One typical e-mail that I get on a regular basis is from a reader that is at the eleventh hour of their project, and they have their back up against a wall, and they can't export their project because Final Cut Pro is giving them an error, and they ask me in a panic....WHAT DO I DO????? So, I thought I would look at two very simple, yet always effective things that I do when I'm running into a problem.

The first question I always ask someone when they have a problem is "what were you doing when the computer gave you the error?". I ask this for two reasons, one, because you can easily diagnose (or self-diagnose) the problem this way, and since there is (in most cases) multiple ways of doing things in Final Cut Pro, I will always tell people to try doing that particular function a different way, so that they can continue working and finish their project. If that doesn't work, here are my top two suggestions.

TRASH YOUR SETTINGS

Believe it or not, this will solve about 90% of all your problems right here. To find the Final Cut Pro system settings, navigate your way to MACINTOSH HD>USERS>LOGGED-IN USER (insert user name here)>LIBRARY>PREFERENCES>FINAL CUT PRO DATA. Inside that folder, you will see what looks like the image below.

By deleting the preferences of Final Cut Pro, it's like you are setting the program back to the very first time you launched it after installation. So keep in mind that your user preferences will be reset (auto-backup, text size, etc). Normally, what I will do is create a folder on the desktop called "Preferences Temp", and I will copy these files into that folder before I delete them. The reason being, that if this is one of those 10% of the time that it's not a problem with your preferences, you can easily move them back and get all your preferences back the way you had them. Once you have trashed your settings, and you launch Final Cut Pro again, you will immediately see new preferences created in the FCP Data folder, and hopefully now, you should be ready to go. If not, let's look at your next best option.

ONYX

When I mention Onyx, most people probably think of that acne cream you can buy at most drug stores. Well this Onyx doesn't fix acne, it fixes systems. Now, I'm not one to tell people to run out and buy a program just because it might fix their system when it's giving them problems. The two best things about Onyx are that it will in almost all cases fix your system, and it's FREE. That's right, you heard me, free! Everyone who works on a Mac should head over to , and download Onyx. They have versions of the software all the way back to Jaguar, for people who are running Final Cut Pro on an older system. Once installed, quit out of any open applications, and launch Onyx. When you start it, it is going to want to confirm the S.M.A.R.T status of your disk (which can be turned off in the preferences), and it will want to confirm the start up disk, both of which you can skip if you want, but if this is the first time running Onyx, I highly recommend it.

Once Onyx is done scanning your disk, click on "Automation", select all the check boxes, and press "Execute". Depending on how bogged down your system is, the "cleaning" that Onyx is going to give it might take a while, especially if this is the first time running it. I would suggest running Onyx once a week, to keep your system running in tip-top shape. Once Onyx is done, it will require a restart, and at this point you should be good to go. Remember, you give your car an oil change on a regular basis to keep it in good running order, and you should do the same for your Mac, as it is your bread and butter, and you want to make sure it's running in peak performance when you need it!

These two techniques should keep you from uninstalling and reinstalling software when you have problems. If you have a question about anything editing related (editing, motion graphics, etc), don't hesitate to drop me a line at kevin@reelclever.com, and who knows, you might see your question in my next column.