FCP: "out of memory" what?!
 

I have 20 or so sequences in my Final Cut 6 project. They are each just 20 second of text over a slug. Very simple. But now whenever I open a sequence the CANVAS window goes completely RED and says:

Out of Memory.
Free up memory and window will redraw.

Free up what memory? I'm not sure what that is referring to but I think I have plenty.
I actually just ignore it and if I move the cursor sometimes it just goes away and I can export fine. But obviously it is too annoying.

I am having a similar problem at home on FCP 5 where I try to render something and I get an error that I'm out of disk space and I need to free some up. And there is gigs and gigs of space, it doesn't make sense.

I think it actually refers to RAM not hard drive space. Too many sequences open can cause this. Try closing down some tabs you're not using.

Noah

How much RAM do you actually have? Less than 1GB maybe? Do you have a bunch of other apps running in the background?

I've gotten similar messages with FCP 6. Usually when I try exporting via Cineform and a few times via ProRes. BTW, I have 18gb ram on my machine. As far as the Cineform, I was told by Cineform that it could be a memory leak on their part (I have yet to export the entire film successfully; I've had to break the film down into sections).

If (and I mean If) FCS 3 is ever released (Apple seems to be working harder on it's iphone division and has somewhat neglected the Pro division; of course profits will always dictate their priorities- a whole different discussion, and don't get me wrong, I love Apple) perhaps we'll get a more stable system.

My FCP crashes about 3 times daily (mostly due to the Matrox MXO).

Good luck.

Todd

If you're getting an Out of Disk Space error as well, check your render target and make sure your renders are going where you THINK they are and not to your system drive or another drive that now may ACTUALLY be full instead of your media/render drive.

This may not be the same thing I am thinking of, but we used to encounter a similar problem at my old job. We found a work around:

-Close the sequence
-Go to its' sequence settings and change the compressor to anything but what it is.
-Press OK and save
-Go back to sequence settings and change it back to your original compressor
-Press OK and open the sequence again

This used to work for us, but I have no idea why. Give it a try maybe and let me know what happens?

Could be a bad file type in the Sequence...
 

...for the "Out of Memory" notification

I've had just one odd file that FCP didn't like and once I replaced it everything worked fine. Might've been a particular LiveType project file or Motion project that I was using directly in a sequence, which I instead rendered as a movie and replaced in the timeline. I forget.

If you're nesting the 20 sequences in one big sequence that could be a problem or solution. As mentioned, do have as much RAM and HD space as you can afford. But sometimes it could be just one jpg or graphic or video file that's messing everything up. Something as simple as mis-matched size (resolution), PAR or using a 300 dpi jpg could gum up the works.

Yes, Yes, Yes! I just discovered the 'bad' file was a photoshop file that was apparently too large. Once I brought that file down I seem to be having a successful export.

Take a look to see what could be the culprit. It worked for me.

Todd

Yes...in regards to my post above (and what others have said), the culprit is a bad graphics file usually. For me it was always the same .tiff. So if it is possible to convert your "bad" file, then try that. Otherwise the steps I outlined above should work as well.

CMYK images in the timeline will often cause this. Convert to RGB and all is well.