Unable to export completed video file using FCP

Question

Level 1

9 points

Unable to export completed video file using FCP

Currently using FCP 10.8.1 which is the recent update running on Mac Studio IOS Sequoia 15.0. I had no problems exporting with the previous version even though the export file was a 5+ gig 4K video and running from an SSD. The rest of FCP runs fine. None of the export commands (top right) work. When I switch to a small test file, the export commands work fine. I have no idea what is causing the problem here and would appreciate your views. Thank you. Mike

Mac Studio, macOS 15.0

Posted on Sep 26, 2024 6:32 PM

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Answer 1

terryb

Level 4

2,626 points

Sep 26, 2024 9:47 PM in response to migill99

Your drives are full. If you have background rendering enabled, every time you make a change, FCP renders new cache files, taking up more space. As Tom says, you want at least 15% free space. On 2TB drives that's 300GB.

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Answer 2

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,001 points

Sep 26, 2024 6:45 PM in response to migill99

How large are your drives and how much free space? The drives need at least 15% free (not available) space. How long is the video you’re expecting and what export settings are you using?

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Answer 3

BenB

Level 6

12,643 points

Sep 27, 2024 3:16 PM in response to terryb

Yep, that's the problem, for sure!

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Answer 4

migill99 Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 26, 2024 8:07 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Thank you Tom for your quick reply. The FCP files operate from two SSD drives each of 2 TB. Prior to the software upgrades everything worked fine including all export options. There was only 10MG free on the SDD containing the optimised files and the cache. This has not changed. The video is 25 minutes long shot in 4K. All worked just fine prior to the two upgrades. I use the export settings on the command line of FCP top right (1080, 720 , 4k ect). I am currently shifting the library and all contents to a 10 TB drive and will soon see if this makes a a difference. If it does then this suggests that the new version of FCP demands more memory than the older version and may explain the problem.

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Answer 5

migill99 Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 26, 2024 9:13 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Hey Tom. I thought I had addressed your questions. All the video and audio files including the cache are stored two 2T drives. One drive in particular containing the optimised video files had only 10 megs of space left while the other had 700 megs. I copied off and removed a number of video files giving just under 3 gigs of unused space on the near full drive. As a result the export commands worked just fine. So from my perspective the new version of FCP required more space to enable exports when using external drives than the older versions. So at this point things seem to be OK and I thank you for your interest. Unless I missed it, the FCP team in Apple should issue a note clarifying this problem. All the best to you.

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