While the recent Final Cut Pro 12.3 update seems to have fixed my recent crash problem when editing 360 video projects, I now find a new problem: I cannot export my projects on an M4 Mac mini, while they export just fine on an M2 MacBook Air.

I recently took on the task of taking a bunch of Macs from an office that is closing and getting them factory reset and ready to sell. Most of them were quite old – the oldest being a 2010 Mac mini (!) with 2 GB of RAM that was still being used as a daily desktop! I find it amazing how a 16 year old Mac can still be useful in a business environment.

Then I got to what must be their newest machine – a tiny Mac mini in a form factor I had never seen. (I have not followed Apple closely for many, many years.) This was the 2024 Mac mini with an M4 processor. It also had a 1TB SSD and 24GB of RAM.

I wondered… “how much faster would this be at exporting my Final Cut Video projects?”

I factory reset this M4 back to a generic install of the current macOS. I completed setup, making a new local account, and then logged in to my Apple Store account so I could download Final Cut Pro.

Nothing else is on the system. This is as basic and pristine as it gets.

For years I have done all my FCP editing on an external USB-C Sandisk drive. I connected that drive to this M4 and opened my most recent project. I clicked export and then it started … then stopped a second later. No error. No dialog box. Nothing. It just stopped. It left a weird named temporary mp4 file on the output location.

Odd. This project works fine on the M2.

I then went through the typical steps, copying the file to the local hard drive (NOT in an iCloud folder) and had the same issue. It will start to export, then just stop a few seconds later.

Lather, rinse, repeat. File Access, Full Disk Access, etc., etc. where checked. And, like the bug in the previous FCP, normal non-360 projects opened and exported just fine. Yet, all the projects I spot checked that work fine on my M2 where not exporting on this M4.

I have an open case with Apple Support about this, and the best we figured out during a remote diagnosing session was that a PNG file I have — which I have used for years — seems to cause the problem. Remove it and it exports. Add it back and it does not. Yet, that same PNG exports in a non-360 just fine. And, it works fine not he M2.

Very weird bug. Anyway, I am just posting this here to get it in the search engines. When I learn more, I will update this with a solution in case anyone else runs into this.