David Das
Level 1 (40 points)
Apple TV

Q: Temp files on boot drive -> how to move?

I have a small (120GB) boot drive which contains only OS and apps. Unfortunately, it's nearly full (it has 15-20GB free at any given time). Yes, I know I need to upgrade, and I will.

 

Meanwhile:

 

I'm working on a FCP X project, which is stored on an external drive with hundreds of GB's free. It's about 2 hours long. I finished the project, and chose File > Share > YouTube. All I want is FCP X to send it to YouTube.

 

I left it running overnight and it ground my free space on the BOOT drive down to 0k and the computer went to an endless spinning beach ball. I ended up having to do some emergency cleanup via some cache cleanup apps to get my space back.

 

This morning, I'm trying the same YouTube export operation again, and it seems very clear: FCP X is creating some kind of temp files on my BOOT drive in order to prep the movie for YouTube.

 

Is there a way I can tell FCP X to create temp files on the external drive instead? (It seems to me it should be doing this anyway.)

Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1)

Posted on Apr 27, 2015 10:34 AM

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David Das

Q: Temp files on boot drive -> how to move?

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  • by David Das,

    David Das David Das Apr 27, 2015 11:46 AM in response to David Das
    Level 1 (40 points)
    Apple TV
    Apr 27, 2015 11:46 AM in response to David Das

    Update: I just tried, instead of YouTube Export, to just export a Master File, and I specifically designated my external drive as the destination for the Master File.

     

    What I'm finding is that FCP X is **STILL** eating my last gigabytes off my boot drive.

     

    So this isn't a workaround. This is extremely troubling. There's no way to export a video unless you have a large amount of free space on your boot drive, even if you've got plenty of room on secondary drives?

  • by Tom Wolsky,

    Tom Wolsky Tom Wolsky Apr 27, 2015 12:19 PM in response to David Das
    Level 10 (118,448 points)
    Apple TV
    Apr 27, 2015 12:19 PM in response to David Das

    Where is your library? Where is your cache? Check Activity Monitor during the export process.

  • by David Das,

    David Das David Das Apr 27, 2015 12:27 PM in response to Tom Wolsky
    Level 1 (40 points)
    Apple TV
    Apr 27, 2015 12:27 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

    The Library is on the external drive.

     

    I don't know how to find out where the cache is, nor how to change it. I manually went hunting and found /Users/myusername/Library/Caches/com.apple.FinalCut (which is on my boot drive) but this folder does not appear to be increasing in size while the free space on my boot drive dwindles during any kind of Export.

     

    I went into Activity Monitor but don't obviously see any way to look for any further clues. Please let me know if you have more specific advice.

  • by David Das,

    David Das David Das Apr 27, 2015 12:46 PM in response to David Das
    Level 1 (40 points)
    Apple TV
    Apr 27, 2015 12:46 PM in response to David Das

    Update: I just found Library Properties, where settings are:

     

    Media: In Library

    Cache: In Library

    Backups: Final Cut Backups (I know this is on my boot drive, but I went to find its location and found it's tiny, and doesn't grow during exports)

  • by Tom Wolsky,

    Tom Wolsky Tom Wolsky Apr 27, 2015 12:49 PM in response to David Das
    Level 10 (118,448 points)
    Apple TV
    Apr 27, 2015 12:49 PM in response to David Das

    Check the Activity Monitor. The OS might be using more swap files than there is available space.

  • by David Das,

    David Das David Das Apr 27, 2015 12:50 PM in response to Tom Wolsky
    Level 1 (40 points)
    Apple TV
    Apr 27, 2015 12:50 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

    Thanks...but (sorry to trouble you for more) could you be more specific? I wouldn't know where to find this in Activity Monitor, and if I do, what I can do about it.

     

    The bottom line is that right now I can't export my 2-hour video by ANY means, despite having hundreds of available gigabytes on my external drive.

  • by Tom Wolsky,

    Tom Wolsky Tom Wolsky Apr 27, 2015 1:05 PM in response to David Das
    Level 10 (118,448 points)
    Apple TV
    Apr 27, 2015 1:05 PM in response to David Das

    Activity Monitor is in Application>Utilities

     

    See the memory section of this support document

     

    How to use Activity Monitor - Apple Support

     

    Doing a reboot and repairing permissions will help to clear out cruff that will bog down the system. Shut off networking and any other processes. Run only FCP. Don't do anything else on the system. Two hours of video is a heavy load on a marginal system.

  • by David Das,

    David Das David Das Apr 27, 2015 2:56 PM in response to Tom Wolsky
    Level 1 (40 points)
    Apple TV
    Apr 27, 2015 2:56 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

    Well, by sheer luck, I found the culprit. In Activity Monitor, there is a process at the top of my CPU list called "ProTranscoderTool" (running in 32-bit -- strange as everything else in this computer is 64-bit), and it's writing a huge file to:

     

    /Users/myusername/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/ICMMultiPassStorage-a90-b0299544 -1

     

    which is, of course, on my boot drive.

     

    I have no idea if there's any way to tell the ProTranscoderTool to create this temp file on my secondary drive (where the entire FCP X library is).