Playback in Browser randomly not working

I started having an issue where source playback in FCPX randomly stops working. As in: I can play and scroll the timeline just fine, but when I try to play or skim in the Browser, I'm getting nothing. Not even with the Event viewer toggled on. Restarting the app SOMETIMES work, mostly I need to delete its preferences (opt+cmd on FCPX startup). Or, delete the library cahce. None of these is 100% guaranteed to work.

FCP 10.5 on Big Sur 11.0

See the bug here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yY7eZGRHPI

Anyone having the same issue? 

Stooovie wrote: I started having an issue where...when I try to play or skim in the Browser, I'm getting nothing. Not even with the Event viewer toggled on... 

I haven't seen this before. The behavior you report is the viewer itself quits responding if content from the Event Browser is skimmed. The viewer works on timeline playback and also the live video thumbnails in the browser still work.

This is actually what you'd see if the event viewer was enabled (CTRL+CMD+3), but then that viewer was hidden. Are you using an external monitor, an iPad as sidekick, multiple monitors, eGPU, or any kind of outboard video hubs, devices or converters?

What if during the problem you use CMD+3 (Go to Viewer)? That should force the regular viewer to appear and the thin blue selection line should appear at top of that pane. You could also try OPT+CMD+3 (Go to Event Viewer), then try switching to the regular viewer with CMD+3. Do both of those appear and does the thin blue selection line appear at the top when the corresponding viewer is selected? Do both viewers work?

Overall it appears to be some kind of malfunction in the event viewer vs the regular viewer. 

As an experiment you could also try making a project snapshot, open that, select all clips with CMD+A, then remove all effects with Edit>Remove Effects. With no effects applied, does the problem ever happen? You say it recently started happening. Does that correspond to installing a new 3rd-party effect or when you upgraded to Big Sur, FCPX 10.5 or anything else?

No, I don't use any of those. I see the same behaviour on my 2015 Retina iMac as well as my Hackintosh. When the issue occurs, toggling Event viewer doesn't help. In fact, nothing helps other than zapping FCPX prefs and/or the library cache. I haven't found any pattern. I think it's a new thing in 10.5.  Too bad I upgraded both FCPX and MacOS, so I can't ioslate the issue better. CMD+3 doesn't fix, I use that all the time.

I have a Mac on Big Sur and 10.5 and never saw this issue.  Unable to replicate.

This is a big library (close to 12k clips). I can't test anything real-world but smaller ATM.

I suspect a playback problem that's straining hardware.

No, it's ProRes 1080p on 2015 iMac with 24 GB RAM and thunderbolt storage. M395x GPU. And the Hackintosh is a 3900x with 12 cotes and 64 GB RAM. It plays HEVC like butter. I've cut tons and tons of footage like this without issues. This is a bug in either BS or fcpx. 

"FCP"
THEY OFFICIALLY DROPPED THE X.

Turning off Bluetooth has no bearing on the issue also. Nor does killing coreaudiod.

Yes can confirm this as I have the same problem. I think it’s a bug w.10.5 and Big Sur. Reported to Apple. Quick workaround for now for me is to click once into the viewer and then the browser skimming should work as normal.

Yes!!! Having the same issue. New MacBook Pro 13 inch was using Catalina and previous FCP version but decided to upgrade as Apple recommended to Big Sur and FCP 10.5 and now can't even get simple work done as all videos in the browser only skim but no playability in browser or viewer. 

I have never had this on three separate machines, of different ages, all running 10.5 and macOS 11. 

cofe wrote: Yes can confirm this as I have the same problem. I think it’s a bug w.10.5 and Big Sur. Reported to Apple. Quick workaround for now for me is to click once into the viewer and then the browser skimming should work as normal.

That fixes not having timeline playback (it's been an issue since like 2013, never really fixed). This new issue is no playback in the Browser. But it's probably something similar.

 I’m experiencing the issue from time to time on a Mac Pro (2013) with Big Sur and FCP 10.5 - happens with big libraries (>3000 clips) as well as with fresh libraries and only a few files (<100 clips).
Switching to another application and then back to FCP does solve the issue in most cases. Also try to  click on a different event and then back to the initial event. Haven’t found a 100% workaround yet.

I have also noted that since the Big Sur upgrade yesterday that any video...no ..EVERY VIDEO played with (Apple) again, Quicktime plays and when I close it,  sends a full screen "Problem Report" like a crash. 

I'm running the 11.1 beta 2 for three days and it has not occured since. Knock on wood. It was a nearly hourly occurence previously.

Running FCP 10.5 with Big Sur 11.01, I cannot reproduce this on any of my machines. Tried with large Libraries (5000+ clips) and smaller 6K projects.

- Ronny

rickster wrote: I have also noted that since the Big Sur upgrade yesterday that any video...no ..EVERY VIDEO played with Quicktime plays and when I close it,  sends a full screen "Problem Report" like a crash.

This has nothing to do with the reported issue nor with Final Cut Pro. This particular problem is often caused by a corrupt user account.

Have you installed Big Sur on top of the older OS or did you do a clean erase and install?

Try creating a fresh user account to see if the problem still persists with the new account. 

- Ronny

I have only been on this site a few days looking for answers to my FCP and MacBook,  but it only seems I am getting mostly reply where users  announce they are doing "GREAT and their systems are working properly, or they can't reproduce my issue? I was honestly hoping for more. There has been no help...at all. It's like if I bring my child to a doctor and everyone ( including the doctors) tell me how fine THEY are doing, and not how to cure or help my child! Please if you can't "help" by real tech digging please don't reply at all. It's not really all about YOU. Hoping for possible answers. Brand New Machine, Brand new OS, Brand new FCP, old owner! Ha!

BTW Stoovie, how and where did you upgrade to Beta......FCP 11. 2?