Help - FCP X Severe Lag & High CPU Usage Issue

Hi!


So recently, I've been editing a lot in FCP X. Long story short, I started editing last Sunday morning, and it's been lagging like crazy. I've got no idea why. It can get so bad, that when all I do is click the play head onto the timeline, then press "B" for the cutting tool, the 'spinning wheel of death' comes up soon after.
It often freezes for a moment before finally deciding to catch up with what I'm doing. I'm not working it to hard, and I've tried working slowly, but it's STILL doing it. I don't think it's got anything to do with the fact that I'm "working" to fast, though, either.
I took a look at the Activity Monitor, and it came up with this:
Apparently, FCP X was taking up 102% of my CPU at the time. i.imgur.com/FtnkCRt.png
(note in this picture, the "not responding" went away after awhile)
I currently have 24:52:22 on my current project's overall time. Which I think is about 24 minutes, I'm not sure.
I've been at 15GB of HD space for a few days now - could this have something to do with it? It hasn't played up before this, however, and I've been on low HD space for awhile.

I have a decent computer, 2011 iMac 12GB RAM, dual 3.6 GHz Intel Core i5, and my graphics card is an ATI Radeon HD 5670.

In a nutshell, Final Cut Pro X lags like it's never done before, and can barely keep up with anything. According to the Activity Monitor, it also shows up as taking 102% of my computer's CPU, despite the fact that I ever had at the most, THREE applications open (iTunes, Skype, and FCP X )

Any ideas what could fix this problem?! I've got a lot of editing to do, and I'm meant to finish this project in the 2 weeks.

Thanks!

102 percent means it is eating up a whole CPU plus a tiny bit of another. Not unusual. How many CPU cores do you have?

I suspect that it has background processes going on (renders, imports, etc).

As mentioned, 2 cores. Or, if you like more details; dual core 3.6 GHz Intel Core i5 (I5-680), (Clarkdale).

This IS unusual for me, sadly, as this has never happened before, and it's CONSTANT. Every time I've used FCP X for 4 days now, and my computer's been off for most of the time in between uses too.

I haven't noticed any background processes - I double checked that. It's not rendering, or importing, or transcoding, or anything. Unless there's something else I'm missing, from FCP X itself there doesn't appear to be anything going on.

I've left the editor open for awhile at one point just to make sure that any rendering being done is done, too. Still the same. Thanks for your help so far.

As Ben said: your CPU usage is not that unusual.

Are you sure all your RAM is still working?

Are the Project and Event files you are working on stored on a decent external drive with plenty of spare space?
Do you have at least 15% of your total boot drive space left for caching temp files?

Are you using a lot of titles on your program?
Are you sure that "Background Rendering" is turned off in your Preferences?

Hi,

To have FCPX a little smoother, try to use an internal none full SSD (need plenty space for renders), disable background rendering, check out your RAM and close any unused program.

In the spotlight settings, put your FCPX folders (Events and Projects) in confidential mode. This will prevent the spotlight from checking them out while working with FCPX.

Hope this will help you.

I've reset the PRAM in a startup recently. This seems to have fixed the problem (although all I had open at the time was FCP X) for awhile, but it's back again (slightly less as severe, though).

I had to admit it, but I've only got 8.26Gb left on my HD, of the 1TB in total. I'm guessing this has a lot to do with the problem? And I assume I have to make some HD space? If so, how much (say, 50GB)?

I've turned off background rendering, but it doesn't seem to help. I'm using a few titles (6), but nothing note worthy... and they're all basic place holders.

As for the RAM, I'm unsure exactly how to check.... Activity monitor?

I'll have to a go at trying some other solutions Gino has posted as well...

I had to admit it, but I've only got 8.26Gb left on my HD, of the 1TB in total. I'm guessing this has a lot to do with the problem?

IMO this IS your main problem, my friend. You need at least 15% free space on your boot drive. The system needs this space to create temp files for rendering and other processes. If you get low on that space your system will gradually slow down. And you are VERY low here.

And, nearly equally important: do not keep your FCPX Projects and Events on the same drive as your OS. You will see that if you work from a decent external drive this will speed up your editing experience as well. Drives are ridiculously cheap at this moment. Just do not use USB for editing.

If you want to quickly check your RAM: press the little Apple symbol and select "About this Mac". A window will pop up showing the version of your OS, the Processor and your Memory. If you see your 16GB listed here you should be OK for RAM.

Hiding your P&E folders for Spotlight and turning off any backup processes (such as Time Machine) can help a little bit. But you absolutely need to clear your boot drive first.

Ronny is correct. I've seen this over and over and over and over. You're drive is, in fact, too full. You need a minimum of 150 GB of free space. And do not use your system drive, you're bottleneck is be the system drive's bandwidth getting bogged down.

If you free up space on your drive, and use a dedicated media drive for your Projects and Events, I guarantee you'll see a major performance increase.

WARNING: With your drive that overly full, especially an OS drive, you're open to some other major system things going very wrong. Free that space up ASAP!

BenB wrote: Ronny is correct. I've seen this over and over and over and over. You're drive is, in fact, too full. You need a minimum of 150 GB of free space. And do not use your system drive, you're bottleneck is be the system drive's bandwidth getting bogged down.

If you free up space on your drive, and use a dedicated media drive for your Projects and Events, I guarantee you'll see a major performance increase.

WARNING: With your drive that overly full, especially an OS drive, you're open to some other major system things going very wrong. Free that space up ASAP!

Thanks to both of you.

Is there a minimum amount of space I can have for my performance to increase? Say, 80GB?
The file that's taking up all the space is a bunch of screen recordings which I need for my current project - I've been slowly sorting through them, but until I'm done editing I can't delete all of it.

Also, most importantly; is there a way I can transfer my CURRENT FCP X project over to my external Hardrive? Can I just move the various files? And if so, will there be a loss in quality or?


And @ Ronny, all 12GB of my RAM appears to be listed, with status 'OK', so I assume everything's fine there.

Good to hear all your RAM is OK

Yes you can move (in fact you MUST move) all your FCPX Projects and Events from your system drive to your external drive. Just make sure you have a fast enough external drive (FireWire or Thunderbolt, no USB) that has plenty of space left. No you won't lose any quality in this process, you are just transferring the media from one drive onto the other. And at the same time this will free up your system drive, best of both worlds

Although you can move Project and Events folders at the Finder level I would advise you to do it inside FCPX. You don't have to wait until your Project is finished, given your system drive is overly full I think you should do it right away. The safest way is to duplicate your Project and its referenced Event to your external drive first, then delete the original Project and Event from your system drive:

1. Make sure your external drive is connected and running on your system and launch FCPX.
2. Select your Project in the Project Library and choose File > Duplicate Project.
3. In the Duplicate Project window give your duplicated project a new name, set Location to your external drive and select "Duplicate Project and Referenced Events". You can choose if you want to duplicate your Render Files as well, that's up to you. Then press OK.

A duplicate of your Project and Event will be copied over to your external drive. Depending on how much actual media there are inside your Event folder and wether or not you have chosen to also duplicate your render files this process may take some time.

Once the process is finished you will see your duplicated Event listed under your external drive in the Event Library and your duplicated Project will be listed under your external drive in the Project Library.

Now there is one more thing you should do to make sure ALL your actual media is copied over to your external drive:

4. In the Event Library select your Event under your external drive and choose File > Organize Event Files. A message will pop up saying that all external media will be copied into the Event folder. Press OK and wait until the process finishes.

Now you have your Project and its referenced Event on your external drive and you are sure all your actual media have been copied over to the Event on the external drive. Nothing has been deleted from your system drive yet.

5. In your Project Library double-click the duplicated Project and check if you have no offline files. If everything is okay you can now safely delete your Project (do this first) and then your Event from the system drive (select them in the project and the Event Library and press CMD+Delete).

Then you can close FCPX and further clean up your system drive by deleting any files you wish, without being worried to lose anything from your project. As you have copied all the original media from your project over to your external drive you can now also safely delete the large screen recordings from your system drive as well. All this will give you a lot of free space on your system drive again

If you have any questions during this process feel free to post back, I'm here all day.

- Ronny

ronny courtens wrote: Good to hear all your RAM is OK

Yes you can move (in fact you MUST move) all your FCPX Projects and Events from your system drive to your external drive. Just make sure you have a fast enough external drive (FireWire or Thunderbolt, no USB) that has plenty of space left. No you won't lose any quality in this process, you are just transferring the media from one drive onto the other. And at the same time this will free up your system drive, best of both worlds

Although you can move Project and Events folders at the Finder level I would advise you to do it inside FCPX. You don't have to wait until your Project is finished, given your system drive is overly full I think you should do it right away. The safest way is to duplicate your Project and its referenced Event to your external drive first, then delete the original Project and Event from your system drive:

1. Make sure your external drive is connected and running on your system and launch FCPX.
2. Select your Project in the Project Library and choose File > Duplicate Project.
3. In the Duplicate Project window give your duplicated project a new name, set Location to your external drive and select "Duplicate Project and Referenced Events". You can choose if you want to duplicate your Render Files as well, that's up to you. Then press OK.

A duplicate of your Project and Event will be copied over to your external drive. Depending on how much actual media there are inside your Event folder and wether or not you have chosen to also duplicate your render files this process may take some time.

Once the process is finished you will see your duplicated Event listed under your external drive in the Event Library and your duplicated Project will be listed under your external drive in the Project Library.

Now there is one more thing you should do to make sure ALL your actual media is copied over to your external drive:

4. In the Event Library select your Event under your external drive and choose File > Organize Event Files. A message will pop up saying that all external media will be copied into the Event folder. Press OK and wait until the process finishes.

Now you have your Project and its referenced Event on your external drive and you are sure all your actual media have been copied over to the Event on the external drive. Nothing has been deleted from your system drive yet.

5. In your Project Library double-click the duplicated Project and check if you have no offline files. If everything is okay you can now safely delete your Project (do this first) and then your Event from the system drive (select them in the project and the Event Library and press CMD+Delete).

Then you can close FCPX and further clean up your system drive by deleting any files you wish, without being worried to lose anything from your project. As you have copied all the original media from your project over to your external drive you can now also safely delete the large screen recordings from your system drive as well. All this will give you a lot of free space on your system drive again

If you have any questions during this process feel free to post back, I'm here all day.

- Ronny

Okay wow, that's great!! But is it possible to do any of this with just an external drive with USB connectivity? I've only got one with USB< sadly. I assume it will still work, although it may be slower?


I'll great round to this if I can use this drive.

It will "work", and it will allow you to free your system drive, which is your most important problem right now. But I doubt it will be fast enough for any comfortable editing unless it's USB3 and your Mac has a USB3 port. And even then FireWire is still better for video editing, and Thunderbolt simply rocks. Drives are ridiculously cheap these days. If you are serious about editing you really should get an external FireWire or TB drive.

2011 Mac's only had USB 2, not USB 3, so that won't work. Unless that unit has Firewire you're stuck with USB 2. May be time to upgrade to a newer Mac.

As for free space, ALL hard drives connect to ANY computer (not just Macs) should have at least 10-15% of their total capacity as free space.
[drive size] times .15 gives you how much should be free space.

BenB wrote: 2011 Mac's only had USB 2, not USB 3, so that won't work. Unless that unit has Firewire you're stuck with USB 2. May be time to upgrade to a newer Mac.

As for free space, ALL hard drives connect to ANY computer (not just Macs) should have at least 10-15% of their total capacity as free space.
[drive size] times .15 gives you how much should be free space.

Is that times .15 of the memory taken up I ALREADY have (e.g., 50GB, 20GB so forth)? As that's always a changing variable, so that doesn't really make sense to me....

@Ronny

So I've gone through and deleted quite a large amount of data, and moved what I needed of my recordings onto my External drive. I've now got 143GB of space, however FCP X is still running quite slow (almost the same as before, useable if you're willing to wait every 2 minutes).
Using the steps you suggested earlier, would you recommend going ahead moving my FCP X projects to my drive?

I'm no longer sure if this is my issue (having a full drive), but it's worth a shot.
Thanks!

Confirming what Ben said: If your drive has a total capacity of 1 TB you always should have at least 150 GB free to avoid problems (150 being 15% of 1000). This means if your drive has a total capacity of 500 GB you always should have 75 GB free, and so on...

With the system you have it is absolutely necessary to keep your Projects and Events on an external drive. So yes you should go ahead and move them.

However: moving everything to an external USB2 drive won't necessarily allow you to edit much faster. It will just prevent your system drive from becoming completely full while you are editing, which could cause many more problems to your computer. USB2 is simply too slow for comfortable video editing. I wish there were a magical solution for this, but there isn't. Moving everything to an external FireWire drive would make a difference.

- Ronny

To get a good idea of what performance you can expect with the USB drive- I would suggest creating a new event on the external drive and doing a bit of test editing and see if the lag remains. Using this fresh project might also reveal if there's anything wrong specifically with the event/project vs just overall system performance.

But yes, with your machine, a FireWire drive will be best. And with them generally on the way out, they're pretty cheap thru online retailers. I'd been buying 3TB MyBook drives for about $170.

Disproportionate Pictures wrote: I would suggest creating a new event on the external drive and doing a bit of test editing and see if the lag remains. Using this fresh project might also reveal if there's anything wrong specifically with the event/project vs just overall system performance.

I think this is an excellent idea! Create a new Event on the USB drive and import some footage into it. Then create a new Project on the USB drive and see if you can work with this footage. If this works fine import one of your screen recordings into the Event and see if this slows you down or not.

- Ronny

Since you've said performance has been better in the past- the other area it might be is the media itself. For these screencasts- what resolution and file format are they?

These are ALL issues that can pile up to a pretty unusable experience.

They're all different, but roughly around 1920 × 1080 in dimensions, 1080p each, around 24fps, and the file sizes usually come out at about 10mb per 10 seconds - so if I had 10 seconds of footage, it would be about 100mb (you see my problem now ). They're all .mov files.

I'll give that a go tomorrow Ronny/Disproportionate.

@Ronny, I was thinking of shifting the files more for the extra space rather than shifting them to my drive to edit from. Most of the projects are old, and really just there for safe keeping.

However if I only need about 150GB of data, I'll try freeing about about 160GB, and then try doing what Disproportionate suggested?

Thanks.

Good idea. And if these old projects and events are just for safe keeping they absolutely should be removed from your system drive and put onto an external drive. For these purposes your USB drive is even perfect.

One more thought: you say your screen recordings are .mov, but this can also mean they are H.264.mov and H.264 requires a lot of horsepower for editing. If they are H.264 you absolutely should convert them to ProRes before using them on your timeline.

Keep us informed on how it's going.

- Ronny