Final Cut Pro doesn't play well with Mac Mini M4

Could you give some details of the media and the project properties.

Please post an EtreCheck report https://etrecheck.com giving the application Full Disk Access in Privacy & Security Sysyytem Settings. Copy the report and use the Add Text button to paste the result into reply box. 

How did you migrate to the Mac Mini? Just your User data or everything including Applications and Settings? As Tom requested, an Etrecheck report will help us to see if you have software conflicts that could have been carried over from your previous machine.

William-Anderson wrote:

-I've deleted and reinstalled FCP but the issue still remains

-I've tried both optimized and proxy media with no difference

-I make my library on an external 2 TB SSD along with all of the media

-I've tried leave media in place and put it in the library with no difference

-I have 16 GB of ram which is the same as my old mac mini which ran FCP just fine.

-I can export the project to a .mp4 file and it plays great I understand the dropped files are only in the editor

Have you trashed your preferences?

How to trash FCP preferences

MtD

MtD

Was that an Intel Mac Mini? When you migrated, did you migrate everything? Best practice when doing a major upgrade is to migrate *only* your User data and download new copies of the applications you use from the AppStore and 3rd party sites.

How is the external drive formatted? Apple support APFS and HFS+, not ExFAT.

Since you haven't posted an Etrecheck report, we can't be certain, but I'd suspect something incompatible has been brought across during migration. If it were me, I'd start over. Wipe the M4 and reinstall, then migrate *only* your user data. Download only FCP and take it for a test drive.

What percentage of the system drive is free space?

Get the app Arctic and delete render and cache files, all of them, totally.

Do you have the Chrome browser installed?

Do you have any anti-virus software installed?

I'm praying you don't have CleanMyMac installed...

Get the Blackmagic or AJA disk speed test app and run it on the drive you're putting your media and project files on. Just because their SSD doesn't mean they're super fast.

You are giving us snippets of the story and leaving us to guess the rest . . . not very useful.

Download etrecheck as several people have asked and post the test results here.

Only then will we have something tangible to work on.