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My M3 MacBook Pro problem with Final Cut Pro!

7:41 video

This is my base model M3 MacBook Pro, and for the last five days I’ve been racking my brain over why I can’t export a video with Final Cut Pro. Five full days and well over 50 export tests, and I’ve been completely unable to export any of my regular videos. I’ve spent so much time on it that I haven’t even opened my brand-new Space Black MacBook Pro.

What happens

Geekbench, Cinebench and the other benchmarks ran fine. The trouble started with my Final Cut Pro export test: at some point during the export, there’s a memory spike, and the export fails with a vague error about an issue with a single frame. I’m on the latest macOS and Final Cut Pro. When I go to that exact frame, it looks fine. I run it again and get the same error on a different frame, sometimes in the middle, sometimes near the end.

My videos aren’t crazy: a single multicam layer with two angles, a couple of layers on top, maybe a couple of titles, 8–15 minutes long (this one is about 14). It’s not just this video, either. I tested seven or eight, including one from three years ago shot on an iPhone 12 Pro Max at a lower bit rate and quality, with the same failure.

What I tried

  • Different export formats, and resolutions from 4K down to 720p and lower, with the same results.
  • Pre-rendering in Final Cut Pro.
  • Optimized media for all the video files (which takes a crap ton of space), and ProRes proxies.
  • Compressor, on a suggestion from X: same failure.
  • Stripping the project to just the baseline story, with no extra audio or layers, in a new project: still failed.
  • A full wipe and restore. It shipped with Ventura and I upgraded to Sonoma, so I reset the whole computer to start over from scratch.

I wondered if the project files were the problem, so I copied them to an external SSD and tried the export on other computers. All of them worked, even a base M2 MacBook Air and this base M1 MacBook Air, both with the same 8 GB of memory. The M1 Air showed much less memory trouble, with fewer red spikes, and completed the projects, even with Adobe Creative Suite and lots of other apps running, while the M3 is a clean install with just Final Cut and Compressor.

Charging

One thing was reliable through all of this: fast charging with the UGREEN Nexode 300 W GaN charger, UGREEN’s first 300 W multi-port GaN charger and the biggest charger I’ve ever seen. It’s a five-port charger that delivers up to 140 W to a single device (it can take a 16-inch MacBook Pro to 56% in 30 minutes using the top USB-C port and Apple’s MagSafe cable) and supports USB Power Delivery 3.1. It uses two GaN Fast 3 chips and has a smart Thermal Guard system against overheating, overcharging and excess current. UGREEN sponsored this video.

Where things stood

Yesterday I was at a complete loss, but couldn’t stop testing. I made a smaller, simpler Final Cut project with fewer clips and a shorter timeline, and got my first export in four days. I couldn’t believe it, so I ran it again, and it failed. Then it passed, failed, passed, passed, failed. All over the place. In Compressor, I made a bunch of exports in different formats and resolutions from the same project: some passed and some failed. Why? I have no idea.

What’s causing it?

  • 8 GB of memory? It works on my 32 GB M2 Max, but also on an 8 GB M2 Air and an 8 GB M1 Air.
  • SSD storage? I moved the project files to an external SSD and exported to an external SSD, with the same issue. Maybe something about swap between RAM and the internal SSD. It’s weird that there are so many red memory spikes on this M3 MacBook Pro, with a faster SSD and processor than the M1 Air.

Some of you will say it’s me, my project files, my internet, or because I’m bald. I might even agree, because this is crazy. But others have had this issue too, including Daniel from Zone of Tech, and Max Tech showed some export failures in their videos. I don’t know how widespread it is, but it’s not just me.

Where I am

Five days later, I don’t know what to do with this computer. If you have suggestions, I’d love to hear them. I haven’t spent much time just using it as a computer because I’ve been testing this so much. The regular benchmarks looked pretty good, but Final Cut Pro just isn’t working well, so as a video editor, I would not recommend this computer if you use Final Cut Pro right now. Until this is resolved, I’m closing this one up and moving to my Space Black M3 Pro MacBook Pro. If you’re just starting out in video editing, the M1 MacBook Air worked pretty well.

In this video

  • 0:00 what is the problem?
  • 1:52 what have I tried?
  • 4:50 what else have I tried?
  • 5:36 what is causing it?

Some links in this post are affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I may receive a small commission. See my ethics statement.

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