Help & Documentation

Here you'll find guides, tips, and answers about FCP Cleaner.

Common Issues

Message: "Final Cut Pro is running"

FCP Cleaner refuses to delete files if Final Cut Pro is open.

Why does this happen?

Deleting generated files while a library is open can cause conflicts with Final Cut Pro.

For that reason, FCP Cleaner checks whether Final Cut Pro is running before starting the deletion process.

Solution

  1. Save your work in Final Cut Pro.
  2. Quit Final Cut Pro completely (⌘ + Q).
  3. Try the cleanup again.

Drives do not appear

macOS may block access to external drives or mounted volumes.

Solution

Check the permissions under:

System Settings → Privacy & Security

Make sure FCP Cleaner is allowed to access:

  • files and folders,
  • external volumes.

Scan finds no libraries

Check the following:

  • The libraries must use the .fcpbundle extension.
  • The selected folder must actually contain Final Cut Pro libraries.
  • External drives must be mounted before starting the scan.

Important

Folders named:

  • Final Cut Backups

are intentionally ignored because they are not regular Final Cut Pro libraries for this cleanup workflow.

Disk space is not shown as free immediately

macOS may sometimes update available disk space with a short delay.

This can happen especially with:

  • APFS volumes,
  • external SSDs,
  • large generated media folders.

FCP Cleaner also attempts to make freed space available after deletion, but macOS may still need a moment to update the displayed value.

The scan takes longer than expected

Large drives or large Final Cut Pro archives can take longer to scan.

This is more likely with:

  • RAID systems,
  • network storage,
  • slow hard drives,
  • drives with many nested folders.

Expert Mode searches selected drives recursively, so scanning very large volumes may take more time than scanning one specific project folder.