A common problem when moving Final Cut projects from Mac is that of missing plugins. Even if the plugin is on both Macs, it works on one, but the project can’t seem to find it on the other.

A useful tool to aid in Final Cut Pro X detective work is Spherico’s X-FX Handler application (Direct download). If you find it useful, get in touch with the developer to find out how to donate some money to show your appreciation.

Export the problem Final Cut Pro X 10.1.X project as an XML file and open it with X-FX Handler. It will show a list of all the effects, transitions, titles and generators in the project:

The listing shows where the project expects the find each plugin. The majority of problems occur when a plugin seems to be in the same place on the second machine, but isn’t. This happens when two folders seem to have the same name. You might have two folders in the Finder named “Transitions” – if you use the Get Info command in the Finder you might find one is named “Transitions” and the other is “Transitions.localized”

For more information on how X-FX Handler works, use the Help menu to read the detailed manual. It shows how although a plugin seems to be installed on both Macs, there are different places where the plugin might be – which means a project moving from one Mac to another might not recognise that the plugin is installed on the new machine: