So this FCPX lag that creeps into the UI with complex projects...I decided to measure it

"I hope someone from apple is silently watching and taking this in - thanks for doing all that legwork!"

I imagine Apple is aware of this issue (or issues). Hopefully it will be addressed in the next update.

I've been noticing this too. As I work on a project and the more complex FCP starts to run slower to the point I feel like throwing my computer out the window. I know it's not my computer ( '13 mac pro, hex, 32 gigs of ram and D700s, my scratch is a gtech thunderbolt drive.) It seems the only way to solve it is to quit and relaunch...

"It seems the only way to solve it is to quit and relaunch..."

Yep, that's the "workaround". If you haven't, please send feedback, with as much detail as possible, to Apple. The more the merrier.

Thanks for this very informative thread. We are experiencing the same issue on a couple of brand new, tricked out MPs. Reading through the postings I started to notice a pattern, primarily a very complex library that had been updated from 10.0.9. As soon as we created a fresh library and dropped in some media, the lagging on text entry for titles and dropping generators into the timeline went away. FCP 10.1.1 and the new MPs started behaving as we were expecting them to...lightning fast.

Ronnie how is it that you never have any issues at all ever with anything? I am on a new Mac Pro and I feel this sluggishness with even uncomplex projects. There's really not much of a difference in the sluggishness between this computer and my old 2006 Mac Pro. Yes this computer does some things faster but FCPX itself feels no more responsive when actually using it. I still have to hold a clip in place before I let go or the clip may end up where my mouse is after it decides to respond and things like that. My guess is that FCPX isn't yet optimized otherwise I wouldn't be experiencing this.

Oh, I have had issues on some occasions and I have been posting about them as well. In the past few moths I have sent complete drives with projects to Apple to help them figure out the many copy/paste bugs that were introduced in 10.1 and later. But none of our issues were ever related to UI sluggishness or bad performance.

We cut many hours of television productions every week and I don't see the lack of responsiveness some people are experiencing. Maybe it's because we maintain a very strict workflow that has been carefully optimized for the specific programs we cut, or maybe it's because of the maniacal maintenance schedules I'm keeping on our systems, but FCP X is running quite happily on all of our machines. Except for these bugs, of course.

-Ronny

I seem to have found a workaround to fix this lag.

I've been working on a documentary for quite a while now, we shot in five countries over the course of a year and the UI lag kept getting worse, I figured it was because the project became so large and complicated.

I had an event for each country.
The oldest event started to have some scary bugs: Often when I opened the library its clips were missing (not offline, just black/empty). Restarting FCP (several times) would bring the clips back, but that hardly qualifies as a reliable working condition.
So I decided to try and rebuild the event/library through XML, but to my shock FCP refused to import XML's that came from that event. Not cool.

Then it dawned on me that in FCP X all the metadata and especially 'bins' are connected to the clips, not the FCP file as in Legacy.

So I tried something so simplistic that I never considered it an option before: I simply copied all the files from the events in my old library to events in a new library.

And it works: My old event doesn't scare the bejeezus out of me by showing clips as empty anymore and the UI lag is gone!
The only things I had to rebuild after that were smart collections (which you can drag and drop from the old library) and the folders to organise your keywords. To me those 5 minutes were a very small price to pay indeed.

Let me know if this approach works for you too (or if you know something else that wouldn't come over using this method)

Ellard

Ellard, when you say "I copied all the files from the events in my old library to events in a new library", did you do this in finder or in FCP X?

FCP X. Literally selected all and dragged them from one event to the next (didn't even use the copy clip command)

Recently on the FCPX Grill there was a discussion of this lag even on the new MacPro. The problem seems to be the render files in the Library. Using Final Cut Library Manger will get rid of the render files for you and should speed up the UI.

Those render files might have impact on the lag as well, but in my case it was something different: I cleared all my render files and the problems stayed.

What I think is the main issue is updating a project through iterations of FCP.
My oldest event (the one with the most severe problems) has been around for a year, so I guess I created it in FCP X 10.0.7.

When I look inside my old Library, I see that event had a folder for 'Backup" and another for "Old Versions" plus the main CurrentVersion.fcpevent is 127MB. Those three combined come to 693MB.
In my new Library the previously problematic event has no "Backup" or "Old Versions" and its CurrentVersion.fcpevent is only 85MB.

As always the lesson is don't update mid project.
In my case I was in the middle of a multi year project and really wanted some of the new features and bug fixes, so in the end I'm glad I took the risk

Ellard

bobmax48 wrote: Recently on the FCPX Grill there was a discussion of this lag even on the new MacPro. The problem seems to be the render files in the Library. Using Final Cut Library Manger will get rid of the render files for you and should speed up the UI.

Hi bobmax48.

Great info, where can I find the "Final Cut Library Manager"?

Many thanks.

www.arcticwhiteness.com/finalcutlibrarymanager/