Level 1

106 points

Constant crashing with FCP, even when it starts up

I am experiencing a recurring issue with FCP that has been getting worse and worse with time. I will be working and either I try to do something with the timeline and when I PLAY it will only play a few frames before freezing (audio keeps playing though) or I drag an effect on a clip and it gives me a warning about how it can't be done, no more info is available... even standard built-in Apple effects like Gaussian Blur. I quit FCP because it won't work until I restart it. Sometimes it will crash... just completely disappear. Every time I try to start it it will appear for a second or two and then disappear again. This will happen multiple times a day as I'm editing.

Mac Studio M1 Ultra 64GB o' RAM

Library running on WD_BLACK SN850X 4TB NVMe SSD inside Acasis enclosure via Thunderbolt 4

FCP 11, though this affected 10.8.x as well

Mac OS 15.1.1, though this affected me in Mac OS 14 as well.

Here's what I have tried:

-DELETING PREFERENCES - This works. For a while. Maybe 45 minutes if I'm lucky.

-RESTORING PREFERENCES with PREFERENCE MANAGER - This does not work. I restore them and FCP will still crash right away, even though the preferences that were saved with Preference Manager were super clean after I had just set them up, before I used FCP in any way. If I delete the "settings" by holding OPTION at startup, go through the song and dance of dismissing the iPad FCP thing (why is that there?) and dismissing the plug-ins that don't work (that I have zero clue how to remove), I can then quit FCP, restore the preferences with Preference Manager and it works. Again for about 45 minutes of editing if I'm lucky.

-ETRE CHECK - No major issues found other than a few unsigned things like my Logitech mouse software (reinstalled that anyway). Also I have automatic security updates off and it didn't like that. There was other nonsense like "No time machine backup" which would have zero influence on FCP crashing.

-MALWAREBYTES - Scanned with the latest version. All clean.

-REINSTALLING FCP FROM THE APP STORE - Makes no difference.

-Don't have CHROME.

Obviously it has something to do with the preferences, but something outside of what Preference Manager saves and restores. Only fully deleting the preferences with the built-in method will fix it for a while. I could have some bad plugins maybe. I'd like to go through one by one to remove some of them but again I don't know where they are and I don't have uninstallers for them all. So I guess my first question would be is... what does resetting FCP do besides delete the preferences that Preference Manager backs up? Whatever that is, is my issue.

Mac Studio

Posted on Nov 24, 2024 9:53 PM

Top-ranking reply

joema

Level 4

1,143 points

Posted on Nov 26, 2024 10:08 AM

I studied closely the crash at 2024-11-24 02:24:31.7253 -0700, but they are all similar.

Thread 44 crashed in OZFxPlug_GetFlexoInputNode due to dereferencing a null pointer. OZ=Ozone, the FCP private framework that implements the Motion runtime engine and effects processing.

This crash appears to be a complex interaction between FCP's effect system, background processing, and resource management. The root cause may be a synchronization loophole (e.g, race condition) between effect processing and thumbnail generation.

However if we look earlier in the stack trace (around frame 77) we see an an exception occurred in the background task. Instead of properly handling it, the code continued execution, apparently without cleanup or (maybe) not even logging it.

This led to corrupted state that caused the scheduling system to enter an infinite recursion.

Finally, after corrupting the stack, it attempted to access an invalid pointer and crashed.

The effects thumbnail generation logic is complex. There is a background task queue ("effectLibraryThumbnailGenerator") for processing. It has both a memory cache (FFObjectCache) and disk cache (FFSegmentStoreRef).

An obvious question is why now, and why only on your machine? Unknown. Because of the track record of CoreMelt causing problems, and the failure of their uninstall tool to fully work, I suggest you manually remove all traces of that (as a temporary test). They have a support page with the procedure: https://support.coremelt.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360013189594-Where-are-files-from-CoreMelt-installed-How-to-manually-uninstall

If you have any other third-party Fx, especially those from Pixel Film Studios, please list those.

If that doesn't help, the next time the crash happens run the following terminal command which gathers FCP-specific logging info, then upload that so I can examine it.

log show --info --debug --predicate 'processImagePath CONTAINS "Final Cut Pro"' --last 1h > ~/Documents/Redifer_FCP_Log.txt

View in context

Similar questions

46 replies

Joe Redifer Author

Level 1

106 points

Dec 4, 2024 1:05 AM in response to joema

Joema I finally got a trace of FCP doing the "soft freeze" behavior. Also in the attached ZIP file is a screencapture video showing exactly what I mean by this happening. Video plays a few frames, but audio keeps going. FCP seems to work otherwise, but cannot be quit by normal means, it must be force quit. You probably want to ask what I was doing when this happened. Just editing, nothing special. I was selecting clips and adding them to the timeline by pressing Q like normal.

FCP Trace File and Video - 1.1GB

joema

Level 4

1,143 points

Dec 9, 2024 1:24 PM in response to Joe Redifer

CVDisplayLink is a "class" within the MacOS Core Video framework. It is designed for synchronizing rendering updates with the display's refresh rate. However, I noticed as of MacOS 15, it has been deprecated in favor of the higher-level, more object-oriented alternative CADisplayLink.

Joe Redifer Author

Level 1

106 points

Dec 13, 2024 3:20 PM in response to joema

Sure. Oddly I only had one crash report in the DiagnosticReports folder and nothing in the Retired folder. I wonder if I cleared them out for some reason, I don't have a specific memory of doing that. Anyway here it is:

Final Cut Pro Crash Log

Joe Redifer Author

Level 1

106 points

Dec 13, 2024 6:58 PM in response to joema

The effect I use most are stuff like Gaussian Blur, Drop Shadow, Hawaiki Keyer, and a retro video effect I designed myself in Motion which certainly isn't an FXPlug.

The only FXPlug stuff I have on my system seem to be:

FCPX Artist Brush

BCCFxPlugx_x64

Neither of which I use, nor can they be found in my Final Cut Pro.

Joe Redifer Author

Level 1

106 points

Dec 14, 2024 4:29 PM in response to joema

I agree with both of you and went ahead and removed both. Certainly no reason to keep them in the FXPlug folder.

The only things with on-screen controls that I use are Apple stuff like Ken Burns, Draw Mask, maybe their generic keyer which I sometimes use as a Luma Keyer (I use it instead of their dedicated Luma Key effect), and Drop Shadow. Actually I use Drop Shadow quite a bit, and that's one where I'll often get the prompt that I posted before about it not working and no more info is available.

Joe Redifer Author

Level 1

106 points

Dec 14, 2024 6:23 PM in response to joema

Very rarely. Most often I'll use some EQ and and dynamic range compressor settings. I'll also use some assorted built-in echo effects here and there. If I need anything from iZotope, for example, I do it in iZotope's standalone app rather than try to have FCP do it all in real time while attempting to handle everything else.

As for FCP being deranged when the trace begun, yeah I could see that. I was working, started a trace, then nothing happened and I was finished for the time so I stopped the trace. Came back later and resumed (I had never quit out of FCP) and started a new trace.

terryb

Level 4

3,370 points

Nov 25, 2024 5:17 PM in response to joema

Joema, I'm trying to learn to better identify issues in crash logs. Which lines indicate plugin?

Nov 26, 2024 6:45 AM in response to Joe Redifer

Do you create a new Library for each project or are they all stored in one massive Library?

Is FCP installed on your boot drive or the external?

terryb

Level 4

3,370 points

Nov 26, 2024 11:47 AM in response to joema

Thank you very much for the explanation and links.

Joe Redifer Author

Level 1

106 points

Nov 26, 2024 5:08 PM in response to joema

JoeMa-

I have installed Xcode and typed xctrace into terminal after it was all done. I received the following reply. It seems to indicate that Xcode is not installed. Or is this what I want?

Joe Redifer Author

Level 1

106 points

Nov 26, 2024 6:02 PM in response to joema

That did it, thank you. I'll let you know if I'm able to create a trace file for ya.

joema

Level 4

1,143 points

Nov 26, 2024 7:29 PM in response to Joe Redifer

I got the trace file. I can see the hangs in the trace. Will take a while to further interpret that.

Nov 30, 2024 10:33 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Replying to myself here, sorry... maybe it is a coincidence.

I just realized that CV in CVDisplayLink stands for CoreVideo, and that this is part of first party API.

Joe Redifer Author

Level 1

106 points

Dec 1, 2024 10:48 AM in response to joema

joema, I find that I have to be editing for quite some time before that bug will pop up.

I did notice that corevideo is one of the very, very few things in Activity Monitor running in Intel mode.

Joe Redifer Author

Level 1

106 points

Dec 9, 2024 11:02 AM in response to joema

OK. I wonder what CVDisplayLink even is. To me it looks like it wants to write something to the display, but it must be opaque. I see that again and again. Doesn't make a lot of sense.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Constant crashing with FCP, even when it starts up