Screenflow is beyond laggy on larger files on Mac Studio
Hi,
I'm having problems editing whenever I have a longer video file. In this case it's about 90 minutes, one video fie and 3 audio files. The video was recorded in ScreenFlow and I'm recording my screen while demonstrating how to work within various audio programs. It doesn't seem to matter which program I'm recording, it only seems to impact my longer videos. When I click on the timeline to move somewhere else, or even change the zoom level, I get the spinning beach ball that can take a long time to resolve. This makes it extremely frustrating to edit. Is there anything on my end I can do avoid this?
Tech specs:
Mac Studio
M1 Max
64GB Memory
OS 12.5 Monterey
Screen:
LG Ultrafine 5K - 27"
ScreenFlow v 10.0.6, not purchased from app store
Scratch Drive:
External Samsung T7 w/500GB free space
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Jesse McCune said:
Scratch Drive: External Samsung T7 w/500GB free spaceThe T7 I have one myself) is significantly slower than the system drive. That might be part of the issue. You might consider using only the system drive for scratch and editing and then storing on the T7 after you're done. There are external SSD Thunderbolt drives (T7 is USB-C) that are nearly as fast as the system SSD but they are considerably more expensive. I can't say for certain that's the issue but I would save the document on the system SSD, quite ScreenFlow and then unmount the T7 and reopen ScreenFlow with the document on the system SSD and test.
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Thank you for the response. I tried this and it didn't make any difference. Everything is still as sluggish. Even trying to make a cut gives me the beach ball for a couple seconds right now.
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Jesse McCune Can you do a screen recording showing the behavior and post it here?
Seeing the document specs and timeline behavior may better demonstrate the issue and help us investigate the cause.
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Here's a recording of me trying to make a couple cuts and zoom in and out.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16yD5EL6nuFipCnCght5KR7BGxc7bekBn/view?usp=sharing
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Jesse McCune Hmm, since I'm not seeing much interaction it's hard for me to determine when it's laggy. I don't see you clicking on much of anything. For example, at 1:41 I see the timeline move but don't ever see when you initiated that movement.
I can only guess, that if you're experiencing an issue it might be related to either the WAV or AIF files.
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There's no interaction because every time I try to interact I get the beach ball and then have to wait until it stops spinning. That two minutes is literally me trying to make a cut and then zoom in or out. The rest is me waiting to be able to make my next move. It's the zooming in and out that seems to start this sluggishness. Things can be working pretty smoothly until I adjust the Zoom, then I have to either have to leave it for an hour or restart the computer.
Could you elaborate on how the WAV or AIF files could be causing problems?
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Jesse McCune said:
There's no interaction because every time I try to interact I get the beach ball and then have to wait until it stops spinning.You may want to use the Mouse Pointer Click or Attention effect so the technician can see that you've clicked on something and there's a lag in the response.
Jesse McCune said:
It's the zooming in and out that seems to start this sluggishness.Jesse McCune said:
Could you elaborate on how the WAV or AIF files could be causing problems?And zooming might be forcing the waveform cache to redraw an extremely large file.
Try disabling the waveform. You may need to clear the cache if that doesn't work. I'll show you how to do that if disabling the waveform (quit and reopen ScreenFlow and the document after you do that) doesn't fix the issue.-
CraigS Thank you for all your help. In the future I will make sure to use an effect next time.
I suspect you are correct about the issue being related to redrawing the waveforms. Often times as I'm editing, I have to wait for it to update the wave display after an edit. I am surprised this is an issue because every DAW and NLE that I've used is able to redraw these with no problems or freezing up the program. Technically, I think they don't redraw the waveform each time a change is made.
I am unable to disable the waveforms because I am an audio editor producing a course on audio editing, so I need to see the waveforms. It's already extremely frustrating to edit the audio in ScreenFlow, but would be next to impossible without the display. Hopefully this is something that can be addressed in a future update.
Could you show me how to clear the cache because there are times where the waveform displayed no longer matches what I'm hearing.
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Jesse McCune said:
Could you show me how to clear the cache because there are times where the waveform displayed no longer matches what I'm hearing.Deleting Cache: (Telestream Version)
1) Make sure ScreenFlow is not open. (save any work in progress)
2) Open a new Finder window.
3) Select the "GO" menu top of screen, Hold "Option" key with menu open, and select the "Library" that appears.
4) In the Library folder open Caches folder.
5) Delete ALL files/folders that start with net.telestream.screenflow (4/5/6/7/8/9/10) if you only have one of these just delete what is there.
Keep in mind many may use AAC audio files and may not be having the issues you're having with WAV and AIF.