Final Cut Pro Exported File disappears upon completion.

Question

Final Cut Pro Exported File disappears upon completion.

I have posted about my FCP woes related to slow performance and especially hangs that I eventually work around by simply clearing preferences when starting the app (not a graceful or convenient workaround, but it works).

Now I have a new issue - I finish a project, Export as file, choose a name, choose a location, and it starts to work. An hour or two later when the video finishes "Sharing" (Exporting), the video which showed as it was being exported, just vanishes.

A search using the name I had chosen to save the file as... and it is nowhere. Gone.

I have a file rendering right now - shows in the finder by its file name... but if it happens again (which it probably will), when the file export is completely, the file just disappears. The drive being used is a 2TB drive, with 1.7TB available. So space isn't an issue.

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 26.5

Posted on Aug 10, 2026 6:20 PM

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Answer 1

BenB

Level 6

13,686 points

Aug 11, 2026 11:23 AM in response to Michael Battenfield

Select the Project in the Browser, go to the Inspector, to the far right tab, it'll list all successful exports. Click the downward arrowhead to the right for the "Reveal In Finder" option.

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Answer 2

terryb

Level 4

3,682 points

Aug 11, 2026 11:30 AM in response to Michael Battenfield

I would investigate to see if it's the large png bug on M4 CPUs. I think the time to failure can depend on where the png is in the timeline. When we ran into it, the png was late in the project so exporting would progress normally, then just stop. I posted about this happening with FCP 11.1.1 on a Mac Mini M4 Pro, but exported fine from the same library on an M1 Ultra. Odd export behavior - Apple Community

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Answer 3

Alchroma

Level 7

23,924 points

Aug 11, 2026 12:23 AM in response to Michael Battenfield

Michael Battenfield wrote:

A search using the name I had chosen to save the file as... and it is nowhere. Gone.

I have a file rendering right now -

Sounds strange.

My thoughts:

Is the drive formatted to APFS?

Also FCPro tracks your exports.

Open a project and look for the triple arrow icon.

When active it SHOULD show all exports to where you stuff went.

alc

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Answer 4

Aug 11, 2026 6:09 AM in response to Michael Battenfield

Michael Battenfield wrote:

I finish a project, Export as file, choose a name, choose a location, and it starts to work. An hour or two later when the video finishes "Sharing" (Exporting), the video which showed as it was being exported, just vanishes.

That sounds like a different issue than the .png related (when alpha channel image has a [larger than what?] vertical (or Y-axis) that is not an even multiple of 16) "no error, no pop up, it just starts, then a second or two later it fails", right?

FCP 12.3: PNG in project causes export to… - Apple Community

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