Probably my least favorite error in Final Cut Pro 7 (or earlier versions) is a General Error. It has one of the least helpful warning dialogs and is frustratingly difficult to solve. However, I’ve learned that when a General Error occurs it is almost always related to a bad clip, or a bad render file, in your sequence. Maybe not always, but this should be the first place to check.
General Errors most often relate to render problems; either when you are rendering directly during editing, or rendering as part of an export. While there isn’t a fast way to fix this, it can be fixed. Before you attempt to fix a General Error, it doesn’t hurt to reset your system by doing a Safe Boot.
NOTE: Here’s an article that explains how to do a Safe Boot: Trouble-Shoot in Five Steps
THINGS TO CHECK
1. While Final Cut SHOULD be able to work with video of different frame rates, it can often have problems when a clip with a faster frame rate (say, 30 fps) is put into a slower sequence (say, 23.98 fps). Disable clips with different frame rates and see if the General Error goes away when you render.
NOTE: To disable a clip, select it and type Control+B. A clip changes color when it is disabled.
2. It is possible that a specific render file became corrupted. This isn’t your fault, every so often it just happens. Delete all render files and see if the error goes away.
NOTE: To delete all render files associated with a track, turn off the green visibility light, located in the track header on the left of the Timeline, then turn it back on. This is just a quick click – click. If you don’t turn the visibility light back on, all clips in that track become invisible.
3. Sometimes clips downloaded from stock image houses are corrupted during the transfer. Disable any stock shots (select the clip and type Control+B) and re-render.
4. If these first three suggestions don’t work, you will need to get a bit more methodical by rendering your project in sections until you finally isolate the clip(s) that is causing a problem. To render just a portion of your sequence, select roughly 10% of your clips and render. If that works, SAVE YOUR PROJECT, then render the next 10%. (Saving your project allows you keep the render files that you’ve created so far, in the event of a crash.)
NOTE: The easiest way to render a portion of a project is to select the clips you want to render and choose Sequence > Render Selection. Make sure all the render options are checked, as they are in this screen shot.
Repeat this process until you find the section that causes the error. Now, render each clip in that section until you find the offending clip. In almost all cases, you’ll need to remove the clip causing problems and replace it with a new version.
SUMMARY
Solving a General Error problem is possible; it’s just time-consuming. This gives you some tips on where to start.
72 Responses to FCP 7: Fixing a General Error
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Rick says:
April 3, 2013 at 6:12 pm
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Naomi says:
May 27, 2015 at 6:24 pm
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coupons says:
April 9, 2013 at 5:52 pm
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Rocco says:
May 8, 2013 at 1:10 pm
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Larry Jordan says:
May 8, 2013 at 1:23 pm
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Rocco says:
May 9, 2013 at 7:06 am
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alexandra says:
May 22, 2013 at 3:23 pm
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Hector says:
June 4, 2013 at 10:50 am
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Larry Jordan says:
June 4, 2013 at 11:01 am
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Doug says:
July 17, 2013 at 6:40 am
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Jeff Chamlee says:
September 3, 2013 at 8:08 am
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Rory says:
November 18, 2013 at 9:25 am
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Larry Jordan says:
November 18, 2013 at 9:39 am
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Rory says:
November 18, 2013 at 4:54 pm
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Larry says:
November 18, 2013 at 5:21 pm
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Rory says:
November 18, 2013 at 8:51 pm
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Deb says:
March 28, 2014 at 8:46 am
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Robert Gilbert says:
April 28, 2014 at 5:55 pm
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Larry Jordan says:
April 28, 2014 at 6:03 pm
← Older Comments Newer Comments →Hi Larry. Your articles are great…thank you.
Here is my issue:
First of all, I am using Final Cut Express 4.0.1. I get the General Error message when I Export Using Quicktime Conversions. I like the quality and file size I can get by exporting this way and create an MP4 file. I do NOT get the General Error message when rendering…only when creating the MP4.
Ok, here are the specifics:
I am a soccer coach and I record youth soccer games for my parents. The videos range from 1 hour to 1.5 hours depending on age.
The settings I’m using are…
Format: MPEG-4
Click on “Options”
File Format: MP4
Under the Video Tab…
Video Format: H.264
Data Rate: 9000 kbits/sec
Optimized For: CD/DVD-ROM
Image Size: 1920 x 1080 HD
Frame Rate: Current
Key Frame: Automatic
Click on “Video Options”
Restrict Profiles to: Main
Encoding Mode: Best Quality (Multi-Pass)
Under the Audio Tab (I choose these settings because I’m not concerned with great audio quality and I’m willing to sacrifice quality to lower the final file size)…
Audio Format: AAC-LC (Music)
Data Rate: 96 KBPS
Channels: Stereo
Output Sample Rate: 22.050 kHz
Encoding Quality: Good
Under the Streaming Tab…
Uncheck Enable Streaming
These settings produce nice looking video quality and the files are about 4 – 4.5 gigs (small enough to save on a DVD disc). It takes about 6 – 10 hours to create the MP4 file.
Just recently, I have been getting this “General Error” message just before it completes saving, and no file produced. So a lot of time wasted before even knowing it failed. Like I said before, this I’ve already rendered all video and audio (I get the blue line above the timeline). So I assume rendering is not the problem…it’s during saving the MP4. I’ve sectioned smaller pieces of the video and all sections can be saved as MP4. I can create an MP4 of the 1st half, and an MP4 of the 2nd half. But when I create an MP4 of the entire game, General Error happens.
My Macbook Pro has 4 gig of RAM, and more than 600 gig of available hard drive space. For my scratch disc, my external hard drive has more than 400 gig available. I’m totally stuck and I don’t know what to do. What do you think and do you have any suggestions?
Hi! Did you ever figure out how to fix this? I’m having the same issue and it’s driving me nuts.
This is the perfect blog for anybody who really wants to find out about this topic.
You realize a whole lot its almost tough to argue with
you (not that I really will need to…HaHa). You certainly
put a brand new spin on a subject that has been written about
for ages. Great stuff, just wonderful!
I’ve been having trouble with a project that I WAS able to export but now can’t. An error pops up at a given percentage of the export that says:
“The operation could not be completed because an error occurred when creating frame 19563. Error-1”
I’ve tried numerous things to fix this including deleting and re-making an entire project, re-importing the videos I’m using, counting the 23 frames per second to find the exact frame and try to extract or trim out the error, and re-rendering the entire project. Could you have any idea why this is happening only to this particular project now when it had exported before without any problems while others have had no problems exporting at all, and what can I do to fix it?
Thanks
Rocco:
I’m seeing this question from a LOT of people. Here’s an article I’ve written that provides some help:
http://www.larryjordan.biz/fcp-x-export-problems/
Larry
Thank you for your help. The timeline at the bottom only showed 23 frames per second but going into the clip properties I found it was 23.98. After dividing the frame error number by the new frame rate and then dividing by 60 I was able to isolate and cut out the bad frames.
Hi Larry Jordan,
I’m working on final cut pro 7 and recently an audiovisual work sony fs 100, I experienced problems with this material, the clip was replaced in name but not in image both as source folders Timeline . Why is this happening? I have worked on Sony EX DCAM and this happened not
Hi, larry Thank you such much for you help I dissable all clips and work the render ,But when I export the project is black the parts I disable so how I enable the clip again to Export movie ?
Thank you
Hector
Hector:
You disable/enable a TRACK by clicking the green visibility light on the left side of the track.
You disable/enable a CLIP by selecting it and typing Control+B.
Larry
I have a Final Cut Pro GENERAL ERROR. this is a new project. there are no buns, clips, nothing in the time line. I cannot SAVE. could use some help thank you in advance.
Anybody know if having the Render files in the default folders on the startup could be a cause for either General Error or Out of Memory messages? I’m considering moving the render folder to another drive to see if it makes a difference.
Any thoughts on this?
jeff
Following advice (from here and elsewhere) last night I nuked all my render files via finder (as I was up to Project 147, and due to my incompetence, render files were in 3 different locations.)
I then selected all my sequences and OPT+R rendered them all overnight.
All was fine – I had 120GB of render files in one location, and could empty my trash with the 170GB of old render files.
However, we have auto render every 45 mins, and so far it’s rendered 3 times – we see the “WRITING VIDEO” box come up (saying it will take 6 mins or so) and each time it has added 5 GB.
So our render folder is now up to 135GB.
1) What is going on? If everything is rendered and we haven’t done anything to the project, why is it writing more render files when it said everything is rendered?
2) Is this normal?
3) Is there anything I should check? (I just looked and the new files from the latest render are for a sequence which seemed to have written all its render files 6 hrs ago – it seemed to render the sequences in alphabetical order.)
4) When I finished the overnight render, I saved a new version of the project – 148 – and all the new render files are in this sub-folder. 15 GB of them.
5) So is it changing the project version (name)? BUT IF ALL IS RENDERED, WHY IS IT WRITING NEW RENDER FILES?
Sorry to be an idiot. Please help.
Many thanks.
Rory
Rory:
Render files are calculated (“render” means to “calculate”) whenever you create or modify a transition, create or modify an effect, or trim a clip that has a transition or effect applied to it. In other words, rendering is going on all during your edit.
All the Auto Render function is doing is turning rendering on at the time you specify – on my system, I have this set to every 15 minutes, so that rendering is more current and takes less time. So, here are your answers:
1. Files change during your edit, so new files need to be rendered. If nothing changed, nothing needs to be rendered.
2. Yes.
3. No.
4. Render files are stored by project, not media. So, every time you create a new project ALL YOUR OLD RENDER FILES ARE USED, and any new render files are named and associated with the new project.
Larry
Thanks for that.
Is there anyway to delete render files that are no longer needed.
Our film has subtitles – these are what 99% of the render files are. (There are prob. just 5 crossfades and 5-10 colour corrections.) But we’re continually moving the clips and the subtitles boxes around.
So imagine we have “One sentence” in a text box – we’d have tried (say) 5 different clips under that before settling on the final (for now) choice. This means FCP would have created 5 render files. But the first 4 would no longer be required.
(As I said, I nuked 170GB of render files last night and re-rendered over-night. I now have 135GB of render files.)
But as we keep editing the project, we’ll be moving clips and subs around, so will keep generating render files.
So is there any way of telling FCP to nuke all render files no currently needed for any of the sequences?
Thanks again, mate.
Rory.
Yup.
In FCP 7 go to Tools > Render Manager to delete render files by project and sequence. Here’s an article that explains more: http://www.larryjordan.biz/managing-render-files/
Larry
Cheers, mate.
Will check tomorrow (it’s 4am here.)
I have this really stupid way of solving this problem..
I had this error today and was looking for solutions here…
But then I found one … here it goes.
Copy your entire bin with all nests, bins and edit sequences.
Open a new project, paste the entire bin
Open your edit timelines and save the project.
You should be sorted. Basically a fast way of doing it.
But from what I’ve comprehended, this would only work if the error occurs due to the corrupted render file issue.
Not sure though !
Hi Larry, thanks for posting this! I’m not sure if you have any advice on this one but I’m getting a ‘General Error’ that won’t allow my fcp7 project to fully open…I click on the previously saved project to open it and as it gets to ‘Preparing video for display’ the ‘general error’ pops up and the projects timeline will not open up. I have a big project on there, they are mp4 files from a digital camera. I have no idea how to get this back. Let me know if you have any ideas or have dealt with this before. Thanks!
Robert:
Here is a compilation of all my FCP 7 trouble-shooting tips. See if this helps:
http://www.larryjordan.biz/trouble-shooting-your-fcp-system/
Larry