FCP 10.2 issues - overnight multicam clip creation, crashing, beachball, etc

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FCP 10.2 issues - overnight multicam clip creation, crashing, beachball, etc

Hi guys,

I'd really appreciate your help here, I'm literally at my wits end.

New Mac user here. Just bought a new iMac (21.5-inch, 2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 Turbo Boost up to 3.2GHz, 8GB (two 4GB) memory, 1TB hard drive, using Yosemite 10.10.3) less than 3 weeks ago with FCP. Started a new documentary project on FCP 10.1 which was going well despite learning curve (last time I used FCP was FCP 7). Went away for a conference for a week. Returned and updated FCP 10.2 on Wednesday Apr 22. Couldn't open up previous library, and despite all efforts, ended up having to start all over again. Unfortunately, since I'm a Mac newbie, I didn't know to back up 10.1.4, so I couldn't uninstall 10.2 and revert to that older version.

I have no plugins, no new fonts installed, nada, the only things installed are programs (Chrome & VLC) so there's nothing I need to uninstall. I don't use Motion, either. Media is being linked via my HD instead of being copied to library, (UPDATE: although for some reason it's taking up all this space):

Adding media to the library is excruciatingly slow, and creating multicam clips is taking literally forever - I'm talking overnight for a clip of less than 1 hour! I've had to force quit several times, and I'm only creating multicam clips with 2 angles (wide and CU) + audio. I have several more multicam interviews to create and I just don't know what to do. It's slow, I keep getting beachball, and I'm just really confused. Currently a 40 min clip is being created, and has been showing beachball since last night, although when I woke up there was considerable progress. So I don't want to force quit, but this is like 10 hours already!

I also noticed that in 10.2, the progress bar which almost always used to show 100% now is always on a really low number. Currently it says 25%

Add this to the fact that I'm on vacation and when I return to my country in a couple days, I won't have easy access to Mac technicians. Any help is really welcomed. At this point I'm worried I have to throw myself and the Mac off a mountain!! 🙂 Thanks.

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3), null

Posted on Apr 25, 2015 3:32 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Apr 25, 2015 9:57 PM in response to Lamide A

With a library that size, I'd be concerned that you were running low on free space on your system drive. (You should have somewhere around 15% or more for good performance.) Your library may be unexpectedly large because of the accumulation of render files and/or because of the media being optimized and stored in the library. You can check that in Final Cut by right clicking on your library>Reveal in Finder, right click again>Show Package Contents, Then look at the Render Files folder and the Transcoded Media folder. Let us know what you find out.

A better setup for Final Cut would be to have both the libraries and media on the non start-up volume.

Russ

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Answer 2

Lamide A Author

Level 1

0 points

Apr 25, 2015 9:58 PM in response to Russ H

Hi Russ,

Thank you so much. I was concerned about the space as well, and consolidated the files to try to reduce the burden. I now have 470G free. When I click on "Show package contents" I don't have either of those folders in there. Just this:

Now, if I could get FCP to stop beachballin' for 20 minutes at a time, I could look for the Transcoded/Render Files Folder from there. As it is, I open, it lets me do one thing, then I try doing something else, it freezes for a while, then I I force quit. So odd.

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Answer 3

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,010 points

Apr 25, 2015 11:11 PM in response to Lamide A

TThey're inside the library cache bundle rather than the library bundle itself. You can also use File>Delete Generated Files in the application.

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