Manage render files in Final Cut Pro

Rendering is the process of creating temporary video and audio render files for segments of your project that Final Cut Pro cannot play in real time. When you add effects, transitions, generators, titles, and other items, they require rendering before you can play them back at high quality.

In the timeline, a light gray dotted line appears above clips that need rendering.

A light gray dotted render indicator appearing above a clip in the timeline

By default, background rendering begins 5 seconds after you stop working and moving the pointer in Final Cut Pro, and it continues while you work in a different app. You can turn off background rendering or adjust this setting in the Playback pane of Final Cut Pro preferences. You can also manually start rendering for a project or a portion of a project.

Render files are stored in your Final Cut Pro library or in an external location you define. See Set storage locations in Final Cut Pro.

Over time, render files can accumulate and take up storage space. If you want to free up storage space, you can either delete unused render files in selected events or delete all render files for selected projects or events. You can also delete all render files for a given library. Original media files are not deleted, so you can always regenerate render files from the original media.

Note: The Delete Generated Files commands delete render, optimized, and proxy files only. See Create optimized and proxy files in Final Cut Pro.

In Final Cut Pro, do one of the following:

Render a portion of your project: In the timeline, select the clip or clips that you want to render, then choose Modify > Render Selection (or press Control-R).
Note: The selection must be a clip selection, not a range selection. See Select one or more clips and Select a range.
Render all portions of your project that need rendering: Choose Modify > Render All (or press Control-Shift-R).

Final Cut Pro renders the portions of the project that you defined and removes the corresponding dotted render indicator. You can view the progress of rendering in the Background Tasks window.

Helpful?

Manage render files in Final Cut Pro

Render all or part of a project

Delete project render files

Delete event render files

Delete render files from a library