Final Cut Pro - insanely slow imports

[rexone]

I do not understand what is going on... FCPX always imported footage at a a typical speed.
Then it started getting super slow importing directly from my EOS 5D MkIV when connected via USB so I started plugging the card into a card reader.
Then that started getting really slow so I started importing from the card to a folder on my desktop & then importing from there to FCPX. Nothing like slowing down your workflow.
Now that has become slow to the point of literally not working - 45min & it had imported less than 5% of a 30Gb file.
Restarted my Mac, restarted the imports & after 20min it's at 0% of the first file, 35min it's at 1%.
I am lost.
Create Optimised Media and Create Proxy Media are set to off.
Mac is an iMac Pro 2.5 GHz Intel Xeon W, 64Gb of RAM, Radeon Pro Vega 64 16 GB.
FCPX library is on an external drive connected via Thunderbolt & has a few Gb of space left.
Should I just delete my install & reinstall?
Help please...

 

[casperes1996]

FCPX library is on an external drive connected via Thunderbolt & has a few Gb of space left.

If there's only "a few Gb (GB?)" left on the drive that doesn't sound promising. Optimal drive speed requires more than a few single-digit GB free. And you're hardly going to be able to put more into that library like that anyway

How big is this library anyway? Is it still slow if you make a new Library? I generally advise one library per project.

Those times sound incredibly long though. Is it only importing?

 

[rexone]

Thanks for the reply @casperes1996
Yeah, one library per project would get very messy as most of my projects are only a couple of minutes long.
Library is about 4Tb & apologies. I meant Tb, not Gb. My drive is 12Tb and I still have nearly 2Tb left but it is due for a clean-out.
Yes, it was on importing only. Exports were fast at any file size of definition. This was purely an import thing that had become progressively worse.
Anyhews... last night I bit the bullet & used Clean My Mac to delete FCP and I then re-downloaded & reinstalled.
Imports now running at the expected speed.
Seems that there was something in my install had gone funky that was slowing it down.

 

[casperes1996]

Thanks for the reply @casperes1996
Yeah, one library per project would get very messy as most of my projects are only a couple of minutes long.
Library is about 4Tb & apologies. I meant Tb, not Gb. My drive is 12Tb and I still have nearly 2Tb left but it is due for a clean-out.
Yes, it was on importing only. Exports were fast at any file size of definition. This was purely an import thing that had become progressively worse.
Anyhews... last night I bit the bullet & used Clean My Mac to delete FCP and I then re-downloaded & reinstalled.
Imports now running at the expected speed.
Seems that there was something in my install had gone funky that was slowing it down.

Fair enough then. Glad it's fixed.

I will say this though; You might want to "clean" the library if you don't already do it. When the library is selected you can select "Delete Generated Files" from the menu bar and get an option to "Delete Unused Render files". So if you have anything that's been rendered in projects long gone that was an intermediate render of something that since changed and thus the render is completely useless, this will clear it out.

Also anyone manages things their own way, but I will add to what I said before about one library per project; If you have related projects that rely on the same source media - Like doing a short film, a couple of trailers for that short film and maybe a blooper real or director's cut or commentary cut or whatever, I would keep all that in one library still.

 

[rexone]

Thanks again @casperes1996
Just looking at deleting files & I'm assuming that Apple have renamed things since you last did this.
All I can find is something called 'Delete generated clip files'
That then has the options show below. Which of these are 'safe' to delete?

 

[casperes1996]

Thanks again @casperes1996
Just looking at deleting files & I'm assuming that Apple have renamed things since you last did this.
All I can find is something called 'Delete generated clip files'
That then has the options show below. Which of these are 'safe' to delete?

View attachment 1723376

What menu you get depends on what is selected. I was referencing this one:

To get that one, highlight the library itself in the media browser in Final Cut and it will be here in the File menu

This is the latest version of Final Cut

 

[Average Pro]

I only see the Delete Generated "Clip" Files as well

 

[casperes1996]

I only see the Delete Generated "Clip" Files as well

Do you have the library selected in the media browser? If you have a clip selected you'll see that option. If you have an event selected you'll see "Delete generated event files" and if you have the library selected you'll see what I showed