FCPX 10.1 Very slow on iMac and lots of spinning beach balls

I get the beach ball ... BUT since 10.1.2 it takes 205 minutes to get it to be ready to use...

I don't know if this helps but it really helped my situation (2011 Mac Pro, fcpx "suddenly" very slow to respond to anything, spinning beach balls galore etc, choppy playback)

I have been editing using 1080p@60 and when I imported it I didn't want to fill my hdds with optimized media at that resolution so I unticked optimized media and ticked "proxy" only creating the proxy media. Now what I didn't realise is that the player DOESN'T automatically use the proxy media when the optimized media isn't there, instead falling back to the insane bit-rate raw and un-optimized format footage causing horrendous slowdowns and performance problems throughout fcpx.

All fixed by clicking the drop down on the top right of the viewer window and forcing it to use proxy media. FCP/X really needs to warn you when this has happened.

Now my editing speed is totally smooth. Also, for extra speed you can now relocate the cache files (proxy/optimized media/renders) to a separate place than the library, such as a smaller SSD drive and this gives you a huge speed boost too. Click on the Library with the Inspector open on the right and you will see the option to manage media files, go there and set the locations.

RE: late 2013 new Mac Pro (6-core)

Try [don't] FCPX 10.1.4... Rendering takes forever!! I guess I just spent $3000 on dual 12TB LaCie Thunderbolt 2 drives (not recommended) and dual, concatenated SSD drives for nothing.

With 10.1.2, rendering was VERY speedy on the SSD drives. With 10.1.4, it's unusable. I can go have lunch while it's rendering just a 1-second transition! UNUSABLE. Going back to 10.1.2. Thank God I saved it and my 10.1.2 library. ("Kudos" to Apple for constantly upgrading libraries along with FCPX. :-(

BUT... I have to copy and paste small pieces at a time between 10.1.4 and 10.1.2 projects that I did while on 10.1.4 (not too long, thankfully).

FCPX is frustrating enough without having minimum 30 minute render times in 10.1.4.

For many other people 10.1.4 on Yosemite has been the fastest and most stable combination yet released. Sometimes, slow performance turns out to be something specific to the user's system set-up or a conflict with third party software.

So what have you tried yourself to fii this? Repairing permissions and deleting preference files? Is this a problem Do you have any system "cleaning" apps installed?

Create a test library on your start up disk. import a few clips that you know are good media. True off BG Rendering. In test project edit those clips to the timeline and add some effects. How does FCP respond? If it's spiny, it's a pretty good assumption the problem is your drives.

If it's still painfully slow, create a new account and se how FCP runs from that user account.

Russ

OS 10.9.5, Not Yosemite. After many, many, many years experience, I'm a firm believer in, "If it aint broke, don't fix it." When I'm ready to give up my new Mac Pro, I'll update to Yosemite with all-new pretty graphics.

That said... No system cleaning apps. Repaired permissions. Deleted prefs. New SSDs. Will try new account. Thx.

One thing I found that's a definite killer is the Inspector. Shut that off and editing goes much more smoothly. I keep that window closed as much as I can.

I'm editing an 85min film and FCPX still lags when moving clips, as though I'm working from a slow external USB drive. FCPX is trying to keep too much in memory, like using MS Word with a huge document when selecting text. Slow and clunky.

Come on Apple!

Hi everybody,

So the problem still remains. I understand that this is user to user thing but I'm sure that somebody from "headquarters" is following the post. My question is: do You plan to fix the issues? It is NOT normal that people have to fix the problems (if it is possible at all) through different tricks or third party plugins.

I'm working with MacBook Pro, Processor 2,3 GHz Intel Core i7, Memory 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3. All my projects are on external disc connected with USB3. My media is MTS (which is part of the issue, I understand).

Most of the comments here sound like mine: After moving from FCP 10.0 to 10.1 things slowed down.

Although there is nothing to render, it still "renders" something hysterically.

Even changing a bit in audio - beachball appears.

Changing speed to fast freezes the machine (slow doesn't), so it is almost impossible to grade speeded up clips. The result is that I gave up and do not use this option anymore.

And I'm not bringing up the audio clicks and pops issue here, because it is the other issue, but I just have to mention it as extra part of the frustration. I've tried everything and nothing helped

Only good thing compared to 10.0 is that dropped green frames are gone but I could live with them, if I could only work with the programme properly without wasting my time looking at nothing going on. I have 16 episode TV show on editing table and I'm not going to change my op system to Yosemite.

My direct question to the guys who are closely related to apple - when those bugs will be fixed?

thanks and merry christmas,

Lemo

I found, by the grace of the universe, that by monitoring increasing memory pressure caused by FCPX over time, archiving older projects, frequently backing up projects, quitting FCPX every so often, and deleting prefs before relaunching, FCPX runs smoothly, no longer crashes my system, and projects no longer disappear.

Hi Lara,

I probably missed the solution. How did You solve the issue?

thanks forehand

Lemo

By monitoring increasing memory pressure caused by FCPX over time, archiving older projects, frequently backing up projects, quitting FCPX every so often, deleting prefs before relaunching FCPX...and don't leave FCPX running if not in use: quit and trash FCPX prefs as soon as you're done.

For me FCPX is an unusable app. Each mouse click results in a beach ball appearing for 10-20 secs or longer. My machine should be big enough, though. iMac late 2012 I7 16GB with 680MX graphics card. Running FCPX 10.1.4 trial on Mavericks and will certainly not buy the real thing as long as performance is as bad as it is. Especially MTS files, kept externally to the FCPX library, are causing the problem as far as I can see. Number of disk reads is going through the roof each time I position the play head. As long as I stick to HD video from tape, it is workable. As I said, unusable.

All true! I had to upgrade to a max'd-out new Mac Pro with several SSDs.

Sooo. The problem remains. It would be still very nice from Apple side, that anybody responses the subject and fixes the issues. I'm pretty convinced that apple follows the discussions.

Thanks to higher powers, that I haven't upgraded to mavericks, otherwise I'd be in ****:).

Mine systems sometimes (by some miracle) are working and sometimes not.

Constructive comments from Apple and fixes would be extremely nice.

Thanks forehand,

Lemo

Lemolai wrote:

I'm pretty convinced that apple follows the discussions.

Well, I'd agree that the Hosts monitor these discussions… to catch potential abuse of the Terms of Service. Beyond that…a Specialist assigned to the forum will typically point a user toward an Apple Support doc if their question somehow has slipped through the cracks. That's probably not what you have in mind,

Apple does, however, read the feedback hat is accessed from the Final Cut Pro menu. There, you can report bugs, suggest features, and so forth.

Russ

The problem with FCPX is similar to the problem Safari has had for a long time.

They both suck up more and more memory with time, even without doing or adding more, until the system slows to a crawl and eventually crashes.

I'm sure Apple is up to their chins with bugs to fix. Safari's eating up more and more memory with time has been a VERY long-standing problem.