Weird issue when I tried to duplicate a project

I was duplicating a project (only the project and render files) and I left the room to let FCPX do its thing. Then I come back and see that FCPX stopped duplicating because my SSD was going to run out of space... Except that I don't keep any of my projects or events on my SSD, they are on an external Thunderbolt drive which is where this project was being duplicated.

I had to force quit FCPX and then when I would restart the program it would just hang. So I completely deleted the program and re-downloaded from the app store (which is so much easier than discs) and I was able to get FCPX open and finish my final project that needed to be turned in about an hour later. I quit FCPX and felt like it might be a good idea to upload this project to YouTube in case anything happened to the file on my flash drive, but when I went to open FCPX again it would just hang.

After I got home from school I re-downloaded FCPX and deleted the duplicated project which seems to have fixed the issue.

But why did this happen? I had about 30GB free on my SSD and my whole project is only 20GB. What caused FCPX to just go bonkers like this?

Could it be that I have time lapse video on my timeline that I didn't process properly? After the fact I realized that compressor can create an image sequence and output it to a movie. Right now I'm doing it the stupid way by having 1,000 photos turned into a compound clip which is just awful.

You don't give enough info to really know if your system specs are at fault. How large is your SSD? You should keep 15% of its capacity as free space (maybe 10% minimum but I suggest 15%). So 30G free isn't enough if you have a 500G SSD.

Secondly, FCPX has had issues with a large number of still images in the timeline in early releases. I don't know if this has been fixed in later versions. I have done 400 stills in a timeline back in 10.0.3 and it was somewhat problematic. I broke them up into compound clips with about 30 or 40 images each. Maybe 1000 in a single compound is part of the issue.

You don't say what version of FCPX you are using, and that would be helpful. Also, next time you have an issue similar to that, don't reinstall FCPX as a first remedy. Try trashing your preference files with the free "preference manager" program from Digital Rebellion first.

If that doesn't work, you can delete render files for both project and events used in the project. This can be done within FCPX (preferred), or even manually if there is a severe corrupt project file.

Also, you could have tried to use your backup project saved by FCPX. It sounds like something was corrupted in either a render file, with some effects perhaps applied to a clip, or with the project in general.

If you give more specifics of your project, your system and the media used, maybe there are other things that can be identified.

FWIW, I have never had to reinstall FCPX since day 1 (aside from when it's updated) and usually the suggestions above have always solved any issues I have had. Hope it helps.