Stop the FCP Madness: 5 Annoying Things and Their Easy Fixes

Over the years there have been times I've wanted to shake my computer out of pure frustration with Final Cut Pro. You too, I assume. And if not, after reading some of these you'll want to shake it out of frustration for not knowing them sooner. Five annoying things, five easy fixes.

1. Teleport back to your playhead

I learned this from my friend and fellow FCP YouTuber Brad West, and I'm a little embarrassed I didn't know it. You scroll off to some earlier part of your timeline to copy a sound effect or title, then make the long journey back to your playhead. For years I thought that was just how it goes. Nope: put your cursor above the timeline (not on it), press the right arrow key, and Final Cut instantly snaps the view back to your playhead. Copy, teleport, paste.

2. The "transition needs more footage" pop-up

That pop-up means the transition has no spare footage to work with; the red clip edge says you're at the very start of the media. Trimming would work, but you WANT the beginning of that clip. My solution from years ago: press Option Command Up Arrow to lift the clip out of the primary storyline (or control-click and hit Lift From Storyline; most shortcuts have a button somewhere). That leaves a gap clip of the exact length, which comes in handy. Go to the clip's start, press Shift H for a hold frame, extend it a bit so the transition has footage to chew on, line the clip's end up with the gap clip's end, trim the front (Option Left Bracket), and press Option Command Down Arrow to blast it back in. Transition applies happily, and with most transitions you can't tell it's working on paused footage.

3. Compound clips without the claustrophobia

Messy stack? Select everything and press Option G: one tidy compound clip, a little house for your media, and now one effect can hit all the layers. The frustrations people have with them all have two-second fixes: see the contents again by double-clicking; get back to your main timeline with the back button; can't extend it or add a transition, so enter the compound, extend the media inside, hop out, done. And if you regret the compound entirely, you're not stuck: Clip, Break Apart Clip Items (Shift Command G) unpacks everything.

4. Why your libraries are so dang large

Press Command Comma, go to Playback, and if background rendering is on, turn it off. It has FCP constantly rendering your timeline, piling up giant render files and slowing your machine. Need smoother playback? First check View is set to Better Performance, then select just the rough section and press Control R to render only that, or transcode your media.

When a project's done: click the library, go to File, Delete Generated Library Files, select everything. You're not losing anything permanent; you can re-transcode or re-render any time. The difference in library size is glorious.

5. Connected media with a mind of its own

You extend a clip's start and the sound effect that was lined up with your transition moves too. The little bar shows what the effect is attached to. Fix one: select the sound effect, hold Option Command, and click where the connection bar should attach instead.

Fix two, simpler and more versatile: the grave key (the tilde key, and if you didn't know about it, it's about time). Hold it while dragging the clip edge and connected media stays put. Hold it during a slip edit (T, then drag) and attached media doesn't move. Hold it while lifting a clip from the storyline and connections stay behind. Hold it while pressing delete and the clip dies but its attached media survives, still in place.

Five fewer reasons to shake your computer. Have a great rest of your day!