Hello, I know this is a long shot: DOES ANYONE OUT THERE HAPPEN TO HAVE A WORKING INSTALL OF FCP 10.0.X OR UP TO 10.3? I need to work with an older Final Cut project file, but I did not know that after 10.3, you cannot access the file even to convert it. My old machine that had 10.0.x installed died, and even if I could find the installers, it probably wont run the new mac OS... If anyone could help, I'd be happy to pay something for your effort! Thank you!

Hi TeoAnim - I don't have FCPX installed here, but maybe another FCPX user/guru can offer some help.. I found this Apple document that seems to confirm what you apparently already know -- that pre-10.1 files can't be [directly] converted -- but it doesn't offer any advice for people in that situation.. https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT207261 I did find a reference to Apple providing "a trial of an older version of FCPX that could be installed and sit next to a current version of FCPX", which is claimed to "allow you to update the project and prep it for the newer version of FCPX going forward". I couldn't find it by searching, and though I did come across other references to it, none provided a link -- maybe a call to Apple is in order.. Apple did something similar with Logic years ago as well, making it difficult or impossible to open older projects without a copy of an older version of the software on hand to serve as a sort of intermediary..

Hi Joe, Thank you for your reply and for researching it. I also found some of the things oyu uncovered, and even had twinkle of hope when I found a post about this discussion, from 2017, where because of this issue, Apple was keeping a trial download of 10.3 available so any stragglers (like me) could still install 10.3 in order to convert their old 10.0 projects. But alas... the link is now dead! After calling Apple, I did confirm the sad truth that I have no option now but to try to find a working version of 10.0 to 10.3 and a kind soul who will help me! Lesson learned: ALWAYS make an XML backup of the final project!

Hi TeoAnim - It's a shame that Apple doesn't still maintain that support for users of their professional applications [like FCPX & Logic] who need to access much older projects. I have two old Macs [one really old] in the closet that have an older OS & software on them, just in case -- not that I was that prescient or anything, I'd just held on to them so long they weren't really worth much to sell or trade in when I finally upgraded] ;-) But one of them came in handy when I had to remix some songs from a ten-year-old Logic Project, and I even got a paying gig recovering a songwriter's Logic archives when Logic Pro X stopped supporting opening really old Projects [as I'm a music guy neither of those old machines has FCP on it]. I'd guess there must be some video studios around that archive their clients' older Projects, and maybe still keep an old FCP install sitting around in case they need to get at them. I agree, creating a universally-compatible version of a Project when it's done is one of those absolutely key strategies that -- like daily backups -- most of us acknowledge is an excellent idea but few of us really bother to do as regularly as we should. Though I am pretty OCD about backups, I still don't bother to render all the tracks at the end of a project as I always recommend to others to do, but I guess that's pretty much par for the course.. :-)