FCPx crashes when exporting from external drive only

Latest Catalina OS and FCPx.

2016 15” MBP with touchbar.

Internal 2TB SSD.

G-Technology G-DRIVE mobile Pro 1TB Thunderbolt 3 External SSD

No problem working or exporting when all data is on internal drive.

No problem working when all data is on external drive (actually reads/writes a bit faster than my internal).

However, exporting from external drive, it almost always crashes. Sometimes it just quits in the middle without any notification. Once I had a kernel panic (are they still called that?) and the whole machine shut down. Same result with new projects, so it’s not a particular render file or similar.

Very frustrating because I bought this external to use as an FCPx media drive for active projects and then dump them off for archive storage. But I’ve had to move everything over to my internal (sometimes 500 gigs of 4K files) just to export a project.

Thoughts? Thanks in advance.

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jul 14, 2020 3:58 PM

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23 replies

Jul 14, 2020 6:07 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Appreciate it but not sure what else I can eliminate. This is a clean Catalina install from maybe a month ago and have only been adding apps as I need them. Should I be looking for a new computer soon??

Jul 15, 2020 9:28 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Profiles are from the Prey app. It's a security app (a bit more intense than "find my Mac"). I've had it installed for years over multiple OS's. It's not something new I just installed, so doubt that would be the issue (although I'm not ruling anything out!).

Jul 14, 2020 5:18 PM in response to terryb

External drive is empty except for the currently active project taking up 150 - 500 gigs.

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,889 points

Jul 14, 2020 5:46 PM in response to David Bergman

Not Dropbox folder. Don’t export directly to there if you’re connected to the net.

Jul 14, 2020 6:18 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

No reason why I shouldn't be able to get another year or two out of this system if possible. Any other troubleshooting suggestions? Is Apple able to help with this kind of issue?

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,889 points

Jul 14, 2020 6:20 PM in response to David Bergman

Probably not unless the system crash is readily reproducible in which case it’ll need repair.

Jul 14, 2020 6:32 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

OK, thanks for your help.

Jul 17, 2020 11:47 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

FCPx does have full system access.

Haven't tried the Prey thing yet, but here's an additional note. I've only had the kernel panic once. MOST of the time, the "crash" isn't a normal app crash. There is no notification. No report of a crash. The app simply quits at some point in the middle of the export. The resulting file actually is a playable video file, but not complete. Sometimes only 3+ minutes of a 10 minute video. Sometimes more. But the app is no longer running and the file is definitely not complete.

I've never seen that, but it happens pretty regularly. Also - last night it happened when internal to internal so it's not drive related. First time I've seen that. Hmmmmm.

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FCPx crashes when exporting from external drive only