Extreme Sluggishness on FCP 4.0

[Bouncing Account needs new email address]

Break it into many short segments and edit on separate timelines.

Don’t re-combine them until you have all editing completed.

[Frank Nolan]

Whatever you do, DO NOT upgrade until you finish the projects. Besides with that computer, if you upgrade the OS and to FCP studio version it will probably run slower than it is now. There was a post a while back where the user was having the same problem and as it turned out he was working on a timeline that had a lot of nested sequences copied and pasted from other projects. The fix was to export the sequences as self contained quicktime movies and import them into the current project. If you only have a couple of copied items, that may not be your problem.

[John Burgan]

You should check the size of your project file. If it’s above 10-12Mb you need to slim things down and adopt a different workflow.

Break the project down first into Media/Edits, then further down into chapters/acts/interviews, whatever seems most logical. Also weed out redundant edits by archiving them, keeping the project with your main edit up to date and as lean as possible.

There’s no problem for FCP to have multiple projects open simultaneously, you can copy, cut and paste between them.

Also, make sure that you regularly save your projects using the “Save As…” dialogue, forcing the whole file to be re-written from the ground up on a regular basis. Apparently months of saving to the same file is a recipe for corruption, and simply backing up a buggy file is no insurance against losing your work.

[Kevin Monahan]

4.0 was a pretty buggy version. You need to be at 4.1.1

As John says, if your project file size is too large, you need to start trimming it down.
If you captured your clips as entire rolls, this also can be a problem. FCP likes clips to be short and discrete. It behaves much snappier with small media files, rather than having to search for media over huge media files.

Kevin Monahan
Take My FCP Master’s Seminar!
fcpworld.com

[Daneeta-loretta Jackson]

Hi,

I checked the file size, and it is a whopping 205 mb. I’m a little confused by this as another project I’m working on has much, much longer sequences and more media, but it is only 20 mb. What would cause such a large file size? The difference between aforementioned project and the Evil Project is that the Evil Project has more effects and multiple audio and video tracks. Would this cause such a difference?

I should also mention that the Evil Project was originally created in an earlier version of FCP and then brought into the new version. But this was ages ago, and it seemed to work fine in the beginning but slowly degenerated.

In any case, here’s what I did:

I saved as to a new file and deleted any extraneous media, sequences and bins from the new project. This only brought it down to 201 mb, and it was still slow as molassas on a cold winter’s day.

I trimmed media in the media manager, and it was still massive.

In the end, I exported the sequence I was working on to a QT file, started a new project and imported the sequence in. This is only a workaround, though because the QT file comes in as one block.

If I cut and paste the bits from the Evil Project to a new project I’m assuming that they will be nested and could cause problems. Is there a way to “re-build” the sequence in a new project without having to export each individual clip and then import it into the new project then adding effects again?

Still working on it, but I have a feeling the problem is steming from file size. Any suggestions as to why the bloody thing is so big?

Hugs,

Daneeta

[Daneeta-loretta Jackson]

Conflicting info here. Is it safe to upgrade from 4.02 to 4.1.1 in the middle of projects? Or is it just major updrades that I should avoid?

[Tom Wolsky]

That’s an update not an upgrade. They are bug fixes exclusively with only minor change in behavior. I’d do it.

All the best,

Tom

Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 2 Editing Workshop” Class on Demand “Complete Training for FCP5” DVD

[Debe]

Daneeta–

You’ll get conflicting opinions on that. Some say incremental upgrades are ok, just make sure you back everything up first.

Other’s say don’t do anything when you’re in the middle of a project.

I’m of two minds, personally. If it’s working fine, wait to upgrade, but if you’re having troubles, the upgrade may be your projects’ salvation. FCP 4.0 is buggy. 4.1.1 is much more stable.

Download Carbon Copy Cloner (a google search should find you that, or try http://www.macupdate.com and use the search option on the right side). You may need another drive if you don’t have the space, but it will be money well spent!

As long as you take the time to clone your current drive as is, you can always restore it if the upgrade goes awry. Also, for good measure, burn your current project file to a disk or upload it somewhere, or just put it on a jump drive or something, so you always have a pristine copy of where you were prior to the upgrade. As soon as you open it in the new version, you’re stuck if you don’t have an un-opened copy somewhere else. Always keep a copy that hasn’t touched the new system in a safe place. (yes, there’s one in your cloned drive, but there are times you just need the file, and unpacking the clone is overkill!)

If you do this, you can always go back to where you are right now if the upgrade doesn’t work, or you start having more problems than you did with the previous version. All you lose is time, which I realize is a big issue for most of us, but at this point, it sounds like you need to take the gamble that the upgrade will help! The clone is your insurance policy in case it doesn’t.

Hope this helps!!

debe

[Debe]

..and Tom is obviously right…update is different from upgrade….

My suggestions may be over the top for an update, but if you’re a worrier, it will give you extra piece of mind. If you’re not, it’s probably overkill for you….

I’m a worrier. I triple backup. And at least once, it was my third backup that saved the project!

debe