily" all over the place and removed it all without touching the important stuff.

I'm going to buy PMT and have it on hand for my peace of mind. I'd recommend it to all Final Cut Pro users. It's fab!

Recovery – HeLo Mix

Next week I'm due to film a conference, which is going to be hard work, but at least it will get me out of the house.

I've been busy planning and preparing the kitchen for the builders, and have had little time for blogging or any semblance of a social life. I did manage to complete the new Tracing Arcs video, though, and I'm really pleased with the result, as is the band! I filmed it in Ramsgate in October last year when we had five days of gloriously sunny weather and Paul (of Tracing Arcs) and I had a great time in the evenings sitting outside pubs drinking cold cider.