ExFAT on HDD for FCP editing?

Don’t put the library on the ExFAT drive. The format doesn’t understand bundles/packages and doesn’t work well with them especially copying or moving them. Using media stored on the drive I don’t think should be a problem.

Ian R. Brown wrote:

Sometimes when plugging in a FAT32 drive with loads of space I have been unable to add a video as my Mac thinks the drive is full and has zero free space

When sharing files between a Mac and Windows I have used exFAT. But once a problem was that a 128 GB flash drive formatted as exFAT (GUID) on Big Sur was seen only AFAIR 100 MB on Windows 10 while exFAT (Master Boot Record) showed all capacity.

https://www.howtogeek.com/193669/whats-the-difference-between-gpt-and-mbr-when-partitioning-a-drive/

On the other hand, formatting a drive with exFAT using Windows may use a file allocation size for the file system which macOS doesn't understand. It seems 128 kB Allocation Unit Size should be used if exFAT is used on a Mac.

https://www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmagic/allocation-unit-size-exfat.html

So usually it is best to use Disk Utility to erase the drive if you are going to format it with exFAT.

And Sequoia might have teething problems with FAT or exFAT:

"The implementations of the exfat and msdos file systems on macOS have changed; these file systems are now provided by services running in user-space instead of by kernel extensions. If the application has explicit checks or support for either the exfat or msdos file systems, validate the applications with those file systems and report any issues. (110421802)"

macOS Sonoma 14 Release Notes | Apple Developer Documentation

Hi (bonjour) Ian,

The maximum file size is limited to 4 go in Fat32 format, so your media cannot be over this limit. I shared some large 4K media to a production facility with a ExFat formated hard drive without problem.

https://www.coursera.org/articles/exfat-vs-ntfs

Michel

You said you're using an HDD formatted ExFAT in a primarily non-FCP application, and you want to know if ExFAT would cause problems in that application. That's difficult to say.

My team uses RED cameras that record to SSD storage formatted as FAT-32. When recording they automatically split the file into approx. 4.16 GB segments. That process is reliable and is handled by FCP provided the RED workflow software is installed. The file segments are presented as a single clip. All other utility software must understand that format to present the RED .R3D file segments as a single logical clip. So that's an example of automatic file segmentation with a well-documented procedure that works well -- at least among utilities that understand the segmentation format.

If you're asking about file management used by some model of Samsung TV recording to some type of FAT 32 portable drive, you'll probably get a better answer from a support source familar with that specific model of TV.

However, I think some TVs also use automatic file segmentation where they split the file to multiple 4 GB segments. I think some TVs will play that back seamlessly, but others might require selecting each file segment. That would probably also require a specific filename convention, such as MOVIE_001.MP4, MOVIE_002.MP4, etc.

You said this was primarily a non-FCP application scenario, but if you're discussing editing or creating a series of file segments with FCP for playback on the Samsung TV, that would require specific technical information from the TV manufacturer.

My oldish DJI P3P does not perfectly segment footage by dropping a few frames at the split point.

I always let the device format the SD card and P3P uses FAT as a default with its max 4GB file size limit. exFAT would allow larger files but unfortunately the P3P then still splits the 60 Mb/s videos at 4GB or about each 9 minute.

So I must remember to take care that the split does not occur in an important spot by starting capture at a certain point of the max 20 minute fly.

Once I had to add 2+2 frames at clip breakpoint to make the split point seem not so jerky.

Not sure if this has a bearing on the question but I find it slightly weird that the FCP Camera app on the iPhone/iPad requires any external disc to be formatted exFAT! It will not work with APFS.