Exporting an 8K 360 video file that took 43 minutes on an M2 MacBook Air took about 31 minutes on an M4 Mac mini. That is “about 30%” faster, at least for the type of media I am working with.
In case you wondered.
Updates:
UPDATE: After some testing, I can now make the export fail simply by exporting a 12001×12001 image (PNG, HEIF, TIFF) from Apple Preview and trying to use that in a simple 1080 FCP project. On the M2, it exports just fine. On M4, the export fails with no error, and a leftover temp file. Someone on Facebook tested this for me, and could replicate it on their M4, but found that using an image exported from a different tool worked. It may be an Apple Preview bug (creating a bad image) and some M4 difference in image handling that cause this issue. (Fails: Preview, Graphics Converter, Gimp. Works: Affinity Photo)
UPDATE 2: Thanks to more testing by others (see this Apple forum thread) we now know you can make 30000×30000 and it works just fine on the M4, so it is not related to size. And, you can make 12016×12016 and it works just fine, so it is more of a math thing. A posted in that thread also found a smaller image size that can create the problem. To me, it now looks like it is back to an FCP but rather than an underlying image processing bug since other tools (command line utilities, even Safari which should use the same rendering engine) and process the “bad” images just fine on the M4. Onward!
UPDATE 3: More from Apple’s forum — 8048×8065, 8048×8079, 8192×8193, and 8000×8321 are more examples that cause failures, and apparently only when there is an alpha channel (transparency). My logo is round, and used alpha transparency. Nice progress, joema!
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.
I have a 2TB Sandisk Exterme USB-C drive:
Though, when I bought it, it was significantly cheaper than today’s price.
For “some time now” (many months) I have been seeing this popup on my computer:
Until recently, I had assumed Apple changed something and when I “eject” and the icon disappears from the desktop it really was not ejected yet. Perhaps some background cleanup was being done that didn’t use to happen. I would then eject using Disk Utility instead, and wait for the item to become grey, indicating fully un-mounted.
However, now that I am watching for this, I will see multiple alerts like this piled up in my Notification Center in the morning. This one, for example, was after I cleared all my notifications yesterday. I have not touched the drive or intentionally ejected it. Meanwhile, the four other drives plugged up are behaving fine.
And this drive is plugged directly into my computer versus the others going into a Caldigit TS3 thunderbolt dock. I would have expected more issues from going though a dock than connecting directly.
I am posting this to get it into the search engines. Anyone else ran into this?
Updates:
I am posting this to get this into the search engines. I am hoping to hear from others that have had this same issue, and might have a solution.
I recorded 360 video (7680×3840) using Insta360 X5 and a DJI Osmo 360 cameras. I export the 360 video out to a flat video file using Insta360 Studio or DJI Studio desktop apps. I then bring this in to Final Cut Pro for editing. I have been doing this for years with no problems.
A few months ago, I went to make a new video. I found my project, that worked fine last year, now crashes Final Cut Pro. Sometimes it crashes on opening the project, sometimes when clicking around, sometimes it works for 15 minutes then crashes when I click on a view icon, etc. Very random.
I tried making brand new empty projects and recreating my template manually. Still crashes.
I eventually reset my macOS and then restored from a Time Machine backup. Even this “clean” reinstall still crashed.
I spent an hour or so on with Apple Support and we never figured out what was causing it, but we could even make it crash using only template items built in to Final Cut Pro — none of my graphics, video, or audio files.
The next test was to install a fresh copy of macOS with nothing else on it. I logged in to my Apple Store account and downloaded Final Cut Pro — the only app on this install of macOS.
And I can still get that to crash.
It looks like some bug with 360 video and the current Final Cut Pro, or some issue with the current macOS version.
Anyone encountered this?
In 2005, I bought this M-Audio iControl USB interface from the local Apple Store. It was a real-world mirror of the on-screen controls in Apple’s GarageBand recording software. It was super cool and useful.
For the past decade, it has been collecting dust in a storage bin. I decided to get rid of it, and found two of the knobs had been broken due to my improper storage. I ended up designing some 3-D printed replacements. They are functional, but not necessarily pretty.
Now that I have them designed, I have put the item up for sale. I generally take excellent care of my gear, so I still had the original box, manual, packing materials, and even the original receipt and the “backpack” style Apple Store bag ;-) Pity I didn’t take more care I storing the actual unit during a few moves…
I post this here in case anyone ever does a web search because they broke some of their buttons. (Honestly, I should have designed one for the row of track volume knobs on the right as well, just in case, but I really just wanted to make it functional enough to sale.)
You can find the designs on my Tinkercad.com page.
There ya go, search engines. Have fun.
My old appleause.com blog has been shut down, and the articles form there merged into this blog. I originally started that site back in 2007 with the intent of blogging about Apple stuff, mostly my research. Those articles are obsolete now. Firewire to SATA interface research? How quaint.
The one surprising thing was that I posted about resurrecting my Furby many years ago, even to the day I still get a few comments on that article each year. Crazy.
And if you wondered, I always pronounced appleause.com (like Apple + Applause) as Apple-Oz…
And if anyone wants a cool domain name for an Apple blog and wants to obtain that domain, let me know. I had big plans for it, and still do, but likely won’t have the time to work on it any time soon.
The latest iOS changed the camera controls and exposed some settings at the top level, making them quicker to try out.
Here is a photo in the 12MP HEIC mode:
And here is 48MP HEIC mode:
And here is 48MP RAW mode:
These images are cropped from a photo taken this far back:
I may have just connived myself to start shooting RAW.
I have been using a Synology DS1522 NAS to try to backup a Mac over a VPN. Sometimes it connects and works fine, and other times it gets stuck as “Connecting to backup disk…” Does anyone know a solution?
One thing I learned, thanks to asking BING AI’s chat, is that SMB is preferred rather than AFP:
Types of disks you can use with Time Machine on Mac – Apple Support
Tip: If given the choice between SMB and AFP, use SMB to back up to your external backup disk.
– Types of disks you can use with Time Machine on Mac – Apple Support
I went in to the Synology NAS control panel and disabled AFP and enabled SMB as well as Bonjour over SMB. We shall see if this helps…
Please leave a comment if you found this post while looking for a solution. I may have figured it out by the time you read this, and just forgot to update this post.
Sometimes Apple stuff is just “magic.” But when the magic fails, it can send you endlessly searching for a solution online. I am placing this post here so search engines can be find it in case someone else is having this same issue.
Normally, I can take a photo on my iPhone and see it show up moments later on my Mac or iPad. Lately, however, photos taken from my iPhone seem to get stuck uploading to my iCloud Photos library. I had a few photos that didn’t sync after several days (hooked to power overnight and on WiFi). Sometimes, switching to cellular causes these photos to upload immediately.
I read some tips that suggested turning off iCloud Photos and turning it back on (with a phone reboot in between). I did that, end then had 5818 photos waiting to upload. Not great.
After none of the tips I read (from dozens and dozens of forums, blog posts and “fix it” site articles) worked, I decided to try the “erase everything and restore from a backup” approach.
I did that, and after an hour of restoring and getting Apple Pay and Touch ID and such set back up, I find that I now have 14,803 photos waiting to upload.
Does anyone have any clue what causes this, and how to fix it? My phone has been plugged up an on WiFi for half an hour and not a single change in the upload count.
Thoughts?
I am having to raise some funds, so I am selling off a 2011 Mac mini. It has been upgraded to 16GB (the max it can handle). Beyond some scratches on the bottom from where it sits, it is in excellent shape. It comes with the original box, even.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/332090650503
Thanks…