FCPX keeps updating UI every time I switch between windows on my Mac and this makes me have to wait 5 to 10 seconds every time

I confess that I have some plugins from MotionVFX and Pixel Film Studios, but they are all updated and compatible with FCPX 10.6.10 and MacOS Sonoma, but EVERY time I switch to another program like Safari, Mozilla, or any Another thing and I go back to FCPX and it keeps updating the UI as if it were searching for a new installed plugin, and this makes me have to wait 5 to 10 seconds every time I switch windows on the Mac.


How do I stop FCPX from doing this every time? The logical thing is that it always does this when starting the program, and not every time I switch between windows.

iMac Pro, macOS 14.1

Posted on Oct 30, 2023 4:18 PM

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8 replies

Oct 31, 2023 8:03 AM in response to DeilsonOliveira

Is it a large library? Is it a slow drive?


I've had something similar happen to me in prior versions of FCP. When I checked what FCP was doing via the Terminal it was a LOT of caching and stuff to do with fonts, thumbnails, and waveforms. I think it was worse in prior versions, almost like FCP was "TOUCHing" (A linux command) many many files (I was editing especially large libraries at the time) each time FCP was brought to the forefront.


I can't recall what I did other than tolerate it. You could try getting rid of the thumbnails and waveforms and let it recreate them again and see if that helps. It seems to be worse on larger libraries, I've noticed. And naturally, worse on slower drives.


I have a client who's FCP library is now just over 2TBs of footage and I've seen this caching/indexing behavior a great deal on that library.

Oct 31, 2023 10:15 AM in response to W. Raider

W. Raider wrote:

Is it a large library? Is it a slow drive?
[...]

I have a client who's FCP library is now just over 2TBs of footage and I've seen this caching/indexing behavior a great deal on that library.


Good questions!


And is that library of your client's actually that size, or does it reference external media?

Working with such a huge library, if the media is internal, is a formula for disaster...

Oct 31, 2023 11:06 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Yup the library is actually that size, all internal media, original, optimized, and some 8K proxies. There are multiple backups (and backups of backups), but it's been on one drive since 2017 (and continues to grow with each event) without any issues so far actually. It's kind of mind boggling, but the client requests it that way. Several editors have copies of the library (at their locations) and we each work on one part of each new event. I secretly copied my copy of it to a 4TB NVME recently and just backup that copy to my "official" copy. Clients...

Oct 31, 2023 11:29 AM in response to LocaAlicia

Hahaha, and true! I don't wanna get off topic but it's grown to that size, and has multiple editors (in different locations) because we use new footage as it's added and heavily reuse older footage with each new "event." The client likes it all in one big library they can copy off to elsewhere as needed. I think it's because it's that huge that I really notice the "indexing" (as per the OP's question) Final Cut likes to do when I open or return to that Library.

FCPX keeps updating UI every time I switch between windows on my Mac and this makes me have to wait 5 to 10 seconds every time

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