How to Reduce Memory Usage

Documentation Documentation - English
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Here are ways to reduce the memory usage in general:

  • Save and restart Shotcut
  • Close other browser tabs.
  • Close other applications.
  • Reboot (does all of the above).

Here are ways to reduce the memory usage of your project:

  • Reduce the resolution of the Video Mode.
  • Reduce the number of tracks. The number of tracks will increase the amount of caching to prevent files from being closed and reopened repeatedly from one frame to the next.

Here are some ways to reduce the memory usage while editing:

  • Make sure Settings > Realtime is turned ON. When it is off, it uses more threads, and more threads needs more memory.
  • Use Preview Scaling and Proxy Editing.

Here are some ways to reduce the memory usage while exporting:

  • See all of the things list above about reducing memory usage in general and of the project.
  • Turn OFF Export > Advanced > Video > Parallel processing. That uses more threads, which needs more memory.
  • Turn ON Export > Use hardware encoder (use Configure… > Detect if needed).
  • It can be very helpful to reboot, start Shotcut and only Shotcut after reboot, open the project but do not play through it, and then export. You are then guaranteed to give the most of your available physical memory to the Shotcut export process.
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On all Linux operating systems you can open a terminal and run this command # “sync; echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches” as administrator with root privalages when Shotcut gives a LOW MEMORY warning. This will safely clear the first level cache and allow Shotcut to continue without have to save your work and close out and re-start Shotcut. On MS Windows PCs you can also attempt to clear your RAM.