What is FCPXML? Final Cut's project file format explained

What is an FCPXML file?

A plain-text file, written in XML, that describes Final Cut Pro work in a form other software can read. Apple's developer documentation says FCPXML describes the media, metadata and other items people send between an app and Final Cut Pro, and is careful about its limits: it describes certain, but not all, aspects of projects and events, and it is not a substitute for a Final Cut library.

So an FCPXML file is for moving an edit, not storing one. Use it to send a cut to a colourist in Resolve, to bring a timeline from another tool into Final Cut, or to let software such as a captioning or asset-management app read what is in a project. Final Cut's own guide calls this using XML to transfer projects.

What does an FCPXML file contain?

Two halves: resources, which describe the formats and media, and the library structure, which describes how they are used. A single interview clip in a project at 29.97 frames a second looks like this, trimmed for reading:

<fcpxml version="1.10">
  <resources>
    <format id="r1" frameDuration="1001/30000s" width="1920" height="1080"/>
    <asset id="r2" name="Interview" start="0s" duration="18018000/30000s"
           hasVideo="1" hasAudio="1" format="r1">
      <media-rep kind="original-media" src="file:///Users/you/Footage/Interview.mov"/>
    </asset>
  </resources>
  <library>
    <event name="Interview">
      <project name="Rough cut">
        <sequence format="r1" duration="180180/30000s" tcStart="0s">
          <spine>
            <asset-clip ref="r2" name="Interview" offset="0s"
                        start="120120/30000s" duration="180180/30000s">
              <chapter-marker start="120120/30000s" duration="1001/30000s" value="Intro"/>
            </asset-clip>
          </spine>
        </sequence>
      </project>
    </event>
  </library>
</fcpxml>

Read the clip line: it uses asset r2, the interview file, starting 4.004 seconds in (120120/30000 of a second) and running 6.006 seconds, placed at the start of the timeline. Times are written as exact fractions of a second rather than decimals, so a frame at 29.97 is precisely 1001/30000 of a second and nothing drifts. The spine is the main storyline, Final Cut's primary track; connected clips, titles and transitions hang off it.

What are the FCPXML versions?

FCPXML is numbered 1.x, and each new version tracks new Final Cut Pro features. When you choose File ▸ Export XML, Final Cut's guide says you pick the current version or one of the two before it, and in most cases should choose the current one; older versions exist for apps that cannot read the newest.

The visible change came with version 1.10. Final Cut's guide says that from FCPXML 1.10, Final Cut exports a bundle with the ending .fcpxmld rather than a single .fcpxml file, and that 1.10 or later is needed for the object tracking and Cinematic mode features added in Final Cut Pro 10.6. If an app refuses a bundle, export again choosing an earlier version.

FCPXML vs XML vs EDL: what is the difference?

"XML" on its own usually means the older Final Cut Pro 7 format, which Premiere Pro still reads and writes and many people call Premiere XML. It is a different language from FCPXML, and the two are not interchangeable.

None of them contains the footage. Each points at the original files, which must travel with it. What is an edit decision list shows the simplest of them line by line.

Can Premiere open FCPXML?

No. Adobe's own guide to moving from Final Cut Pro says Premiere Pro reads XML from Final Cut Pro 7 but not the .fcpxml files Final Cut Pro writes, and points to a converter: Intelligent Assistance's XtoCC turns FCPXML into the older XML Premiere imports. The other routes are an EDL for a simple cut, OpenTimelineIO, which Adobe's release notes list in Premiere from version 26.0, or a stop in DaVinci Resolve, which reads FCPXML and writes formats Premiere opens.

Can DaVinci Resolve import FCPXML?

Yes. In Resolve, choose File ▸ Import ▸ Timeline and pick the file; Resolve rebuilds the timeline and looks for the clips. The Resolve user guide, as quoted by Larry Jordan, says opacity, position, scale and rotation come across, with their keyframes, but Final Cut's titles arrive as empty grey boxes because they are in a format only Final Cut draws. Effects and grades rarely travel between any two editors, so hand off before the finishing work, not after.

How does Sharpy use FCPXML?

To hand an edit to Final Cut or Resolve, and to take one back. Sharpy writes the cut as FCPXML pointing at the original media, on the sequence's own timebase, so an importer has nothing to round. Its files validate against Apple's FCPXML 1.10 definition.

• What goes in: each clip's speed as a time map, its dissolves, each clip's gain, level curve and fades, picture clips as picture only, and switched-off clips still switched off.
• Your logging: a chapter becomes a chapter marker, a question or a fault a to-do, and a note a marker, each written one frame long on the shot it falls in. Ratings, keywords and subclips go across as well.
• What stays, said out loud: grades, masks, keys and animations stay in Sharpy, and each clip's sound chain is named by track and time in the file's comment. Bins become one event, and the file says the bins stay behind.
• Back the other way: Sharpy reads an FCPXML timeline into a new edit, finds every file where the timeline says it is, and names any that are missing instead of guessing.

An edit written out and read back is the same cut. Sharpy also writes a CMX 3600 EDL and OpenTimelineIO, for editors that do not read FCPXML. Moving an edit to Premiere, Resolve or Final Cut walks through the whole hand-off.

Sources

Checked on 18 October 2026.

• Apple Developer: FCPXML reference
• Apple Support: use XML to transfer projects in Final Cut Pro for Mac
• Adobe: migrate from Final Cut Pro to Premiere Pro
• Adobe Premiere release notes: OpenTimelineIO in version 26.0
• Larry Jordan: round-tripping projects between Final Cut Pro and DaVinci Resolve
• Intelligent Assistance: XtoCC