can't eject media with fcpx open

I'm using fcpx on a late 2009 13" mbp (8g ram, events and projects going to an external fw800 drive) to edit dSLR video captured on SD cards. I insert a card and do an 'import', initially set to 'optimize media' and 'analyze people', then trying it without transcoding to optimize. The media transfers OK, taking quite a while but completing - the background tasks show 100%, all tasks idle, and all the clips are in the event browser - but I can't eject the SD card; the finder indicates it's still in use by final cut ("The disk "" couldn't be ejected because "Final Cut Pro" is using it").

I'm pretty sure I've been able to eject media with it running at some point - after letting it sit for days on a few short clips - but that's unacceptable - I don't have days to import media. I can quit final cut, eject the card, then restart it, but starting fc takes quite a while to restart (>5 minutes - or much longer; at least once I've had to reboot to get FC restarted). Is there a recommended technique to get fc to 'let go' of a media card, or do I need to use the finder to copy the media to a local drive first, THEN tell fc to do the import from there?

thanks,

13" MacBook Pro

Posted on Sep 6, 2011 7:08 AM

66 replies

Aug 27, 2015 11:43 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

OK, I'll take those import options away and see if there's any difference. However, the most recent attempt was a couple hours after i completed my project, and exported. Nothing was rendering and none of the "background processes" were showing as actively counting up the percentage.

Also, thought i was supposed to be able to "multi-task" with FCPX? Im running OSX Yosemite on ver 10.10.15, MacBook Pro, 2.5 GHz Intel Core I7 with 16 GM 1600 MGx DDR3 -

if i'm exporting a project, and I start to work on something, the export basically freezes. Similarly, when in the middle of working in a timeline, if rendering is occurring and I attempt to make any other edits, then the rendering freezes. Thought that FCPX was touting the "background" rendering and processing? Did I get the wrong machine with regard to processing power?

Sorry, perhaps this 2nd bit sohuld be in a different forum. I'm new to all of this (as I'm sure you can see).

I appreciate the guidance, Tom - your DVD on FCP 7 was very helpful to me a few years back...

Aug 27, 2015 3:48 PM in response to JVelocity

JVelocity wrote:

OK, I'll take those import options away and see if there's any difference. However, the most recent attempt was a couple hours after i completed my project, and exported. Nothing was rendering and none of the "background processes" were showing as actively counting up the percentage.

Also, thought i was supposed to be able to "multi-task" with FCPX? Im running OSX Yosemite on ver 10.10.15, MacBook Pro, 2.5 GHz Intel Core I7 with 16 GM 1600 MGx DDR3 -

if i'm exporting a project, and I start to work on something, the export basically freezes. Similarly, when in the middle of working in a timeline, if rendering is occurring and I attempt to make any other edits, then the rendering freezes. Thought that FCPX was touting the "background" rendering and processing? Did I get the wrong machine with regard to processing power?

Sorry, perhaps this 2nd bit sohuld be in a different forum. I'm new to all of this (as I'm sure you can see).

I appreciate the guidance, Tom - your DVD on FCP 7 was very helpful to me a few years back...

Most of the background processes aren't really running as multi-threaded operations; they're not being handed off to another application or handler like, say, Compressor or something like a mythical and nonexistent "FCPX Background Processor Rendering Engine". As far as I can tell by watching Activity Monitor and the little timer thingy in the middle of the FCPX interface, they're all running inside FCPX as a prioritized list of tasks. When something important jumps to the top and takes over the list, everything below it pauses. The background task parser is quite efficient and will execute all that tedious stuff by using most of the available slack or downtime.

Oct 21, 2015 1:34 PM in response to David Bogie Chq-1

I can't believe this is still a thing. I've been dealing with this annoyance for YEARS and it bugs me everytime. I have to shut down FCPX to eject any drives or cards.

I've been doing some test with the new a7sii so I don't care about backup and i'm throwing in the SD card and importing the footage and FCPX asks me if I want to eject the card... to which I say I do and it does its thing. Then I see the SD card still in the OS Finder and I try to eject it but it won't let me because it says FCPX is using it (even though FCPX has ejected it!). I'm just pulling the card out and getting the Disk not ejected properly message because i'm tried to having to quit FCPX everytime I want to safely eject a card. I don't get it.

Oct 21, 2015 1:59 PM in response to brianwpetersen

brianwpetersen wrote:

I can't believe this is still a thing. I'm just pulling the card out and getting the Disk not ejected properly message because i'm tried to having to quit FCPX everytime I want to safely eject a card.

If the card and all of its files are closed and you're sure no app is using any of the files, pulling the card is a suitable, if ill advised,

solution. Some card readers will power down when the card is properly ejected and this prevents an accidental short. Please note: The yanking of cards is not a recommended practice, you DID NOT hear it suggested or sanctioned by me. No way. jUst saying, yeah, I've done it. Lots.

Jul 13, 2017 9:05 AM in response to David Bogie Chq-1

Still a problem in 10.1.3. Disgusting.

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,815 points

Jul 13, 2017 9:20 AM in response to chenderson22

10.1.3? Really?

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

can't eject media with fcpx open