Apple solution for spinning beachball

All,

I was experiencing the spinning beach ball/poor performance problem and it was getting worse as I continued to edit.

I actually called apple. Here was their solution.

Sometimes, project files get corrupt. The fix is simple: in your current project, select everything (command A) copy everything (command C)

Next, go to the project library. Create a new project. Open it, and paste everything into it (yep, command V). This may resolve your problem. It seems to have worked for me. For now.

Apple also recommends making a duplicate of your current project once every few hours in case it gets so corrupt you can't open it. That seems to be an issue for some poor souls. And then even the backup won't open.

My guess this "corrupt project file" issue is big and something they are working on given how quickly the service tech offered it as the potential solution. And it is working so far.

Guess that's why some folks never work with a .0 app. Hopefully they solve this (or reduce it) in the next update.

My fix is to create a compound clip in the event browser and then use that to do my versioned cuts in. (Thanks T Payton for clueing me in to the power of compound clips!)

When I'm ready to share my media, I create a project and then insert the compound clip I've been editing in to the project.

I did this to avoid having a bajillion projects open at once. My performance has been pretty decent since I started working this way. Your mileage may vary.

Sounds interesting. But can you provide a bit more detail on the workflow? Not sure I understand.

Are you saying you select all the media in your event browser, make that into a compound clip, copy it, create a new project, and paste the compound clip (all your media) into the storyline, and then edit the media via the Open in Timeline function?

Wouldn't you lose all the benefit of metadata, etc?

Thanks.

Sure,

In the event browser you can create an empty compound clip (just make sure that you don't have any media selected when you do.

Once that compound clip is created, open it up (either using open in timeline or the double boxes icon in the upper left hand cornder) and voila! You have a storyline that you can edit away in. When its ready for export, create a project and then insert the compound clip into the new project.

You shouldn't lose any metadata at all (in fact, you can add metadata to it!) I tend to treat them in the same way I did sequences in FCP 7. I make a new compound clip for versioning (copy the contents of one compound clip, paste it into another and then make sure that they are named and tagged appropriately). The main difference is that I need to put it into a project in order to be able to export it.

Okay. I get it. I'll have to give it a go. Interesting concept. Thanks!

Thanks for this — but I'm nowhere near having a project yet. I'm at the start of the editing process, viewing footage and tagging it with keywords. I began getting the SSoD (spinning beachball of death) last week, so I trashed FCPX and re-downloaded it from the Apple Store. This took a whole day. Well, it ran just fine the first time I launched. On Day 2 (today) it's back to the SSoD.

I need urgent help please or else I'll have to slide back to FCP7 and do everything the old way.

humbird, you need to start a new thread for your issue. Also post your hardware specs (Mac model, OS version, FCP version, drive configuration and specs, RAM, GPU, codec of footage).