Compressor error: System Error = -9074 {Unknown Error: -9074}

Tom thanks for trying that. I will upgrade my iMac Pro to Monterey and try it, but that will take a day or so. I tried many 3D titles, stabilization, etc on Apple Silicon running Monterey and could not reproduce it. Watching memory consumption and ProMSRendererTool was based on speculation the -9074 error might be related to a memory leak, since those have been so widely reported on Monterey. However this problem might not be a memory leak.

The negative error code can be seen when a called function returns an unexpected but non-meaningful value. The error code by itself may not be revealing, even to someone with source code access, thus the need to achieve a portable, reproducible scenario.

There is (or was) a Mac OS X error code of -9074 (kBusyErr), meaning "unable to process request at this time – try later". Even if that is correct for this case, without an assertion or stack trace there is no way to tell what code path is involved. The term "System Error" may imply the app has not crashed but is unstable or in some state where normal error processing doesn't work and a last ditch system routine has raised the error. It is conceivable an assertion was written to the system log but that would require looking through lots of console output around the time of the error.

As I earlier reported, I get error 9074 each time I export a batch from FCP to Compressor. All of my projects include titles, appended music, transitions and text boxes. If I select every item in a project and "Create a compound clip" out of the entire project, it exports to Compressor with no problem and completes each of the multiple versions I request. This is a strange work around but it works for me until the problem is corrected.

John

@joema

I have two M1 machines and one Intel. Both of the Apple silicone machines are running beautifully without issue. I even edit on the Intel iMac because it has the most screens attached to it, and then process the edits on one of the M1 macs. I do this by simply moving the hard drive with the FCP library from the intel to the M1. I open FCP, send the multiple projects to compressor, and all works beautifully.

After upgrading my iMac Pro to Monterey 12.1 I can easily reproduce it using a trivial scenario -- one 10 sec UHD 4k/23.98 XAVC-I clip from a Sony FX6, no Fx, no retiming, just a single built-in title "Basic Lower Third" (not even 3D), try to export to Compressor, use any preset (I tested several and it happens with ProRes 422. It happens 100% of the time and manifests as a Compressor process hang within about 1/10th of a second, followed a minute or two later by the error -9074. It does appear specific to x86 and doesn't happen on Apple Silicon.

Study of spindump on Compressor indicates one thread is always in com.apple.coremedia.imagequeue.coreanimation.common, another thread is deep in a call stack and the other threads are waiting on synchronization objects.

I will study it more tomorrow and file a bug.

I discussed with Pro Apps support and they can reproduce it on a simple one-clip project with a single built-in lower thirds title.

If on x86 Monterey (not Apple Silicon), submitting a batch from FCP to Compressor which includes a title can cause Compressor to hang, then after about two minutes throw system error -9074. The scenario can be very simple: a two second clip with a single built-in lower thirds title, submitted to Compressor and exported using most presets including ProRes 422. It is apparently not sensitive to input codec, resolution or frame rate. It likely happens with many different title effects and maybe with other non-title effects. 

It is sometimes reported as requiring multiple projects in a batch or 3D titles, but it doesn't require that. There is some variability which might imply a multithread timing issue or a "use after freed" memory problem. It appears after an initial failure some Compressor "helper" processes might be preserving state information that makes subsequent failures more likely. Thus after the initial failure and after restarting FCP and Compressor, I've seen it happen on a one-clip project without any title. Then after rebooting MacOS it only happens using the previous scenario involving a title.

It happens with FCP 10.6.1, FCP 10.5.3, Compressor 4.6 and Compressor 4.5.4 on x86 Monterey 12.1. We don't currently know if even earlier versions are affected but FCP 10.5.3 is the earliest compatible version with Monterey. This implies the problem is with Monterey not the application layer. It does not happen on Apple Silicon using FCP 10.6.1, Compressor 4.6 and Monterey 12.1.

The failure mode entails an initial state showing a beach ball, during which Spindump on the hung Compressor process shows many threads "blocked by turnstile with priority n waiting for Compressor". After a few seconds the beach ball vanishes but the Compressor process is internally deranged, with most threads waiting on other synchronization objects. It remains in that state for about two minutes until some system layer raises error -9074.

I would like to repeat what I have said a couple of times about my experience.

I make all films in 3 languages, with languages roles for titles and for audio comments. So the 3 films are generated from the same source.

And the first time, I mean for the first language, most of the time Compressor works normally. The second one crashes. Again the effects are exactly the same, as all language versions are generated from the same source.

So, problem is not linked to any third party effect…

Even though the Pro Apps support person I spoke to could reproduce the problem, I also filed the bug tonight using the MacOS Feedback Assistant app. I provided all details and specific replication scenario.

I have seen the same issue recently when exporting a small 1 minute job (imported 1080p video no modification) from FCPX 10.6.1 to COMPRESSOR 4.6. COMPRESSOR crashes without an error report. Re-running COMPRESSOR I find the job lying there, I process the job and I get 9074 error during transcoding and the job fails. Other jobs fail in similar way. Tried consolidating my library, removed and reinstalled COMPRESSOR. No effect.

I am running this on a freshly loaded MACBOOK PRO 2016 with Monterey 12.1. (Apple refurbished). Trying an upgrade to 12.2 to see if this fixes it.

I did your steps exactly. Same issues. I even went as far as to delete FCPX completely from my Mac, preference files, application support, and the motion templates folder. Reinstalled it, same problem. It's the titles that are causing the error for me. Do you have a fix?

No fix so far. I've even installed it on external drive, still no go.

Only update will resolve the issue.

As a temporary solution:

Option 1:

create title template in Motion, export it as a master file and add it to FCPX timeline.

Option 2: export a project in FCPX as a master file then compress it in Compressor.

This is really frustrating and why I now hate updating my Macbook – can't they fully test this before pushing a new release? It's clear that this is not just isolated to one or two people or setups...

I completely uninstalled Compressor (including all additional files, such as those in Application Support), re-installed and it made no difference. Others have tried the same with FCPX without luck and I really don't want to try that.

This is very disappointing. Gone are the days of "it just works". I wish I hadn't updated to Monterey, everything was fine until then.

I don't know if this helps anyone, but now that I've updated to Monterey 12.2 AND the following, Compressor is behaving.

So, I noticed that I always (typically) went to another project to grab clips to go over a video. I had the random idea to make sure the ACTUAL project was selected in the Project list pane/window.

THEN it seems to export properly, whereas otherwise, it fails every time.

It's certainly not foolproof - it still fails sometimes for me, too.

However, If you go to Compressor>Preferences>Advanced>Reset Queue>Repair Compressor,

Then, go to the correct Event you are exporting and try sending to compressor again, this has given me much more success today and yesterday!

Still annoying but better than not working at all.

Let me know how you get on!