Final Cut Pro timeline is suddenly glitchy on playback, seems corrupted

Thanks for your quick reply. I wonder if you could share some quick context or background on this etrecheck? I'm not a power user of this forum, but I confess to feeling a bit cautious about clicking on a link I'm unfamiliar with, and then giving it full access to privacy and security - I hope you understand!!!

Thanks for the patience and suggestions. I've attached the report as you outlined, thanks.

I tried Luis Sequeira1's suggestions to clear render files. I've played the timeline a bit, and so far so good, but there is one weird thing still happening on the timeline where a still photo image has become a block of grey, where there once was an image.

So I don't trust the stability of the timeline/Library just yet. I'm just beginning an edit session, hoping it's smooth.

note: Harddrive storage is at half of the 1TB capacity, so storage should not be causing issues.

Thanks again, Luis. I read the website/blog on Chrome.

I didn't realize I'd have to delete Chrome completely, and not use it, to see if this helps.

Seems drastic. I'm quite integrated into the Chrome/Google suite ecosystem, with a million bookmarked pages, chrome extensions & tools, Calendar, Drive, Google meets, etc., ...so I hesitate to take such a dive off a cliff based on the say-so of this apparently nameless, facelesss blog post. Is it your post? Or did you read it and remove Chrome yourself, then just adapt to life without it, AND...did you notice a big difference?

thanks for any thoughts you can share on this!

Are you a Final Cut Pro user?

I'm still wondering if my file is corrupted. I used to have a team of editors who did all the troubleshooting like this. I just use FCP for rough-cutting as a director/producer. I'm not really an "editor" but I remember my editors talking about "corrupted files" in FCP. Since my company downsized, I don't have those editors anymore.

Appreciate your help. Cheers

Fair question. I'm not a super-savvy browser user. I just assumed that if I was using the Google suite of apps (Calendar, gmail, Drive, etc.,) and had all my bookmarks and extensions, that I would lose all that unless I stuck with Chrome. But I was able to import bookmarks into Safari, as well as passwords, etc. And I realize that I have access to all the Google Suite thru Safari, now. I've gone ahead and removed Chrome and its support files, as per the "chromeisbad.com" website. I hope this is the solution and FCP stops being glitchy. I haven't had another edit session yet to be able to tell.

My FCP playback issue really looked to me like something in the FCP environment, and I've been cutting just fine with FCP, with Chrome on my machine, for a year, so I'm not sure what changed. Once I start editing again, I'll see quickly if the glitches are still there.

But you guys have been super helpful in making suggestions, and taking time to read my posts. Very much APPRECIATED! THANKS!

Thanks for the suggestion, Ian. Just to clarify, are you suggesting deleting preferences for FCP, or system preferences for the whole computer? That latter sounds drastic, necessitating re-tracing and reconfiguring a bunch of stuff?

However, I'm open to anything that will help!

Thanks very much, Ian, for considering my case further, I really appreciate your time.

After purging my system of Chrome as it was recommended, I only got back to my edit today to see if the problem was gone. Unfortunately I'm having the same problem. Playback is inconsistent and glitchy.

As a variation on what you suggested, I loaded another project -- completely different media, finished project with lots of transitions, etc. -- and it plays back with the same problems. 

I tried deleting the FCP preferences. I opened my current project, and it still has the same problems.

So I've tried everyone's solutions here. Got rid of Chrome, tried a completely new project, deleted preferences, and FCP seems to have a problem now.

I welcome other suggestions. This is concerning!

thanks, Mathew 

TerryB, thanks for the suggestions. I created a new admin user, fired up FCP and started to work with some clips in a new library.

Even the import process was prompting the beach ball spinning. Just looking for folders of media, opening folders, the beach ball would spin. Then when I had a few files into the library, I would try setting in and out points on some footage, and that would make the beach ball spin. Then trying to drag a selected clip to the timeline would get stuck (beach ball). I assembled a simple clip with a bit of interview, some cover footage and music, and the playback had the same glitchy playback as I've been experiencing.

My available disk space on my workstation is about 60% free. I've got lots of RAM, and to reiterate, I was editing just fine on this machine for the past 6 weeks. I don't edit everyday, but once I'm editing a project, it's every day. Except now I've been stalled 11 days on this issue.

What does this test help us understand? Does it eliminate some possibilities or suggest others, or lead to another dead end?! Thanks again for your time and suggestions. Mathew