Beach ball - FCP not responding!

I have just encountered a new problem with FCP - when I open it to begin work on an already started (but not finished) film - the %wheel keeps counting from 0 to 100 really fst (as if some background tasks are being carried out such as rendering, although no rendering is needed) and then when it finaly stops, the beach ball appears and I have to force quit as FCP is not responding. I am using MacBook Pro OS X 10.9.5 and FCP 10.1.2

Thanks

Open the background task window to see what's happening. If it's continuously backing up, switching off backups in preferences.

Thanks Tom - I will - once this beach ball stops! As is I can do nothing!

Trash your prefs and open the default library. Switch off backups. Open your library.

Hi again - I opened the background tasks and all are idle??? Why is the wheel still spinning through 0%-100% again and again really fast??

With a bit more investigation I can now reveal that it is a problem with rendering - it is rendering over and over again but the orange line remains over a section at the top of the timeline to say that it needs rendering. Has anyone ever encountered this problem before?

Yes, existing bug, report to feedback page.
Then, turn OFF background rendering in the preferences.

BenB wrote: Yes, existing bug, report to feedback page.
Then, turn OFF background rendering in the preferences.

Is that a Bug in FCP BenB? Can you explain how I turn of background rendering.

Thanks BenB

Rita

Switch it off in Playback preferences. Supposed to have been fixed in 10.1.3.

I have done that now and it is working fine so far - would you recommend that I update my FCP - I am using FCP 10.1.2 at the moment??

So I upgraded to FCP 10.1.4 - my rendering problem is gone (thats great) but when I try to import media, or even look at media that I might want to import - the beach ball reappears and I have to force quit FCP.....getting quite frustrated as I'm sure you can imagine! Any helpers? What could be going wrong?

Rita

Hi Rita,

Yes this is indeed a frustrating experience, and I don't think it has anything to do with FCP X.

I would like you to do a simple test, but first please provide some more information about your system:

Current OS
Type of computer
Amount of RAM
Do you have any external drives connected to your system? If so, how are they connected to your computer?
How much space do you have left on your system drive?

- Ronny

OK...thanks Ronny

OS X 10.9.5
Computer - MacBook Pro
RAM - 4GB of memory plus 500GB of storage internal hard drive of which 382 is free
External Hard drive - Lacie 1TB connected with USB 3.0 cable

Anything else?

Rita

Rita,

You are working with a very limited amount of RAM. 4 GB is actually the absolute minimum for working with FCP X. Below this you cannot even open the application. So this is a first major bottleneck in your setup.

OTOH you should be able to perform simple editing with 4 GB RAM without getting the spinning ball. So there must be something else going on as well.

This is the test I would like you to do:

Create a new admin user account on your system.
Then launch FCP X using the new account, create a new Library and try importing some media.
Then make a new project and do some test editing.
Do you get the spinning ball during any of these steps. If so, when do you get it?

- Ronny

OK - I did as you asked Ronny and the spinning ball reappeared - when? as I was importing the 3rd piece of footage - actually I was trying to open it in the import window to take a section of it - so before I imported it I was trying to open it in Lacie - does that make sense? I clicked import media, I chose lacie, and then I chose the clip I wanted to take a section from and the spinning ball appeared...

Okay, thank you for the information.

Just to be sure: you did this test with a new admin user account?

- Ronny

yes -

Disconnect the LaCie drive from your computer.
Create a new Library on your system drive and import some media into it.
Then make a new Project and do some test editing.
Do you still get the spinning beach ball?

- Ronny

Hi Ronny, sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. I was distracted by life!!
Anyway going back to your last post here - and forgive me if this sounds like a ridiculous question, but am I to do this using the new admin account I made, and if so I will have to import media as I cannot access any of my footage through the new admin account (unless I use Lacie which is not what we want to do....)

Yes, import some footage onto your system drive. Narrow the issue down. Do it under new user also to eliminate as many possible issues if possible.