"Generic Error" when importing FCP XML files

[BillH8392]

When trying to import any XML file originating from Final Cut Pro, I get the following "The importer reporter a generic error." What does this mean and is there any work around? Any help will greatly appreciated.

[Mark Mapes]

Not to be a smart aleck, but as the word "generic" implies, the error message does not provide any useful information. Before we can begin to think about workarounds, we'll need to know more about the source FCP project. If it's possible to provide a copy of the xml file, that could help, too.

But before you do anything else, if you haven't  already applied the update that came out yesterday. In a quick scan of the top bugs fixed, I don't see anything specific to importing FCP XMLs, but that's not definitive.

[BillH8392]

Mark, thanks for the comment. I watched a buddy of mine open the original FCP file yesterday and export it out as an XML so that I could edit in Premiere. I have attached a pic of the error message. Not sure how I would attach the XML file as it's around 3mg. Please advise.

[Mark Mapes]

Bill, I just sent you a private message through the forum.

[Mark Mapes · Accepted solution]

Thanks for sending a copy of the FCP XML file, Bill. What appears to be tripping up Premiere is that the audio has mixed channel types. For example stereo and mono. I can think of two workarounds:

• limit the audio content in the source project to clips of one channel type.
• import the FCP XML into a Premiere Pro CS6 project, then open that project in CS7. Note that while CS6 succeeds in importing the FCP XML, a dialog warns of "possible issues encountered during translation," which are recorded in a report (which I did not stop to review, so no clue what those issues are...)

I've entered a bug report and attached your FCP XML to it. As always, no promises as to if/when it will be addressed.

[BillH8392]

Thanks. Hopefully I'll be able to work around. You've been very helpful.

[Grégoire AUSINA]

Hello,

I got the same generic error during a round trip Premiere CC -> Resolve 10 beta 1 -> Premiere CC via Final cut XML. I found a workaround exporting an new AAF from resolve and Premiere ate it successfully.

Hope theses little worries are going to be fixed soon.

Have a nice day. Bye.

[Studio E Vivien]

Hello Mark

Saw this thread today, I have desperately been searching for a solution for this issue. I have the same problem as Bill had I get the 'generic error'. I have tried the two workarounds that you posted in the thread, but none works. Do you have any other solutions or workarounds?

Would really appreciate any kind of help!

[kaiz3r art]

Hi, we still have the same problem with premiere CC 2014

what's going on ? this bug was reported a year ago... any news about a fix for this ? thanks

[Asher28612344mxbo]

10 years later and this still exists 🙂 glad we got all those AI features i never use though

[mindshawk]

I'm also having this issue, any updates on this issue?

[FASTSIGNS_of_Erie]

I'm experiencing this same problem in Premiere CC. Im syncing audio in Plural Eyes 3 then exporting an XML then importing the XML to Premiere then getting the "Generic Error" message. I wouldn't report this, but whats weird is that I am in the middle of a project of a Concert with 10 Bands and Ive done this workflow for the first 9 bands without any issue and now on the last one its giving me the error. I do not believe Ive updated either PluralEyes or Premiere while in the middle of this project.

[FASTSIGNS_of_Erie]

Oddly enough, 2 seconds after I posted this I decided to cut all but one of the Audio tracks in Plural Eyes and it imported fine into Premiere. I just have to add the other Audio tracks manually now.

Still a pain and it needs fixed though...

[DominickMcGee]

Just ran into the same issue tonight on my first round trip from Resolve 10 back to Premiere CS6 and like FASTSIGNS of Erie, the solution that worked for me was deleting all of the audio clips...which is indeed rather strange. Hope they will have a fix for this at one point or another!

[henryfilms]

I've had similar problems with round tripping to Resolve.  Try opening the resolve created xml in FCP and then save it out as a new xml.  Premiere seems to like these better in much the same way that Resolve doesn't really like Premiere Pro xmls too much unless they've passed through FCP.

[dosealas]

yep this worked for aswell, pluraleyes 3.5 > davinci 11 lite > premiere cc 2014....its funny sometimes how these things work.    

[Glenn25422894c732]

would there be a workaround for this for windows users? 

[The Discerning Lens]

Hi All,

I experienced the same error when importing an XML created by PluralEyes v3.5.8. I was able to fix the XML and retain the audio tracks. There appears to be a problem with the way PluralEyes builds XMLs for mono tracks, but it can be fixed with a simple search and replace.

In my case, I didn't realize that one of my sources was mono, but in Pluraleyes, you can see the number of channels identified in the camara bin pane.

Here's what worked.

1. Open the PluralEyes XML in a text editor (Notepad++ works well).

2. Search for "<channelcount>0</channelcount>". This is the tag that identifies the number of audio channels in the clip. I'm guessing that Premiere doesn't know what to do with "0".

3. Perform a search and replace to change "<channelcount>0</channelcount>" to "<channelcount>1</channelcount>". If your clips are something other than mono, you can try a different number, but I haven't tested that.

Hopefully that works for others!

[JBAtterton]

Just wanted to say I was having the same issue, and this workaround of editing the XML directly worked perfectly

[Department4]

I am currently having this issue as of receiving a "Generic Error" when importing an XML file aswell. I am trying to roundtrip from Premiere CC 2014.2 to Pluraleyes 3.5.8. and back.

At first I did notice my sequence contained both mono and stereo audio clips. I changed that and created a new sequence with only mono clips (same media, just converted to dual mono). That did not work.

I then noticed one of the audio tracks contained only silence, so I removed that audio track, tried the roundtrip again, and same general error.

I even tried The Discerning Lens's idea of editing the XML file directly, but there was no "0 channel count" text as he described in item 2.

I'm at a loss and currently stuck trying to sync my project. Any help?

[Department4]

Finally got it to work.

I was receiving this error NO MATTER WHAT I'D DO to my sequences in Premiere (problem was occuring when manually trying to round-trip from Premiere CC to Pluraleyes 5.3.8 and back). It was pretty infuriating.

I finally caved and decided to install the Pluraleyes Extension for PPCC just to try something new (I'd had bad experiences with it before) but amazingly, it worked! So now i'm on my way, but would still love to figure out what happened....

[zeroxcool]

Here is a video that shows the simple fix:

FIXED!!! The importer reported a generic error with MXF import - YouTube

Hope this helps man

[Juan Fernando Toro]

I was experiencing the same problem. We found out that exporting the XML into Davinci Resolve, and after that taking it to Premiere would work until a filename error is found (files with special characters, spaces or punctuation marks). Renaming the files to something that windows accepts and relinking those files solved the problem for me.