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User profile for user: codydboyce
codydboyce Author
User level: Level 1
16 points

Final Cut Pro Library Lagging Badly

I have a FCP library set up for a pretty large shoot, the total amount of footage is 7.5TB.


Because of this I kept our raw footage in LucidLink which we use for cloud storage. I've got a FCP library set up on my external SSD (2TB) and set it to create proxies upon import and leave the original files in place.


This was working well, until today I copied the library over to a different external SSD (4TB) as I was reorganizing my drives and scheduling backups.


Now, the library is beach balling uncontrollably. I can't even scroll through the footage in the browser.


Tried to screen record what it looks like when scrolling: https://www.loom.com/share/a7841df5080848d5b0ee3ac40422dfe0?sid=4386c845-8655-47f5-9792-26615fba0fb2

Mac mini, macOS 13.6

Posted on Jul 27, 2024 6:17 PM

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14 replies
User profile for user: codydboyce
codydboyce Author
User level: Level 1
16 points

Aug 3, 2024 7:25 AM in response to codydboyce

I am hoping to get some more insight on this.


There are 2 projects in particular which are giving me constant beach balling. A few other projects seem to be working just fine. And these are all on the same external SSD which is very confusing.


For background:

  • All my drives are formatted APFS
  • I have 1 project drive which is an SSD
  • I have another SSD which stores only cache data for LucidLink
  • I have a 3rd SSD which stores all of our templates
  • And I have x2 HDD which are clones/backups of the previous drives
  • The project drive is connected directly to the Mac
  • The other drives are ran through an OWC Thunderbolt 4 Dock (all with thunderbolt cables)



ETRE CHECK


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User profile for user: Luis Sequeira1
Luis Sequeira1
User level: Level 9
67,690 points

Aug 3, 2024 10:40 AM in response to codydboyce

Your system drive has less than 10% free (around 80GB). This is not good. All drives, especially the system drive, should have at least 15-20% free space.


You have this lucidfs, which I am not familiar with, and seems to be a few years old. If you do need this, make sure that it is fully up to date.


You have the dreaded google background "keystone" things. These are known to badly affect video applications because they at times hog the system videotoolbox. See https://chromeisbad.com for an explanation and how to remove them.


You have had many crashes, possibly related to some of the issues I mentioned.


Start by making some free space (note: alas, "available" is not the same as "free", and macOS handles this poorly - it should readily free that space when needed, but it tends to hold on to it far more than it should).


Get rid of Chrome and its evil servants.


Consider disconnecting the slow drives when editing. Even if they are not actively used by FCP, they take time to spin up and slow down the whole USB bus.

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User profile for user: codydboyce
codydboyce Author
User level: Level 1
16 points

Aug 3, 2024 11:59 AM in response to codydboyce

I disconnected everything except for the project SSD, and things were moving smoothly in Final Cut. However the original media is stored in Lucid, and once I logged in to LucidLink and brought the filespace back online, we're back to the constant beach balling. I mean can't even move my cursor across the timeline or scroll the browser without it hanging up.


The weird thing is, once I initially set up this library this past week and let FCP create the proxies, everything was running very smooth. The original files stayed in the cloud (lucid) and the proxies and cache were on the SSD and it was cooking.


Is it ever advised to rebuild the FCPX library? If so, how would I move the projects over without losing progress?


ETRE CHECK REPORT 20240803 02:58PM ET


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User profile for user: terryb
terryb
User level: Level 4
2,668 points

Aug 3, 2024 12:46 PM in response to codydboyce

How to move between libraries: Copy or move items between libraries in Final Cut Pro for Mac - Apple Support


80GB of free space on a 1TB boot drive is asking for trouble. As Luis says, you want to have 20%.


You list a USB 2.0 hub connected which could slow everything down.


Your report shows lots of AU plugins. You might try disabling them to see if that makes a difference and if so, figure out which one is causing the issue. I seem to recall (some?) Waves plugins not being compatible with FCP but hopefully someone with a better memory will chime in.

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User profile for user: codydboyce
codydboyce Author
User level: Level 1
16 points

Aug 4, 2024 5:49 AM in response to terryb

as I mentioned theere is more than just 80gb free, and the amount seems to keep changing at random; maybe iCloud is syncing / de-syncing files?


At the moment I'm showing 668gb free which is over half


The USB 2.0 hub is something I have connected to a few peripherals, like a charging cable and SD card reader; none of the hard drives.


I have a whole suite of Waves plugins, bc I'm primarily an audio engineer (Logic), so I can't be getting rid of those.


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User profile for user: codydboyce
codydboyce Author
User level: Level 1
16 points

Aug 3, 2024 11:38 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Thank you for the thorough response!


With my main HD it's been impossible to tell where this space is being taken up. Looking at my users folder I've only got about 260gb so I don't know why it's almost full. Also per your note about 80gb free, on my desktop it's showing 170gb free? Which is about 16%.


"lucidfs" should be the LucidLink filespace. Not sure what you mean by "a few years old" but this is what we use for cloud storage


Google - very happy to delete Chrome, but I also use Drive File Stream so I hope that doesn't cause any issues if that remains installed


I will try this out with the above changes and see how it plays.

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User profile for user: Luis Sequeira1
Luis Sequeira1
User level: Level 9
67,690 points

Aug 3, 2024 1:14 PM in response to codydboyce

If you are constantly accessing cloud data while editing it cannot possibly go well. I imagine that you have proxies in the local SSD, right? If that is the case, and can’t or won’t use original media that is stored locally, then switch to Proxy Only and do all your editing with the local proxies, and only connect the original for the final export.

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Final Cut Pro Library Lagging Badly

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