File error: unknown file???
 

I've been working on a project for a while on Final Cut, and literally all of the sudden I can't save. "File Error: Unknown File" What on earth does that mean? Why can I save one second ago but I can never save again? I didn't do anything out of the ordinary. Anyone know what has mystified my fcp?

This can be a big problem. Some sort of corruption has filtered into your project file.

First, try to do a "Save As" and see if that works.

if that doesn't work...

Second, revert to a previously saved version; one of the backup files that Final Cut makes behind the scenes. Unfortunately this means that you'll loose some work but it's better then losing the whole project. Just to be sure, do a "Save As" on the backup file, rename the project and work on that version from there on.

Third, without doing anything rash, run a disk utility like, "DiskWarrior" and just check the file directory integriy of your hard drives. If there's a directory problem, first backup ALL THE DATA on an external drive before running the repair program.

You could also try doing a file export xml then import that xml into a brand new project.

Thanks for the tips, I am even more worried now that this will be a reoccuring problem. Does this sort of thing happen at random? Is there something I can do to prevent it? And do you think I will run into this problem more and more now? A little background info about this will be much appreciated.

It's happened to me twice since I started using FCP from version 1. One time (a long time ago) I could pin point the problem to a title created with Boris. No title, everything was fine, add the title and everything went bad again. The problem lead me to not use Boris FX or their titler program much anymore. That was my decision, other people are very happy with Boris products on FCP.

The second time (two years ago) was less understandable. Nothing seemed to be a clear reason. I did what I told you to do and went on editing with about 40 minutes of editing time lost.

If you run a regular schedule of system maintenance, don't cram the hard disks full of data and keep backups of important files like the project file, you should be fine. If this problem repeats itself with this particular project, perhaps it's related to a particular video file you are useing. You might want to recapture that file. If the problem reoccurs with other projects you should reinstall Final Cut from scratch.