Final Cut Pro Decoding & Rendering Errors

The first thing I'd try is deleting the render cache. Select the library in the browser, choose File->Delete Generated Library Files... Choose All Render files. Manage render files in Final Cut Pro for Mac - Apple Support 

If that doesn't change anything, find a backup of MVI_5153.mp4 if you can since it's been identified as having a problem. You could try cutting around that bad frame of 00:00:39:12. You could also try to Optimize that file by right-clicking on it in the browser and choosing Transcode which will create a (very large) ProRes file to be used instead. If that works, then try the timeline export again and see if FCP finds any other corrupted clips in the timeline.

Unfortunately, I too run into this issue with quite literally every single project I try to export (I'm a wedding filmmaker). The only fix I've found is to go to each clip where there is an error -> Shift+F to reveal in browser -> right click -> Transcode Media -> Create Optimized Media.

For a 9-10 minute film, this sometimes takes me hours of going to the clip, transcoding it, waiting for it to load, re-exporting, and then having the same issue occur until I get to the end of the video. Otherwise, if you have tons of storage and want to do it overnight, you can select all of your files and do that process all at once.

Neither is a great answer/solution, especially if your documentary/any video is over an hour long. I've had this issue for several months and commented on these community boards in the past with similar questions/concerns. I'm not sure why it happens or how to prevent it, but Apple really needs to do something about it.

I'm sorry I couldn't be more helpful, but I wish you all the luck in the world and fingers crossed that Apple sees this and actually does something about it!

@BethkeT73, something is very wrong to have so many clips be seen as corrupted. In the last 7 years we've had maybe(?) 2 corrupt clips in over 1,000 hours of footage. (Hopefully I didn't just jinx things!)

• I'd first check how much free space is on your system drive. You need at least 20%.
• If there's an external drive being used for the footage, how is it formatted? Format storage devices for Final Cut Pro, Motion, and Compressor - Apple Support
• How is the transfer from the camera to edit storage happening? ShotPutPro? Hedge? Finder copy?
• Is the camera media formatted in-camera before each shoot? Is the media the correct specs for the camera, and capture specs?
• Do you have Chrome and its evil keystone background software installed? That's a know FCP killer. Follow the instructions at https://chromeisbad.com to completely remove.
• Post a report from https://etrecheck.com using the "Additional text" button below in your reply. Give Etrecheck Full Disk Access permissions in System Settings.

Send Apple your feedback via Final Cut Pro->Provide Final Cut Pro Feedback...  or use this link Feedback - Final Cut Pro - Apple We've been told the FCP devs don't monitor these discussion forums.

@BethkeT73, sorry to hear about this problem. The only past problem I saw you post about was in 2023 about black clips on 120 fps material. By chance, I worked on that, and it was fixed by FCP development within a few weeks on FCP 10.6.6 and Ventura 13.5. But that was only possible because we had several cooperative customers providing information, and I spent many hours documenting the problem.

Edit/add: I now see your prior post here: Final Cut Pro - The share operation “Expo… - Apple Community

That was an unresolved decoding error. You should not have to transcode everything to ProRes to avoid that.

The filename implies it was from a Sony mirrorless camera. To my knowledge, all codecs from those cameras should work OK on the current version of FCP and MacOS. I think you have an M1 Mac.

If we get additional information from you, I'm sure we can make progress on this new problem. If you are using a Sony mirrorless camera, I have several of those, and I haven't seen this problem yet. However, I'm interested in it.

To start, we need the info Terry mentioned. I'd also like to see the full metadata of one of those clips as reported by the third-party utility MediaInfo. Just open the clip in MediaInfo, then do File>Export, give it a filename and copy/paste the full contents to a post here.

Edit/Update: I found that I don't run into this issue if I import everything during the setup, select Create optimized media, and then let it buffer/load everything in overnight! (Or at least this worked for my latest project lol)

To me, that suggests corrupt or non-standard media. Answering our questions above could help get to the bottom of the issue and save you from needing to create enormous ProRes optimized files.