#01 Black Preview Screen / Video Doesn't Play
Cause: Hardware video decoder failure or incompatible GPU driver handshake.
Fix: Go to Preferences > Playback > Video Renderer. Switch from Hardware Acceleration to Software Fallback. On Windows, update your NVIDIA Studio Driver to v550+.
#02 No Audio Output / Silent Timeline Playback
Cause: Audio sample rate mismatch (44.1 kHz vs 48.0 kHz) or default output device conflict.
Fix: Open Preferences > Audio Hardware. Ensure Default Output matches your current system headphones/speakers, and set Sample Rate explicitly to 48,000 Hz.
#03 macOS Crash on Launch / App Quits Instantly
Cause: Apple Gatekeeper quarantine extended attributes on freshly extracted DMG builds.
Fix: Open Terminal and execute: sudo xattr -cr /Applications/FilmCraft.app.
#04 Unsupported Format / Missing HEVC/H.265 Codec
Cause: Windows N editions or minimal Linux installations lacking FFmpeg/libavcodec runtimes.
Fix: On Windows, install the Media Feature Pack or run FilmCraft with embedded codecs. On Ubuntu Linux: sudo apt install ubuntu-restricted-extras ffmpeg.
#05 Choppy 4K Playback / Dropped Frames
Cause: High-bitrate 10-bit 4:2:2 camera files saturating single-threaded CPU decoders.
Fix: Right-click your media bin and select Generate Proxy Media (ProRes Proxy or DNxHR LB at 50% resolution). Toggle the Proxy button on the playback monitor (F4).
#06 Export Hangs at 99% / Out of Memory
Cause: Temporary scratch drive running out of free space during multi-pass muxing.
Fix: Verify the partition where your export is saving has at least 3x the final file size available. Switch export encoder from 2-Pass VBR to Constant Quality (CQ 20) 1-Pass.
#07 Out-of-Sync Audio on Smartphone Videos
Cause: Variable Frame Rate (VFR) recorded by iPhones or screen recorders.
Fix: Right-click the clip in FilmCraft bin and select "Convert VFR to Constant Frame Rate (CFR)".
#08 Permission Denied Saving Project
Fix: Avoid saving projects inside root system directories (C:Windows or /usr/). Always save inside user Documents or dedicated project SSD folders.