Final Cut not responding after switching to another application

I'm using Final cut 11.1.1, which at this time is up to date and same with the OS.


Final cut was working fine a few weeks ago. I've been editing on a M2 mini with no issues up to this point. I've editing projects bigger than this with no issues (1.5hr timelines with thousands of cuts). The only thing that is new that I downloaded recently is a macos update that gave me new video codex, but I don't know how to reverse that, or if that's even relevant.


Final cut works great when I first open it.

But as soon as I switch to another application, finder, a browser, just minimize to the desktop, when I reopen Final Cut, the application is not responding. If the library is a smaller library(just a few clips on a 1 min timeline), this may resolve in 5 seconds or so. But if a bigger timeline is open, such as a 15m timeline with many cuts, the program will never respond, and Final Cut must be re-opened. However, once reopened, will work great again until I need to access any other application, which sadly while editing, if very often.


I've tried cloning the library, deleting every thing one by one inside to see if it was anything in particular but it doesn't seem to be any one thing. I've tried deleting all of my plugins, titles, and effects. I've tried reinstalling Final cut. I've moved final cut and the library to a new drive. I've tried to first aid the drives I use. I've tried every single step apple support recommends. I've reset my preferences, I've cleaned the library cache. I've tried everything I can think of short of reinstalling the OS. I can't find anyone online that has had this issue.


On a phone call with apple support, I was told to make a post here.

Please.

Help.

Mac mini, macOS 15.5

Posted on Jul 9, 2025 9:24 AM

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Posted on Jul 11, 2025 9:58 AM

Thank you all for your replies. I used appcleaner one time to remove some built in system apps that I don't use.

I've since removed it, which did not solve the issue. HOWEVER, I did solve the problem. The problem actually was that I had 2 external hard drives stacked on top of one another and I think they were over heating. Giving them some space seemed to fix the problem.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 11, 2025 9:58 AM in response to kindacapable

Thank you all for your replies. I used appcleaner one time to remove some built in system apps that I don't use.

I've since removed it, which did not solve the issue. HOWEVER, I did solve the problem. The problem actually was that I had 2 external hard drives stacked on top of one another and I think they were over heating. Giving them some space seemed to fix the problem.

Jul 10, 2025 11:35 AM in response to kindacapable

One of your drives, the Seagate, is slow at 5Gb/s and might be slowing down access to the other drives. I'd follow Tom's suggestion and physically remove all external drives to do an FCP test with just the internal drive and see if the app switching behavior changes.


You've installed an AppCleaner. Generally they are discouraged around here because they can be too aggressive about the System items they delete causing instability in FCP. CleanMyMac is the worst offender. I don't know if AppCleaner is better.


Finally, I'm not sure what Fantastical.app does but it crashed on the 8th.

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Final Cut not responding after switching to another application

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