New to FCP and I am in HELL

The file system space allocation may need updating. Run Disk Utility First Aid on the system drive from recovery mode. The procedure is listed here: support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/macos-r...con-mchl82829c17/mac

The procedure for Disk Utility First Aid is shown here: support.apple.com/en-us/HT210898

dmf92 wrote:

...Is FCLM worth it? Can it do things that can't be done manually through FCP? I'm primed to pay for a solution that would prevent this issue in future but I suppose I should check if it's actually capable of doing things that can't be done through FCP.

Yes it's worth it. Note there are several optional extra-cost features but it's only a few more dollars. I would get the complete version with all the features.

It can scan your hard drive for unmounted FCP libraries and safely delete cache files, analysis files, etc. You could find each one manually, open each one in FCP and do some of those things, then manually find each library bundle on disk, open each in Finder and manually delete those things but those steps take time and incur some risk.

FCLM can export a media list in CSV format showing the pathname of each file in a library. There is no way to do that manually.

It's unclear if FCLM would prevent this specific problem. If the problem is caused by FCP render files not freeing up space after manual deletion, there could be a deeper issue. However in general it's very common for users to run out of space due to render files, then they forget about unneeded render files in old libraries, which also takes space. FCLM makes it easy and safe to reclaim that, plus does many other useful things.

After you run Disk Utility First Aid on your system volume, I suggest you also rebuild Spotlight Indexes. If those are stale or out of date it can cause various problems. Procedure:  support.apple.com/en-us/HT201716

After initiating the index rebuild you can do CMD+space bar and type "indexing", and it will display a blue progress bar to monitor when the reindexing task is finished.

I had some similar problems when I first started using FCPX. One important thing I discovered about FCPX is to NEVER RENDER.

Turn background rendering off in the preferences. Rendering just leads to project bloat, and if you are doing complex things involving compound clips or custom motion templates, it is sometimes prone to causing problems.

FCP is powerful enough that if you have a good edit machine and a fast drive, complicated stuff plays back fine without rendering. If I have a problem with playback, it is usually due to a clip being not "optimized". Optimizing that clip rather than rendering fixes the problem. If you still need to "Render" a complicated section for playback, "Share" it as a master file instead, then reimport it into your timeline. That way you have control.

Good luck.

Hi all. I am a beginner web designer. I work for a company that makes employee internet monitor software. I didn't use FCP.Co before, but now I've started and I have a lot of questions and hope to find answers here.

Jones876 wrote:

Hi all. I am a beginner web designer. I work for a company that makes employee internet monitor software. I didn't use FCP.Co before, but now I've started and I have a lot of questions and hope to find answers here.

Welcome. There are lots of good info sources on FCP, Ripple Training is one of the best. Here is a collection of their 60-second "quick tips":

Ep. 01: Continuous Playback & Multicam Stabilize: tinyurl.com/5d9xfndz
Ep 02: Searchable Custom Metadata: tinyurl.com/uyr6afs5
Ep 03: Live Looping in FCPX: tinyurl.com/bddccmv4
Ep 12: Break and Restore Audio Sync: tinyurl.com/5etbdcdj

Thanks for all the advice. So I managed to recover the ZIP. I had to unzip through terminal, and now I'm getting red "missing file" warnings. I've managed to re-link a bunch of clips, but other parts are not re-linked, and it's a bit of a mess. I'm surprised I had to re-link with external sources, as the library file is 128GB. I assumed all the files were internally stored and that's why it was such a large file. I don't get why it's so large if I then have to go and re-link with external files... Pretty confusing

also despite the mess, the file is snappy, until I import one thing (a quick screenshot of a white background to act as a screen behind some cropped white key shot) and then it goes back to being hellish

even compound clips appear to have parts missing now. I've no idea how to fix them. Can I un-compound them?

Would you like to try Davinci, is for free and you can use almost all the tools.
at least you will learn if the problem is Final Cut or something in your system.

Render and cache files may still be inside your Library file/package, even with the source media being stored outside the Library ("left in place"). Re-read this thread, as some of this info has already been mentioned.

You should really take some time to learn how FCP works. Read through the manual, look at some video tutorials (Ripple Training has some nice ones that are also free, as well as paid ones), etc. Learning FCP (and about your computer, macOS) is the best way to help yourself.

Here is the PDF of the FCP User Guide: final-cut-pro-user-guide.pdf . You can search it for "compound clips" and see how to break them apart ("Break apart clip items").

I got FCLM. Looks like it was 128GB of straight renders...

Delete Generated Library Files should have cleaned those out of you select render files.

A few other comments based on your past statements:

The Time Machine snapshots should not take significant space, also they will be automatically deleted as needed. See this explanation:  support.apple.com/en-us/HT204015

It is very important to know whether each media file is internal, external or mixed. FCLM can export a CSV which shows the location of each file.

If all media is internal it will never become unlinked. That is an advantage, but the cost is a huge unwieldy library package.

If media is external it will never become unlinked if the media stays on the same APFS or HFS+ volume. FCP uses inode lookup if it can't find the file. Inodes are a separate UNIX-like lookup system separate from the file's pathname. You can literally rename every FCP media file and move them individually to different locations on the volume and they will never become unlinked, or they will instantly relink upon FCP restart. I think FCP is the only NLE that does that.

However inode lookup only works within a volume. If you move the media to another volume they must be relinked. If the filenames are in exactly the same relative location, they should normally relink if you point the relink dialog to the root of that tree. If they are in different places, FCP can *normally* scan and relink all located files from the drive.

However -- IF you move the files, if they are not in the same location AND if there are duplicate filenames, relink may not work properly. That is one reason why it's best to never, ever have duplicate media filenames.

If that is the case you may have to relink each one individually after verifying it is the proper file for a given clip. 

joema wrote:

A few other comments based on your past statements:

The Time Machine snapshots should not take significant space, also they will be automatically deleted as needed. See this explanation: support.apple.com/en-us/HT204015

In theory, the TM snapshots are not supposed to take up "too much" space but in practice I've seen several reports of it happening, especially with computers having 256 GB or 512 GB internal SSDs...

The TM snapshots are also an annoyance when trying to run First Aid on a drive. They drastically increase the duration of the process. I've also seen snapshots being prone to corruption (a bug in TM itself?).

Just some additional info...

It does seem as if it takes more space in smaller drives, which isreally frustrating for users. You’d think it would be the other way around.