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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,


ch

13" MacBook Pro

Posted on Sep 6, 2011 7:08 AM

Reply
66 replies

Sep 6, 2011 9:13 AM in response to chris_the_very_unique_username

While in the FCP X Import from Camera window that comes up when your camera's SD card is put in your computer's card reader, go up to the name of that SD card that appears in the upper left part of your Import from Camera window. Click on the little eject-icon (the upward pointing triangle with the line under it). This will eject the card from your system safely without having to exit FCP X. Best wishes.

stephen

Sep 6, 2011 12:23 PM in response to still_learning

That certainly sounds like a reasonable answer, however - the 'import from camera' window doesn't pop open when I insert the card, nor does the card even show up in the 'import from camera' window when I open it manually. If I click 'open archive' and select the SD card it complains about the format not being recognized (it's a nikon d7000). I've been using the 'import file' option to select the card for import, although I notice now that FC locks the card even if I HAVEN'T started an import. Is there anyplace else that an 'eject' button might be hiding?

Sep 6, 2011 12:58 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

I thought I had a clever solution inspired by 'Still_Learning's post, where I recorded and did a 'import files' of a 10 second clip, with only the 'copy files' option selected - it imported in a couple minutes, all background tasks show idle - and I went back into the 'import files' menu and attempted to eject the SD card from the 'finder' style file browser there - but STILL got a 'couldn't be ejected / still in use by FC' error, even if I have a different drive highlighted. It still doesn't eject from the finder, either.


I guess I can just pull the card out - I reformat them prior to each use anyway, so I doubt I'd be damaging the file system - just incurring the rath of the OS.


ch

Sep 6, 2011 1:06 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

So - would the recommended way to import media from multiple cards be to copy each card to a 'temp' folder on an attached drive, then do the import from there? Restarting FC for each card seems like a rather poor workflow; I would think there would be some way to convince FC to 'relinquish' control to switch media during ingestion.

Sep 7, 2011 5:53 AM in response to chris_the_very_unique_username

chris_the_very_unique_username wrote:


So - would the recommended way to import media from multiple cards be to copy each card to a 'temp' folder on an attached drive, then do the import from there? Restarting FC for each card seems like a rather poor workflow; I would think there would be some way to convince FC to 'relinquish' control to switch media during ingestion.


Yes, the best thing would be to copy all your media off the cards first, and import from wherever you copied the content to. As Tom says, you should always have backups of your media as well.


Unfortunately, while it seems like there should be a way to eject a card or disk without closing FCPX, there just isn't. Using the Feedback form to report it to Apple is the best way to get them to change it.

can't eject media with fcpx open

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