Clip retiming no longer works!

Mac OS 15.3.1, Mac Mini with M4 Pro chip & 64GB memory


Final Cut Pro v11.0.1


For years I’ve used Clip Retimings to speed up clips and it has always worked seamlessly… until now! Whenever I add a 2X, 4X, 8X, or 20X increase in frame speed I get dropped frames and this pop-up message: 



Here are my Import settings:


Somewhere along the way I must have inadvertently changed something, but what? And how do I change it back?


What settings under which menus do I need to alter?


BTW: I called Apple Care and the CSR walked me through this fix which worked at first:


RUN ON VIDEO FILE



1. Right click on video file.


2. Encode selected video file


3. Settings ➜ H-264 2160p Select resolution.


4. Import file to FCPX.


But once I restarted FCPX it went right back to frame dropping.

Mac mini, macOS 15.3

Posted on Mar 10, 2025 12:32 PM

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Posted on Mar 10, 2025 12:49 PM

As Tom said, this is more likely to do with disk performance and space.


As you are creating BOTH proxy media AND optimized media, this takes a great deal of disk space, and is probably unwarranted. Note that Optimized media uses a LOT of space (it can very easily use ten times as much as the original). The conversion that they had you do in Finder is completely moot if you transcode on Import, as shown in your screenshot. Since you apparently have Optimized media for everything, it is those HUGE files that will be used in editing. They are lighter for your CPU but much more heavy on your drive.


You can of course switch your Viewer to Proxy and that should avoid the dropped frames, but the question remains as to WHY you'd transcode to both proxy and optimized. FWIW, my recommendation is to do no transcoding at all on importing.

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Mar 10, 2025 12:49 PM in response to Lee_Oakland

As Tom said, this is more likely to do with disk performance and space.


As you are creating BOTH proxy media AND optimized media, this takes a great deal of disk space, and is probably unwarranted. Note that Optimized media uses a LOT of space (it can very easily use ten times as much as the original). The conversion that they had you do in Finder is completely moot if you transcode on Import, as shown in your screenshot. Since you apparently have Optimized media for everything, it is those HUGE files that will be used in editing. They are lighter for your CPU but much more heavy on your drive.


You can of course switch your Viewer to Proxy and that should avoid the dropped frames, but the question remains as to WHY you'd transcode to both proxy and optimized. FWIW, my recommendation is to do no transcoding at all on importing.

Mar 10, 2025 3:42 PM in response to Lee_Oakland

So apparently you don't have proxies, or they're not where the application expects them to be.


Did you try rendering to check the performance? If that still doesn't do it post an EtreCheck report https://etrecheck.com giving the application Full Disk Access in Privacy & Security Sysyytem Settings. Copy the report and use the Add Text button to paste the result into reply box. 

Mar 11, 2025 1:37 AM in response to Lee_Oakland

If the media was on slow external drives that could certainly explain slowness.


You can greatly diminish the sizes of your libraries before transferring - see below. And, most importantly, you don’t need to have everything in the internal at the same time. You can simply copy what you are working on to the internal, and copy off to an external when you are done.


Relinking may or may not be necessary, depending on where your media is (if inside the library, it will just come across and nothing more is needed).


Before you copy: open your library in FCP, select the library in the browser and do File->Delete Generated Library Files. Check all the options. Then close FCP and drag the library to your internal drive

Mar 11, 2025 4:01 AM in response to Lee_Oakland

There are 4 things you need to do:


1. Submit an EtreChaeck report

2. Back up with TimeMachine

3. Merge the library and media and copy them to the movie folder

・Select all events in the browser

・Right-click: Copy events to library: New library.

・Use the same library name. Specify the movie folder.

・Target: Media, Check "Original media" and "Copy media stored in external locations", Media output destination: Media: Library.

4. Remove "Transcode" and "Create proxies" from the import settings



Not an easy task as a lot of file relinking will likely be required.

Follow step 3. It's easy to consolidate and move your libraries and media.


I've already copied the Libraries over the to Mini's Movies folder.

Not sure if you did it the right way. Please follow steps 1 to 4.

Mar 11, 2025 12:33 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Tom,


I recently purchased a new Mac Mini with M4 Pro chip and sprang for the largest SSD they had which, to my chagrin, was only 8TB… quite small compared to my 16TB & 18TB external drives. My only external SSD is 5TB which I never use because of its small size. So my thinking was that with such a small internal drive and the amount of space required for video processing, it was best to move all FCPX files to the external HDs where they’d have more breathing space.


In addition to you, I contacted several other FCPX oracles for help with my speed frame issue and all of you had a different take on what was going on. But after letting all the differing points of view to percolate in my head for a few hours, I came to realize there were common threads: FCPX doesn’t like external drives connected to one’s system; it prefers SSDs to old standard spin-up HDs.


I did a quick Get Info on my Mini’s 8TB internal drive and discovered that despite all the applications and files stored on it, it still had 7TB of free space. Conclusion: I need to copy all of the external FCPX support files back over to the Mini’s internal SSD drive’s Movies folder. Not an easy task as a lot of file relinking will likely be required.


I've already copied the Libraries over the to Mini's Movies folder. What else should I be moving and where to on the Mini"


Do you agree I’m on the path to the right course of action?

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Clip retiming no longer works!

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