DaVinci Resolve 19 "You have reached a limitation"

Hi there.

I'm a newbie at video editing and I was editing this video for my trip.
I have been working on it for the past 4 days.
Today, I was doing my own thing and adding nodes and such, then Davinci resolve started lagging. So I closed it and reopened it.
Upon trying to open my project again, I was faced with the "You have reached a limitation with DaVinci Resolve"
I tried every possible way to get my project back but I can't do anything.

I've seen a couple of posts here with the same problem and they would export their project as .drp and upload it to dropbox or google drive.
You can find my project here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Yf9DdP ... sp=sharing

If anyone can help, I really appreciate it. I have put a lot of time and effort into this.

[Dwaine Maggart]

You only get that message if you have a project using Resolve Studio features, and you are attempting to load it in the free version of Resolve.

Someone else had this problem and we discovered that, in the free version, one could add a studio only effect which wouldn’t actually work properly but then would prevent loading of that project.

[Dwaine Maggart]

Cool. Any recollection of what effect that may have been?

FYI the same thing happens when ingesting 3D footage and creating a 3D Timeline. Next time you try to open the project with free DVR you get the message.
One can even go into the 3D color panel and play with 3D adjustments, etc. It all works, no message. Until you close and reopen the Project.
It's great to allow for some 3D work to happen, but it would be fair to warn users that the Project won't be able to open with free DVR next time.

[Dwaine Maggart]

I just checked Resolve 19.1.3 free version on Windows, and it has no ability to create a 3D timeline on the Media page, using the normal Stereo 3D Sync menu (since that's not available in the free version).

Do you have some other way of making a 3D timeline in the free Resolve version?

Right Click on 3D clip/footage, Create New Timeline Using Selected Clip.
I'm on Mac.

[Dwaine Maggart]

What type of 3D clip would that be?

Vision Pro

[Dwaine Maggart]

Well fun. I found some Vision Pro Spatial Video sample files, and I see that making them into a 3D timeline only works on Mac, and not on Windows. Not surprising, I suppose...

In general I think it’d be better to allow opening of projects that have studio-only elements and round tripping them but just not rendering them. Safer I think.

Unless it’s important to the business model to force any team using studio features to buy enough licenses for everyone even if most people don’t “use” the studio features.

I'm using the MacOS free version.

All I remember is that I was trying to add a film grain filter I downloaded and I was tweaking with some nodes.

Then it froze on me, so I decided to restart DaVinci.
Upon trying to open the project again, It wouldn't let me open.

Why would they allow you to add studio features to your project when you're using it for free?
And even if its necessary to allow the user to do so, there should be an option to restore the project with the studio features removed.

Now my whole project that I spent 5 days working on is gone and the only way to restore it is by buying the studio version.

There must be another way to restore my project without having to buy the studio version, right?

[Dwaine Maggart]

Those decisions are above my pay grade. But I definitely agree you shouldn't be able to add something into a project using the free version, that then prevents that free version from opening the project.

That's why I'd like to see specifically what's causing that, so maybe the dev team could not allow things like that to happen.

I'm not sure why we can't just open a Studio project and put the watermarks on the Studio only stuff, as we seem to do with all the Studio only FX I've tried adding to a free project.

Do I have any recommendations for me on how can I get back my project to run again?

[Dwaine Maggart]

You could post a project export .drp here, and we could remove the offending FX.

Hi there @Dwaine Maggart

Not to proud to admit I am desperate to get my project to open.

I am a new and first time user using Resolve, I have been editing a family holiday as my first project and have put a month of evenings to get where I was.

Then my project failed to open .

I think it is the same issue as described in this thread.

PLEASE, can you help? I see there is a method of uploading the 'settings' file to clear the project of any Studio features that is possibly stopping the project opening. I am happy to finish the project without any Studio features and did not expect this.

Screenshot 2025-05-12 at 06.53.01.png (153.72 KiB) Viewed 1620 times

Screenshot 2025-05-12 at 06.51.51.png (202.23 KiB) Viewed 1620 times

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

You can Export the .drp from the Project Manager, Clint. Then upload to a file sharing site and post the link.

Someone with Studio can change the appropriate settings and save out for you.

Hi there

To absolutely anyone out there that can help me please: below is a link to my project that I cannot access due to what I have read is to do with my project has effects or settings that are not permissable is the free version of Da Vinci Resolve.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uvq4aC ... sp=sharing

If someone could please remove the offending setting it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

[Dwaine Maggart]

So here's the deal. At some point with the project loaded in Resolve Studio, someone set the timeline to stereo, which is not supported in the free version.

You can manually make a timeline stereo via the method shown in the screen shot:

set_timeline_as_stereo.png (69.31 KiB) Viewed 1069 times

But what happened in this case is that someone added a Spatial Photo .HEIC file, which would automatically convert the timeline to stereo. And projects with stereo timelines cannot be loaded in free Resolve, as it does not support stereo timelines.


On clip 324 of your project, there is a file IMG_1560.HEIC, which is a Spatial Photo file. On the free version of Resolve, you cannot add a spatial photo .heic file to the timeline. So I'm sure this was done in Resolve Studio.

Once you add a spatial photo .heic file to a timeline, it automatically converts that timeline to a stereo timeline, even though it may not be obvious. Once that's been done, there is no way to convert THAT timeline back to a non-stereo timeline.

If a timeline was accidentally made stereo, by either adding a stereo clip, or manually as per the screen shot above, the only way back to a non-stereo timeline, is to remove any stereo clips, then copy all the clips in the timeline, and paste them into a new timeline. You can verify it's NOT a stereo timeline by the method shown in the screen shot. If it IS a stereo timeline, you won't see the "Set Timeline as Stereo" option.

This is what I've done with your project, then deleted the original Timeline 1 which was a stereo timeline.

I've attached a copy of your project with clip 324 removed, and making a new non-stereo timeline. This version of your project will load in free Resolve. I've zipped the drp, since I can't attach a .drp file. Just unzip the file back to a drp and Import it into Resolve.

...
This is what I've done with your project, then deleted the original Timeline 1 which was a stereo timeline.

I've attached a copy of your project with clip 324 removed, and making a new non-stereo timeline. This version of your project will load in free Resolve. I've zipped the drp, since I can't attach a .drp file. Just unzip the file back to a drp and Import it into Resolve.

Dwaine, You must be the most kind, service minded and dedicated support staff in all of the creative world.
Above and beyond - every time!

It's an honor just to be here.

Hi Dwaine

Thank you very much for helping me with this. I have successfully opened the project and it is working again.

GREATLY APPRECIATED!

I just hope I don't accidentally add anything that is not compliant with the 'free' version.