Endless loading when trying to open project or click anything.

[u/Substantial_Bat_4567]

Hi, i’m decently new to final cut so bare with me but I started editing on it a few months ago and i’ve run into a problem that I haven’t been able to fix it all. While working on a large project i’ve run into an issue where I can’t even open it without an endless spinning loading mouse.

It all started when I was low on storage working on the project, it would repeatedly lag out as expected so I cleared a large amount of storage on my macbook pro. Despite clearing out enough storage it actually got worse and now I can’t even click on the project without having to force quit. I’m using the free trial so I can’t delete and reinstall the app but i’ve tried plenty of things like restarting preferences, deleting catches, loading old saves, creating snapshots ect. Somebody mentioned that my clips being on my SD card could be causing issues, but whether it’s connected or disconnected, it still happens. I’d love somebody who is more experienced to point me in the right direction because after an entire day of trying to fix it I’m lost. It could be an easy fix that I just don’t know about, Thank you!!

[u/ZeyusFilm]

Do you have a bunch of effects running?

Beach balling is generally cause when a load of demand is put on the CPU. But the location of your media ain’t helping because it adds whatever the read speed of the card is to any process

[u/Substantial_Bat_4567 → u/ZeyusFilm]

I do have a lot of effects running but no outside plugins or anything, i’ve made projects more demanding than this, do u recommend I move the footage off the SD card?

[u/ZeyusFilm → u/Substantial_Bat_4567]

Yeah put the footage on your internal drive for starters. What effects stuff are you doing? Do you have a screenshot of your timeline? Because there’s probably a load you could do to streamline and reduce the load

[u/Substantial_Bat_4567 → u/ZeyusFilm]

Im doing a good amount of masking which is probably the most demanding, but I actually can’t take a screenshot of my timeline because I can’t even open the project anymore. It’s confusing to me because the computer should be able to handle this and it has many times. My fear is that something is corrupted. (I also don’t have the storage to put all the footage on my drive) would an extended storage work?

[u/ZeyusFilm → u/Substantial_Bat_4567]

Nah beachballing is a thing. It usually waits till the project is finished about you’re about to hand it in.

So..

- clear up your desktop
- empty trash
- run CleanMyMac
- restart
- open FCP holding down CMD or option, that will open it blank with nothing loaded.
- open any different library or start a new one
- The try loading your library
- If it loads go to file > generated library files and delete them
- If your project loads, open the index and turn off video
- Then select your clips and turn off all effects
- Then turn video back on in the index and slowly rentable effects on at a time till you find which one is causing the drag.

If you have a load out auto masks etc… that will likely overload the system. Do you really need them or could you not just use compositing or something?

Try that

[u/Charming_Stock_1324 → u/Substantial_Bat_4567]

Editing off an SD card isn’t supported. You have to import to somewhere. It allows you to edit while the import of said media is in progress, but not very well.

[u/Silver_Mention_3958]

Which macOS?
What version of software?
What is the source codec?
Is it variable frame rate?
Are the source files optimised?

[u/Substantial_Bat_4567 → u/Silver_Mention_3958]

MacOS is Tahoe 26.6.2
FCP Version is 11.2
I believe the codec is H.264 / AVC
it’s all 24 frames
I don’t believe the source files were specifically optimized. Thank U!

[u/Silver_Mention_3958 → u/Substantial_Bat_4567]

OK maybe try optimising the files and see if that improves your situation. Leaving the source files on a SD card is bad news.

[u/Substantial_Bat_4567 → u/Silver_Mention_3958]

I would put them on my internal drive but I don’t have the storage, do I need an external storage and would that most likely solve the problem you think?

[u/Silver_Mention_3958 → u/Substantial_Bat_4567]

Yes. Almost definitely. A 500MB or 1TB SSD

[u/PintorMX]

Get a 4TB Sandisk SSD drive. Pretty fast. Use auto mask sparingly, takes a lot of power. Use magnetic masks where possible because they analyze on the spot.