amosuc
Level 1 (9 points)
Video

Q: Is there any harm in deleting preferences too often?

Although it is always helpful (ie. things work more smoothly) after I delete the preferences, is there any concern in doing so?  It seems that I sometimes work faster than my computer would like me to work and that's when things begin to feel like they are being bogged down and I get the beach ball or skipping audio, etc.  Just curious if this could be a concern.

 

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

 

Midge

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.1)

Posted on Feb 21, 2012 1:43 PM

by andynick,Solvedanswer
andynick andynick
Level 5 (4,943 points)
Video
A:

Not a problem as far as FCP X is concerned.

 

If you download Digital Rebellion's Preference Manager (free, simple to use, and perfectly safe, both to download and use).

http://www.digitalrebellion.com/prefman/

 

With Preference Manager, you can backup the Prefs when FCP X (or any of the Apple Professional Applications) are working normally. Then when either of the applications are acting strangely, Trash the Preferences, then Restore from your backups (just a mouse-click).

 

If you trash the prefs and don't restore them, you will need to manually restore all your FCP X settings again, so it's a great idea to backup Preferences from time to time when FCP X is working well, then your backups are up to date.

 

These are my pet tips for improving performance:

 

FCP X runs very well (not perfectly, by any means) on my 2009 MacPro 2 x 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 16 GB RAM and ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024 MB

 

First, check the spec of your iMac against the system requirements:

http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/specs/

 

Particularly your graphics card. If it's listed here, it's not suitable:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4664

 

If you are getting crashes, there is some conflict on the OS. Create a new (admin) user account on your system and use FCP X from there - if it runs a lot better, there's a conflict and a clean install would be recommended.

 

Other ways to improve performance:

 

Keep projects to 20 mins or less. If you have a long project, work on 20 min sections then paste these into a final project for export.

 

Create Optimised media - most camera native files are highly compressed and need a great deal of processor power to play back - particularly if you add titles, filters or effects. ProRes 422 takes up much more hard drive space but is very lightly compressed. It edits and plays back superbly.

 

Hide Waveforms at all times when you don't need them (both in Browser and Storyline / Timeline). They take up a lot of processor power.

 

Create folders in the Project and Events libraries and put any projects you are not working on currently, in those folders. This will help a lot.

 

Move your Projects and Events to an external HD (make sure it's formatted OS Extended - with journaled on or off) and run from there.

 

The biggest single improvement I saw in performance was when I upgraded the RAM from 8 GB to 16.

Andy

Posted on Feb 21, 2012 1:49 PM

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amosuc

Q: Is there any harm in deleting preferences too often?

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by andynick,Solvedanswer

    andynick andynick Feb 21, 2012 1:49 PM in response to amosuc
    Level 5 (4,943 points)
    Video
    Feb 21, 2012 1:49 PM in response to amosuc

    Not a problem as far as FCP X is concerned.

     

    If you download Digital Rebellion's Preference Manager (free, simple to use, and perfectly safe, both to download and use).

    http://www.digitalrebellion.com/prefman/

     

    With Preference Manager, you can backup the Prefs when FCP X (or any of the Apple Professional Applications) are working normally. Then when either of the applications are acting strangely, Trash the Preferences, then Restore from your backups (just a mouse-click).

     

    If you trash the prefs and don't restore them, you will need to manually restore all your FCP X settings again, so it's a great idea to backup Preferences from time to time when FCP X is working well, then your backups are up to date.

     

    These are my pet tips for improving performance:

     

    FCP X runs very well (not perfectly, by any means) on my 2009 MacPro 2 x 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 16 GB RAM and ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024 MB

     

    First, check the spec of your iMac against the system requirements:

    http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/specs/

     

    Particularly your graphics card. If it's listed here, it's not suitable:

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4664

     

    If you are getting crashes, there is some conflict on the OS. Create a new (admin) user account on your system and use FCP X from there - if it runs a lot better, there's a conflict and a clean install would be recommended.

     

    Other ways to improve performance:

     

    Keep projects to 20 mins or less. If you have a long project, work on 20 min sections then paste these into a final project for export.

     

    Create Optimised media - most camera native files are highly compressed and need a great deal of processor power to play back - particularly if you add titles, filters or effects. ProRes 422 takes up much more hard drive space but is very lightly compressed. It edits and plays back superbly.

     

    Hide Waveforms at all times when you don't need them (both in Browser and Storyline / Timeline). They take up a lot of processor power.

     

    Create folders in the Project and Events libraries and put any projects you are not working on currently, in those folders. This will help a lot.

     

    Move your Projects and Events to an external HD (make sure it's formatted OS Extended - with journaled on or off) and run from there.

     

    The biggest single improvement I saw in performance was when I upgraded the RAM from 8 GB to 16.

    Andy

  • by amosuc,

    amosuc amosuc Feb 21, 2012 2:08 PM in response to andynick
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Video
    Feb 21, 2012 2:08 PM in response to andynick

    Andy, thank you so much for your thorough and quick response!  Yes, I have been using Digital Rebellion's Preference Manager and it works like a charm.  I will also do the other things you have suggested. Thank you, thank you.

  • by Ian R. Brown,Helpful

    Ian R. Brown Ian R. Brown Feb 21, 2012 2:15 PM in response to amosuc
    Level 6 (18,660 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 21, 2012 2:15 PM in response to amosuc

    You can delete the preferences as much as you want and it will not have any bad effect on FCP X as they are completely external to it.

     

    However, it may not be good for the user as PDA* is now becoming a growing problem amongst editors, which is creating concern in medical circles.

     

    As with all things it should be done in moderation and professional help should be sought if it shows signs of getting out of control.

     

    *  Preference Deletion Addiction

  • by amosuc,

    amosuc amosuc Feb 21, 2012 3:57 PM in response to Ian R. Brown
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Video
    Feb 21, 2012 3:57 PM in response to Ian R. Brown

    Ian, is there any kind of program for those of us suffering from PDA?  I'm concerned because each time I delete my preferences, I feel better and then things seem to improve, at least for a while until the next time.

  • by Ken Hart,Helpful

    Ken Hart Ken Hart Feb 21, 2012 5:42 PM in response to Ian R. Brown
    Level 2 (179 points)
    Feb 21, 2012 5:42 PM in response to Ian R. Brown

    PDA, Love it.  Couldn't agree more, deleting preferences is only going to help you if your preference files are somehow corrupted or you want to reset them back to defaults, the preference files themselves have nothing to do with performance, only the settings that you have chosen, for example, background rendering on/off, high quality playback etc.  IMO "trashing your prefs"  does nothing to help the performance issues unless you've enabled all processor intensive functions.

     

    I've found that when things start to bog down, to just simply exit FCPX and wait a few minutes for the memory or whatever resources to be de-allocated then restart FCPX, and presto, performance is up to speed again.

  • by Ian R. Brown,

    Ian R. Brown Ian R. Brown Feb 22, 2012 12:32 AM in response to amosuc
    Level 6 (18,660 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 22, 2012 12:32 AM in response to amosuc

    There is a disadvantage to eleting preference files which I omitted to mention.

     

    Whenever you do it FCP X reverts to its default (as new) setup, so if you have made any special adjustments like resizing the window layout or the way items are displayed, you will have to readjust them.

     

    Regarding rehabilitation programmes you could contact the Preferential Imbalance Subjugation Society  .  .  .  .  they don't have an acronym.

  • by Grandpa Adams,

    Grandpa Adams Grandpa Adams Feb 22, 2012 5:02 AM in response to Ian R. Brown
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Feb 22, 2012 5:02 AM in response to Ian R. Brown

    Spot on, Ian. Get help before it's too late! My PDA has evolved into what I suppose might be called "TAAD". (Trash App Addiction Disorder???) Wow! What a high! Am now thinking about trying HD reformat and fresh install of OSX but not sure, at my age, I can stand the rush.