I've done everythign suggested on this forum and Final Cut still crashes every few minutes.

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Level 1

8 points

I've done everythign suggested on this forum and Final Cut still crashes every few minutes.

Final Cut Pro is doing three things regularly:

- Beachball of death for around a minute and then unfreezing. (Least common)

- Beachball forever (or until I restart FCP) (most common)

- “Your system has run out of Application Memory” Error Screen with Final Cut Pro popping up using anywhere from 50 to 76 GB of memory. At the same time I’ve noticed that when FCP is rendering, the available space on my local disk that appears in my finder windows will drop by 20-50 GB. But as soon as FCP is forced closed, it returns to normal. This happens despite the fact that my FCP library is set to store Cache and Media on my external drive (which it is doing).

This happens no matter what kind of activity I’m doing on FCP: Scrolling through the browser, moving a basic text around, playing back the timeline. Anything can trip it.

An almost complete list of my attempts to rectify this:

- Deleting Chrome and everything chrome related in the both system and user library folders.

- Deleting every FCP plugin and every piece of software I don’t need.

- Restarting the computer many times.

- Trashing preferences many times.

- Clearing the NVRAM (or whatever that funky restart is called)

- Trashing and re-installing FCP.

- Starting a new FCP library.

- Starting a new FCP project/timeline.

- Switching External Hard Drives (from a toaster/internal to an external HD)

I’m certain there is more but this is all I can remember right now.

Please help I’m already passed my delivery deadline for this project. Big thank you!

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 12.5

Posted on Mar 27, 2023 9:52 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Luis Sequeira1

Level 9

74,508 points

Mar 27, 2023 10:07 AM in response to piedralibre

Good job troubleshooting this so far.

Please run Etrecheck and post its full report here. Use the "additional text" button and paste the report into the text box.

It is not surprising that available space drops and then is recovered - this indicates that something is causing a memory leak (FCP is using more and more memory), and using virtual memory until it crashes.

This could be due to several things, among them: corrupted media; and software issues, like third party daemons or extensions. Hopefully the Etrecheck report may flag something.

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Answer 2

piedralibre Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 27, 2023 9:15 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

I tried it out on a friend's computer and exact same results. So its not the hardware.

Attempting to export the timeline fails always at 34% (does that suggest there's something corrupted about a third way through the timeline?). I've tried reinserting all the clips around that timecode and still crashes on rendering or exporting.

I've learned that if I turn off background rendering, FCP doesn't crash and seems to run normally.

When the export approaches 34%, in activity monitor something called VTDecoderXPCService goes up to 500+% CPU use, with Kernel_Task taking up an additional 100+%. See attached photo...

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Answer 3

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,825 points

Mar 28, 2023 5:17 AM in response to piedralibre

You're looking at the CPU. Look at the memory pressure.

Is your friends system the same as yours? Same OS? Have you updated the the OS? There was a problem where the memory pressure would increase during export. This was generally with certain types of media, XDCAM and some others. The work around, which I thought was fixed in an OS update, was to watch the memory and as it built up to start playing files in the browser. It would force the system to release the decoder from the export process and stabilize the memory.

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Answer 4

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,825 points

Mar 27, 2023 10:04 AM in response to piedralibre

Let's start with an EtreCheck report https://etrecheck.com. Give the application Full Disk Access in Privacy & Security System Settings. Copy the report and use the Add Text button to paste the result into reply box.

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Answer 5

terryb

Level 4

3,536 points

Mar 27, 2023 12:49 PM in response to piedralibre

You can also create a new admin user, login as that user, create a new library, add some clips and see if the problem persists.

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Answer 6

Mar 27, 2023 10:46 AM in response to piedralibre

Your system drive is FULL.

You have only about 40GB free, which is less than 10%. You should try to always keep at least 15-20% free on any system drive.

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Answer 7

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,825 points

Mar 27, 2023 11:08 AM in response to piedralibre

The system is full. Minimum 15% free space, 20 is better. 10% is finished. System snapshots will eat it up in no time. Your external drive is kinda slow. You're going to struggle with Neat as it's very processor intensive and needs to call up content from the eternal. Cache is on the external you said. Those can be large files that need a lot of throughput. You might want to think about working with proxies.

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Answer 8

Mar 27, 2023 10:49 AM in response to piedralibre

Kernel Extensions:

/Applications/Smart Switch/SmartSwitch.app

[Not Loaded] ssuddrv.kext - com.devguru.driver.SamsungComposite (1.6.0 - SDK 10.9)

Your mac does not need this in order to access your Samsung SSD. Thir party drive manufacturer software is not needed and can cause trouble.

User Launch Agents:

[Loaded] mega.mac.megaupdater.plist (Mega Limited - installed 2023-03-27)

Executable: /Applications/MEGAsync.app/Contents/MacOS/MEGAupdater

[Running] MEGAsync (Mega Limited - installed 2023-03-27)

Application

/Applications/MEGAsync.app

I have no sympathy for megaupdater and similar stuff. They can be a breeding ground for adware.

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Answer 9

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,825 points

Mar 27, 2023 12:04 PM in response to piedralibre

Trash your preferences. Run the application with the Activity Monitor and see what it's doing, when the pressure goes up. It may be a hardware problem.

What are you doing in the project?

You might want to update the OS to 12.6.3 or 4 or whatever they're up to. I know a new one's out or coming out.

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Answer 10

Mar 28, 2023 1:58 AM in response to piedralibre

You say turning off background rendering stops the problem.

Do you mean with the current troublesome project or others?

In any case you should have it turned off as most modern computers don't need it unless you have some particularly complex project that won't playback smoothly whilst editing.

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Answer 11

Mar 27, 2023 12:06 PM in response to piedralibre

In addition to what Tom said: try opening a new library, adding a bunch of clips and effects. Same thing?

There could be some corruption in the library, or some bad media.

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Answer 12

piedralibre Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 27, 2023 9:54 AM in response to piedralibre

I just wanted to add that while its always beachballed from time to time (maybe every couple hours) its only in the last few days that the frequency has increased 10-20x and I've started getting the Application Memory Error.

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Answer 13

piedralibre Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 27, 2023 10:51 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

I have 60GB free. The Etrecheck probably shows 40 because I ran it while FCP was running/frozen.

I will go ahead and move some files but I tbh I'm doubtful that this is the issue as at many times in the past I've had much less than that 60GB free and never had these issues.

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Answer 14

piedralibre Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 27, 2023 11:17 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Just trashed smart switch. I though I had already gotten rid of it, my bad. (What do you use to access your Samsung with a Mac?)

Also. I use Megasync to automatically upload my project files to the cloud. Very useful service for me, you think its the problem? I've used it for years.

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Answer 15

Mar 27, 2023 11:29 AM in response to piedralibre

piedralibre wrote:

Just trashed smart switch. I though I had already gotten rid of it, my bad. (What do you use to access your Samsung with a Mac?)

Not just with Samsung, but with any other HD or SSD I have ever got, I just plug it in, format it if necessary (many drives may come formatted for windows) and use it. The mac has all the software required to use the drives.

Also. I use Megasync to automatically upload my project files to the cloud. Very useful service for me, you think its the problem? I've used it for years.

Maybe this is ok.

Sorry, I may have confused this with some aggregate sites that redestribute software, often laced with adware.

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I've done everythign suggested on this forum and Final Cut still crashes every few minutes.

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