Project suddenly empty/timeline gone!

Tom, I've actually looked at a number of your responses over the years for some answers. Thanks for chiming in.

Those other "Henriette's" are backups that I tried loading in. The Project slate "Henriette" is blank.. it's always been blank. This is why I disclaimer that I'm new to FCPX... I've fully edited a couple videos the past couple weeks, but that Project slate is always blank. Double clicking it doesn't put anything in the timeline. For example: this image shows a project called "Bellino" which when I click on the library is blank in the timeline.

But if I click on the the Oct 2 synchronized clip collection, the timeline fully populates with my entire complete edit.

With the now-blank "Henriette" project, none of the clips "contain" the full edit timeline. No sync'd clips in that one, it's just clips.

OH WAIT - I just closed all the libraries and re-opened the main one I usually use, and it contains an Oct 4 "Henriette Sync'd" clip. When I click on that, the timeline is back! Which is great, but... I don't understand what I did wrong. I'm guessing this is something fundamentally incorrect when I started the project. I imported clips into the library, then started editing... but when I did sync those Henriette clips, they didn't insert themselves into the timeline: they just made that "Henriette sync" clip with the paperclip upper left. And double clicking on that inserted the sync'd clips into the timeline and I edited from there.

Am I missing something fundamental at the project-creation level, where perhaps all of this stuff is supposed to live inside of the slate "Henriette"?

This may actually be a super rudimentary problem... but if you know what I did wrong, and if it has a name so I can google around for info about it, that would be super helpful. With a new software sometimes I don't know what to call something to know what to google for when troubleshooting it!

Kirby

AH - extra info: I still have a valid FCP Trial version, and the current library file actually opened up in that, and it was fully intact. That's the project I'm looking at. So now I don't know how to get this accurate project to open up into regular licensed FCPX. Weird.

AHHH - I knew something was wrong but didn't understand what. I need to figure out how to operate inside of a project slate rather than... whatever it is I'm currently doing. It felt like it was a structural thing.

Thanks so much for the suggestions and for chiming in. I'm in a time crunch on something and I obviously missed a key foundational concept somewhere. This stuff can feel like being lost in the wilderness - kind souls who assist are gold. Thank you sir.

Kirby

Is there a way to copy my timeline and library all at once and paste it into a project? I think the piece I skipped here was “file>new project.” Basically, can i highlight everything I’ve done - my completed video - and drag it into a project that I create?

kirby

Thank you so much. <fist bump>