Recompute after review changes
What Recompute Cuts rebuilds, what it deliberately leaves alone, and why you always re-export afterwards.
Recompute Cuts applies your keep and remove decisions to the cut plan. The button is enabled only when the job is finished, at least one decision differs from the pipeline's own, and no recompute is already running — so flipping a row back to its original state correctly disables it again. Recompute re-probes your media, re-runs the snap engine, and rewrites the cut plan, the EDL, the FCPXML, and the XML pack. It does not re-transcribe, does not re-run the AI editor or Second Look, does not consume one of your included cuts, and does not rebuild the Debug Bundle, so export that bundle before recomputing if support asked for it. Your original video must still be reachable. When it finishes, re-export the FCPXML — a file you exported earlier does not update itself.
On this page
Prerequisites
- A finished rough cut.
Recompute Cutsis not available while a job is still running, and it does not exist at all for transcription-only jobs, which have no timeline to rebuild. - At least one changed decision in the review list. See Review the cut on the timeline.
- The original source video still where it was when the job ran — same folder, same name.
Steps
- Finish your review. Flip whatever you disagree with using
KeepandRemovein either review mode. - Check the counter above the list.
Kept <n> · Removed <n>should read the way you want the cut to be. - Click
Recompute Cutsin the toolbar. It readsRecomputing…while it runs. - Wait for the notice
Cut list recomputed — re-export the FCPXML. - Read the rebuilt review list. It reflects the new cut plan, and any Second Look suggestions that your changes have made irrelevant are gone.
- Click
Export for Final Cut Pro…again and overwrite or replace the file you exported before.
Expected result
A rewritten cut plan and a rewritten FCPXML on disk, a refreshed review list, and a cleared set of pending changes — Recompute Cuts is disabled again because nothing now differs from the current plan.
When the button is enabled
Recompute Cuts becomes available only when all three of these are true:
- the job's status is finished
- at least one review decision differs from the one the pipeline made
- a recompute is not already running
The second condition has a useful consequence. Overrides are stored as differences, so if you flip a row and then flip it back, RoughCut deletes the override instead of recording a change that does nothing. Undo everything and the button correctly greys out — that is the app telling you there is nothing left to apply.
What Recompute does
- Applies each of your overrides: a
Keepon a proposed removal drops that span from the cut list; aRemoveon a kept segment adds a new removal; aRemoveon a Second Look suggestion accepts that suggestion. - Re-probes your media so the timeline is rebuilt against the real file, not a cached description of it.
- Re-runs the snap engine, which is what aligns cut points to word boundaries and whole frames.
- Rewrites the cut plan, the removal decision list,
AutoRoughCut.fcpxml, and the XML pack. - Rebuilds the review list, dropping Second Look suggestions whose words are now mostly removed anyway.
What Recompute does not do
| It does not | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Re-transcribe your audio | The transcript is reused as-is, so the process is quick and costs nothing |
| Re-run the AI editor or Second Look | No provider call is made, so recomputing is free of API charges |
| Consume one of your included cuts | Recompute as often as you like — only a job that completes counts |
| Rebuild the Debug Bundle | The bundle keeps its pre-recompute contents. See the caution below |
Export the Debug Bundle before you recompute. The bundle is written once, on the original run. After a recompute it still contains the pre-recompute timeline and cut decisions, so a bundle exported afterwards is stale and will not show support the state you are describing. If support asked for one, export it first, then recompute.
Cost note
Recompute makes no network request. It reads the transcript and the decision list already on disk, applies your changes, and rewrites the output files locally. Nothing is uploaded, no provider is billed, and no included cut is spent.
Common mistakes
- Exporting before recomputing. The exported file reflects the last computed plan. Pending toggles are not in it.
- Recomputing and not re-exporting. A file already saved to disk does not update itself. Export again after every recompute.
- Moving or renaming the source video between the original run and the recompute. The rebuild needs the real media.
- Recomputing to get a different AI opinion. It applies your decisions. To get a fresh editorial pass, process the file again as a new job.
- Sending a Debug Bundle exported after a recompute. It describes the previous cut.
Troubleshooting
The button is greyed out. Check in order: the job has finished; you have actually changed a decision (the counter should differ from what the pipeline produced); a recompute is not already running.
Lost access to the source video. Re-add the file and process again. RoughCut can no longer reach the original media — usually because the file was moved, renamed, deleted, or lives on a volume that is no longer mounted. Reconnect the drive if that is the cause. Otherwise the job cannot be rebuilt: add the file again on the New Rough Cut screen and process it.
The review list looks different after recomputing. That is expected. Cut boundaries are re-snapped against the new plan, and Second Look suggestions that your edits have already resolved are removed.
For anything else, see Troubleshooting by symptom.