Final Cut Pro Using Up 80+ GB of Memory

Ever since I've updated FCP, I haven't been able to export my video. I make YouTube videos weekly and have been getting into more effects. I thought that the effects or compound clips were the issue, but removing them from my video made no difference in the exponential amount of RAM that it is being taken up. When I export to 4k (which is what I always export in) it climbs to over 80 GBs of memory in my Activity Monitor. I am currently using a 2020 MacBook Pro with 500 GB of storage and 16 GBs of RAM. I have all the updates; I have restarted my MacBook and deleted the app many of times. I've heard others have been having issues with this current update. Even when I'm not heavily editing (just simply watching a video before I export) FCP uses up 40-50 GBs. A lot of the time the Memory Used in the Activity Monitor doesn't surpass the Physical Memory, and the app still crashes. I am no longer able to export longer projects. I tried splitting it in half as a last resort, and it didn't even get halfway through before crashing again.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 13.4

Posted on Jul 28, 2023 5:44 PM

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Posted on Jul 29, 2023 1:30 PM

An easy thing to try is deleting FCP prefs. This may or may not help your situation. Hold Option and Command while launching FCP and choose Delete Preferences. It will open the default Untitled library. Re-open the library you were working on, set the Preferences back to the way you like them (disable background rendering, reset Import to Leave Files in Place, etc.) and see if the issue has been resolved.


If this doesn't help, do as Tom says, export a 1.10 version XML of the library and revert back to 10.6.5 or 10.6.6 from your backups. Import that XML into an empty library from 10.6.5 or 10.6.6.

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Jul 29, 2023 1:30 PM in response to almara08

An easy thing to try is deleting FCP prefs. This may or may not help your situation. Hold Option and Command while launching FCP and choose Delete Preferences. It will open the default Untitled library. Re-open the library you were working on, set the Preferences back to the way you like them (disable background rendering, reset Import to Leave Files in Place, etc.) and see if the issue has been resolved.


If this doesn't help, do as Tom says, export a 1.10 version XML of the library and revert back to 10.6.5 or 10.6.6 from your backups. Import that XML into an empty library from 10.6.5 or 10.6.6.

Sep 21, 2023 2:58 PM in response to almara08

There isn't a way for older versions of FCP to open newer versions of FCP libraries. Tom and I suggested you export an XML of the project tor library, then downgrade FCP and import that XML.


If you post an https://etrecheck.com report we might be able to help determine what's going on with your machine. Use the "Additional text" button at the bottom of your post to paste the report. Be sure to give Etrecheck Full Disk Access in System Preferences.

Sep 21, 2023 2:43 PM in response to terryb

I’ve tried deleting preferences. It seemed to work a little at first, but I still ended up with it crashing. I don’t know if it’s the video or the software at this point. Before I last deleted preferences, the memory would just climb until it crashed, regardless of if I was using the app or not. After I deleted preferences the app seemed stable, but without even opening my project, as soon as I started to export the memory started to climb high again. I’ve downloaded and reverted to 10.6.5 but unfortunately I can’t open a newer version’s project on an older version. Am I missing something? Is there any way to open a newer version’s project on an older update of FCP? Or am I just simply doomed to never export this video that I put my heart into? Please help me. None of the updates have done anything to improve my situation. If I can’t fix this I’m not sure I can use FCP again because I cannot trust it.

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Final Cut Pro Using Up 80+ GB of Memory

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