Final Cut Pro 7: File Error:The specified fileis open and in use by this or another a

[Jittor]

Hi Everyone,

I have searched and searched but all I can find related to this issue is rendering but I'm having this problem when I export and not rendering. The error I'm getting is:

File Error:The specified file is open and in use by this or another application

I have tried changing scratch disk locations, setting spotlight to not look into render folders, cleared preferences, deleted renders - closed everything - restarted and re-rendered and it still hits me with this error.

What I do know is, it only happens when I am exporting timelines that are fairly long - about 30 to 45 minutes. I can export using QuickTime Movie no problem, but I'm usually exporting for Vimeo or YouTube or for our video servers so I'm usually exporting "using QuickTime Conversion" The export takes about an hour maybe two at the most and I usually get the error when there is about 15 or 20 minutes left or when it's about 75% done.

I'm on Final Cut Pro 7

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Jon

 

[Jittor]

No one else has had this issue? Am I alone in this

 

[LethalWolfe]

Does this happen in all your FCP projects or just one?

It might be a bad piece of source media in your timeline. Since the error only pops up towards the end I would export out the send half of your project and see if you get the error. If you do, then export only half of the second half of your project. Keep bisecting & exporting and eventually you'll find the problem media (assuming that's the cause of course).

 

[Jittor]

Thanks LethalWolfe - that's a great idea, I'll give that a shot.

Unfortunately, it happens on other projects. On ones that are long, but then not on others that are just as long. It could very well be a media issue.

 

[puckhead193]

have you tried exporting via quicktime and then taking that exported file and bringing it back into FCP and try export conversion/youtube etc.

 

[Jittor]

Update:

I tried exporting the timeline in a couple different ways. First I did half and half - set my in point at the beginning of the timeline and my out point in the middle. First half exported with no problem, second half failed with the same error.

Next I tried exporting the timeline is little bit. I was able to export everything in 6 segment with no issues at all.

So then I tried exporting the whole thing again - Failed
Then I tried exporting everything but the last bit of the timeline - Failed
From here I stared moving my out point closer and closer to the beginning of the time line. So far everything has failed but - going to keep trying this.

@puckhead193 - at one point I did try this. I exported using Quicktime and then brought it back in and tried exporting it via the recommend setting that Vimeo gives and it also failed.

I'm beginning to think all this is a length issue but how do you resolve that? The export gets to about 2 minuted lets in a 45 to 50 minute project and then fails with the "File Error:The specified file is open and in use by this or another application" message.

At a total loss here.

 

[lighthouse_man]

How much space do you have left on the scratch disk (and what format is it?) and how big is the eventual exported video? Also do you export self contained?

 

[Jittor]

I have about 651GB on my scratch disks and the file should only be around 4GB max. Exporting to .mov via QuickTime Conversion and if I recall "self contained is only an option when exporting via QuickTime Movie which I have no issues when I export that way - but that doesn't allow me to change the compression settings.

 

[bigjohnwoo]

I have about 651GB on my scratch disks and the file should only be around 4GB max. Exporting to .mov via QuickTime Conversion and if I recall "self contained is only an option when exporting via QuickTime Movie which I have no issues when I export that way - but that doesn't allow me to change the compression settings.

Are you exporting to a networked drive? There's an issue with writing large quicktime files to drives on a network. Files will stop abruptly with a variety of error messages at specifically the 2.15GB mark.

When I have to create a qt file exceeding 2.15GB, whether it be via FCP/AE/motion/etc, I write it to a local drive and then copy the file over to the network destination in the Finder.

 

[rei101]

It sounds that the drive you are using is FAT 32 or PC format, it only takes up to 4GB files. That is a wild guess.

The other solution could be to open a new project and copy paste the files, sometimes projects have bugs and that is a way to fix it.

But it sounds like the hard drive format.

 

[Chad3eleven]

Dont use FCP to create a compressed file.

Export the timeline at full res, then bring that large file into Mpeg Streamclip and compress from there. You mentioned you can export it using 'export quicktime' which is full res.. I never waste my time using the exporter in FCP unless its quick.. I've found better results with stream clip or adobes media encoder.

FCP is only 32bit and is much slower at crunching out compressions (mp4, h264, etc)

 

[pinholestars]

Dont use FCP to create a compressed file.

Export the timeline at full res, then bring that large file into Mpeg Streamclip and compress from there.

I agree with this. Also, The first thing that came to my mind was the FAT32 thing mentioned earlier.

Also, have you tried clearing out the rendered files? Rebooting the machine?

 

[D.Dave]

I'm having the same problem with FCP7. I've successfully exported QuickTime Movies, self-contained of just under 2 hours in length (~650GB), written to an external drive. Recently I increased the size of the same sequence making it 2 hours and 5 minutes. Now I get the subject error in this thread. So it isn't just a QuickTime Conversion problem.

The most recent failure occurred writing to a 4TB drive formatted Mac OS Journaled and virtually empty.
I'm running a Mac Pro 5,1, 16G, El Capitan.

Any ideas out there?

Update. I moved the 4TB drive into one of the Mac Pro bays. Now it works. Seems like an internal vs external drive problem, maybe. This is based upon only one try.