Final Cut X - Ball of death when using blade tool

Question

Final Cut X - Ball of death when using blade tool

Hello All

Honestly I am so very emotional at this point but I will try to keep my calm and remain as professional as I can after what could be my 100th crash while working this week on a project with a tight deadline. I have a lump in my throat as im writing.

Practically every time I use the blade tool. Which has been no problem in the past. My Final Cut hangs. Its not every time exactly. only some times, randomly, and i can never know when, how or why. Every 30 minutes estimated.. so could just be that every 30 minutes no matter what im doing it crashes but it seems to fixate on blade tool.

Colour ball, colour ball, colour ball... over and over. This is totally unprofessional! FORCE QUIT... FORCE QUIT... RESTART ... RESTART... Im sick of it!

I have a 2009 iMac with 8gb of ram and yes i know its not ideal for todays modern editing needs but I only edit HD and so far it has not presented me with any problems. I have the latest version of final cut and the latest version of OSX.

Please Help. If i need to submit a report I will.

Please please check your code for this latest version of Final Cut. It has never done this until now. Please check for conflicts etc with the operating system.

Something is going horribly wrong while doing the most basic tasks. Im checking and cleaning ram, restarting system... whatever i can...

Im having a hard time to say the least. Let me know what info you need from me to get this sorted. I have been a loyal customer and Final cut user for 15 years and I have never been so upset with the software until today.

This is so disappointing.

Claire

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), Late 2009 model, Core i7 8gb ram

Posted on Aug 31, 2015 6:47 AM

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Answer 1

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

150,998 points

Aug 31, 2015 7:07 AM in response to Claire McHardy

What are your complete system specs including the drive with your media, how is it connected and formatted? What are the specs of the media? How much free space on your system drive? Have you trashed preferences and repaired permissions? Try making a new user to test.

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Answer 2

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Aug 31, 2015 7:09 AM in response to Claire McHardy

Hey Claire,

This is a user-to-user forum, so – just so you know – by posting here, you are not submitting your questions to Apple. If you want help directly from Apple, go to the support site. If you bought FCP X within the past 90 days, the support should be free.

There are many reasons why you may be getting lag in performance. Possibly you can identify a cause by looking at Activity Monitor. Is your physical memory being depleted so that you see a significant amout of virtual memory?

One thing you might start with is deleting preferences.

Another thing would be to start up into Safe mode. Log in and then re-start.

Post back and let us know.

Russ

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Answer 3

Aug 31, 2015 7:13 AM in response to Russ H

What would be the best way of deleting and refreshing preferences etc, any good links for that? Is there an all round software that deals with cleaning up Final Cut X etc.

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Answer 4

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Aug 31, 2015 7:26 AM in response to Claire McHardy

Prefs are easy.Hold down the option and command keys when you launch. That opens a new library as well. You will then navigate via the File menu to open your working library. Please don't look for third party cleaning software,. Often they compound the problem.

Your machine may be a little older than ideal. But it should still be OK if your projects aren't too demanding and your set up is good.

There is a link somewhere to curated troubleshooting tips for FCP X slow downs, I'll find it later. But start with clearing prefs. I like to recommend Safe Boot. Tom's suggestions are always good.

Russ

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Answer 5

Aug 31, 2015 8:25 AM in response to Claire McHardy

One common reason why things start to go south when they previously worked: the hard drive getting full - especially if it is the system drive (which should not be using for holding your media and projects). How full are your drives? And, as Tom asked, how are they formatted and connected to your mac?

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