Level 1

11 points

FCPX broke after upgrade to Big Sur. Will not Share Master File. EtreCheck seemed to find other problems, too.

FCPX was working fine on Catalina. I upgraded to Big Sur and now it's a mess. It is incredibly slow if it works at all. The beach ball spins and spins and spins when “Preparing media to share.” Sometimes the only way out is to force quit. Force quit says the application isn't responding. After a force quit, FCPX app will not often open again from the desktop without restarting computer. Sometimes the beach ball spins and spins if I do anything within the timeline. I have found that if I wait a very unusual amount of time that sometimes the task will complete but sometimes, I just have to force quit. It will not save a master file. I keep getting a message that it failed to save. I have used FCPX for about a year on previous OS and had no such problems. I tired deleting the plist file. Didn't help. Tried re-installing FCPX. Didn't help. Nothing has changed about my hardware or hard drives. iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, 2019). Processor: 3 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i5. Memory: 16 GB 2667 MHz DDR4. Startup disk; Macintosh HD; Graphics. Mac OS Big Sur version 11.1. Using FCPX 10.5.1. When I looked at EtreCheck report, it says, “security updates disabled.” I have internet through Comcast Xfinity and had been using Norton from them but as of Jan 1st, they said they are using different security software and to just log on and turn it on, which I did. Then I deleted Norton but the FCPX problem started before that. I did turn the firewall on now. I’m not sure if I should trust the Comcast Xfinity security or not??? The Etrecheck says I have no virus protection? That would be since January 1st when I got the message from Comcast. The EtreCheck also says performance is “poor.” It says I have a failing hard drive but I can’t tell from the report which one it is? My previous Time Machine disk failed around 12/6. I can’t remember if that was before or after I upgraded to Big Sur. Disk utilities could not fix it and it that hard drive won’t mount. I have since replaced it with another. Another hard drive I was using to save to for FCPX files lost it’s connection and I got the message about not disconnecting hard drives while in use but I had not disconnected it at all. That hard drive is new in the last week or two and has mounted again at this point.

EtreCheck Report regarding my problem.

iMac 21.5″, 11.1

Posted on Jan 5, 2021 6:16 PM

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sylvanr Author

Level 1

11 points

Posted on Jan 10, 2021 10:23 AM

I was successfully able to install Catalina on an external SSD drive and FCPX works fine again. If anybody else is having similar problems, just want you to know that Big Sur is the problem. I appreciate the help and suggestions from others. The Etracheck reports were interesting and I did delete some unnecessary files but none of those things were the issue and deleting those files made no difference. The fact is that you can spend a lot of time spinning your wheels, trying to track down some mysterious culprit but my guess is that most people reading this can cut to the chase if you are using FCPX 10.5.1. on Mac OS Big Sur version 11.1 and save yourself a lot of time and frustration by either installing Catalina on an external drive or replacing Big Sur on your main drive. I found YouTube videos helpful in the process. I downloaded Catalina installer onto an SD card and then installed on an SSD drive that was formatted as APFS. I wasted a lot of time trying to install on a Mac OS Extended (journaled) drive but that would not work. Good luck!

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58 replies

sylvanr Author

Level 1

11 points

Jan 7, 2021 12:19 AM in response to sylvanr

It was suggested that I run Etrecheck without all the external drives connected which I did. I disconnected all the external drives including the one I was using for Time Machine. It appears that it is not my boot up drive that is failing. It does show that Final Cut Pro has had "High CPU Use (18 times) Executable: /Applications/Final Cut Pro.app Details: *** -[__NSArrayM insertObject:atIndex:]: object cannot be nil abort() called

"*** -[__NSArrayM insertObject:atIndex:]: object cannot be nil abort() called" means nothing to me? Does it mean anything to anybody else?

Etracheck without external hard drives connected.

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,815 points

Mar 9, 2021 8:07 AM in response to Ian R. Brown

I have an external Catalina drive. It was just an example. Basically you don't need anything but the computer. You boot into recovery, go into Disk Utility, erase the system drive, and run the installer.

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,815 points

Mar 9, 2021 4:03 AM in response to VALDIRENDERS

As others have said post an EtreCheck report with full disk access.

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,815 points

Mar 9, 2021 6:10 AM in response to Ian R. Brown

Yes, it does. That's why I can boot into a Catalina drive. Do what appears to be a full drive wipe of the internal system drive, and then boot into recovery without the internet.

Jan 10, 2021 10:26 AM in response to sylvanr

Whatever works for you, fine, but as was seen above, you have installed crappy things in your mac, and that is the problem.

Had you installed a clean Big Sur on an external drive, without the likes of symantec in it, you would be likely to find that it works just fine.

Alchroma

Level 7

23,918 points

Jan 15, 2021 3:47 PM in response to sylvanr

It would be helpful if you could describe exactly which drives (make/model) are connected to your Mac.

Also what type of ports and cables are used.

And the existing formatting.

We need specific info to assist further.

BTW: Big Sur works just fine with the current version of FCP 10.5.1.

Mar 8, 2021 5:35 PM in response to sylvanr

I 100% agree that after installing MacOS BigSur, FCPX becomes unusable. For me, this BigSur may even disappear from computers because only the more damage it does. Catalinia was where I'm coming back tomorrow, I had no problems with anything and now the problems with FCPX, BLUETOOTH, FILLING THE FRAMES FAST AND I HAVE 64GB also it's funny what this BigSur is doing, UPDATES ARE HANGING ...... just a total failure and Let the Lord not write below only that these are external or internal disks because I have this equipment https://www.cortland.pl/apple-imac-retina-5k-27-3.6ghz-8gb-512gb-ssd-radeon- pro-5700-xt-16gb-10-gigabit-ethernet-new-model.html upgraded to 64gb RAM so please tell me if this machine is allowed to crash in FCPX when using plugs that flashed furiously and correctly on Catalinia. I will also briefly say LAUGHTER IN THE ROOM WITH THIS BIG SUR

Here is my gear at this link below

https://www.cortland.pl/apple-imac-retina-5k-27-3.6ghz-8gb-512gb-ssd-radeon-pro-5700-xt-16gb-10-gigabit-ethernet-nowy-model.html

Jan 7, 2021 3:14 AM in response to sylvanr

The report mentions pieces of software by symantec that are crashing.

I am guessing that you have remnants of "norton" lying around in your system. That is not good.

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,815 points

Mar 9, 2021 5:29 AM in response to VALDIRENDERS

Depends on what you're doing and what drive you're using. 4K RED or 10-bit codecs in multicam, and the system drive won't cut it.

sylvanr Author

Level 1

11 points

Jan 8, 2021 6:59 AM in response to Dirteshisno2

I feel your pain! I have run Etracheck multiple times and eliminated a few things that were suggested but hasn't made any difference. I did order a SSD drive and plan on trying to install Catalina on it and use it as my boot drive until Apple fixes the problem with Big Sur and/or FCPX.

Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,850 points

Jan 10, 2021 10:42 AM in response to sylvanr

sylvanr wrote:

. . . just want you to know that Big Sur is the problem.

My workstation running FCP 10.5.1 on Big Sur 11.1 is running stable and well - and cranking out the billable hours.

My suggestion would be to find out what the problem is and solve it - as not doing so now will only cascade into additional problems later.

MtD

sylvanr Author

Level 1

11 points

Jan 11, 2021 2:53 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

I removed Symantec Norton files and ran another Etrecheck. The only "major" problem it finds is that I don't have a TimeMachine backup so I have reconnected that drive and making one. FCPX is working fine with Catalina on the SSD drive which I suppose would be called a "clean" install? Some here seem to believe that if I let that upgrade to Big Sur on that drive, that Big Sur will probably work there as well which I plan to try at some point but I have video editing I need to get done and don't have time right now to fix it again if FCPX breaks again. I see there are various apps that "clean" the hard drive. Etrecheck says I have a lot of 32 bit programs that no longer work but shouldn't cause any problems either? Any anyone would recommend that are free or don't cost a lot? Are they effective? Some say I should do a clean install on my original hard drive but that seems like it would take a lot of time. If I did that, I would need to reinstall all my programs from a backup?

latest etrecheck

sylvanr Author

Level 1

11 points

Jan 15, 2021 2:30 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

So, I spent the day doing a "clean install" of Big Sur as some suggested. I haven't had much time to use FCPX but keep getting "error 36" when trying to copy FCPX libraries from one hard drive to another. Will attach latest etrecheck. Again, just want to point out, I didn't have ANY of these problems on Catalina.

Etrecheck after clean install of Big Sur.

sylvanr Author

Level 1

11 points

Jan 15, 2021 2:42 PM in response to sylvanr

AND, before and after I did the clean install of Big Sur, the external hard drives randomly lose their connection. Someone suggested that it might be a problem with the hub so I am only using the USB ports on the Mac at this point and still happens- usually when copying large FCPX files form one drive to another. For instance, I was copying a FCPX library that was 141.19 gb from one drive to another and during the process, the hard drives all lost connection and I got the message "not to disconnect drives... but I hadn't disconnected anything. Either this happens or the "error 36" happens, saying some of the file is missing. All since upgrading to Big Sur. Everybody here seemed to suggest that I just needed to do a "clean install" to fix the Big Sur problems but so far, still having problems. I did play with FCPX, though, and it does seem like THAT problem I was having might be better at this point.

sylvanr Author

Level 1

11 points

Jan 15, 2021 2:57 PM in response to sylvanr

Well, I thought FCPX was working better but now I see it still hangs with the spinning beach ball until I force quit. So, I was hopeful that maybe those suggesting that a "clean install" might solve my problems, apparently it didn't. I guess I will spend tomorrow downgrading to Catalina.

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FCPX broke after upgrade to Big Sur. Will not Share Master File. EtreCheck seemed to find other problems, too.