Weird kind of problem

Help/How To
1

so first off,
it’s not a big deal, if there’s no fix.
i’ll probably just start over in some way or form,
but i would like to avoid that.

so basically,
i have this video file,
and every time i open it,
it just keep growing in memory usage,
like infinitely,
until the program crashes,
something like this.

open file > file loads >everything is put into place > everything is fine > after a few moments the memory usage climbs > it doesn’t stop > shotcut crashes

i think it might be cuz i’ve repaired the file to many times,
(about 8 times)
and it’s messing with the whole process somehow,
making it use more memory than it needs?
i can only speculate.
but yeah
is there anything i can do?
i’ll try to answer questions as best as i can.

2

Is it a video file (that ends in .mp4 or some other media extension)?

Or is it a Shotcut project file (that ends in .mlt)?

If it is a project file, can you attach it to a post in this thread so we can inspect it?

3

If it is a video file, do not add it to to the timeline; simply open it in the Source player. If that is stable enough, go to Properties and click Convert and see if that works without using all the memory. If simply opening it in the Source player uses too much memory you can try to use another tool to convert/transcode it such as Handbrake or ffmpeg command line (Shotcut includes ffmpeg).

4

i did indeed mean to say project file,
i don’t know how to send the MLT file so hopefully i did it right here.
speedrunners video - 2025 repaired.mlt (522.5 KB)

5

my apologies,
i meant project file,
not video file,
sorry for the confusion.

6

The project file was uploaded correctly. Upon inspection, I don’t see an obvious problem that would cause the problem you are describing.

When you open the recovered file for the first time, Shotcut might try to regenerate the waveforms for the clips. Do you see the messages in Shotcut that it is generating waveform? I wonder if the waveform generation could be causing the memory leak.

I also notice that you are using Shotcut version 24.01.28. Have you tried using the latest version? If not, here are the steps I would suggest:

  1. Make a copy of the project file with a new name
  2. Download the latest version of Shotcut from here: Shotcut - Download
  3. Open the copied file with the new version
7

ok so.
i did as you suggested,
and the project now runs,
and i am able to (seemingly anyways, i haven’t started yet)
work on the video again,
however playing the video in shotcut is very uuuuh laggy? i guess,
but in a way that’s workable i think.

also it did indeed generate audiowave stuff when i opened the project for the first time