Hi,

This is a fairly common issue with larger CapCut projects on phones. The combination of a 12-minute timeline, screen recordings (which are often high bitrate), stock footage, text overlays, and importing new audio can push the app over its memory limit, even on a device with 8 GB of RAM.

Since you need to upload today, I would focus on getting the project finished rather than permanently fixing CapCut.

Try these in order

1. Restart your phone first

This clears RAM and background processes.

• Restart the phone.
• Don't open any other apps.
• Turn on Airplane Mode (optional, but it reduces background activity).
• Open CapCut and go straight to your project.

2. Free more storage

10 GB is usable, but video editing apps often need temporary working space.

Try to get 20–30 GB free if possible by temporarily moving or deleting:

• Downloads
• Old videos
• App caches
• Large apps you can reinstall later

3. Remove unnecessary footage before importing audio

Since you only need about 10 seconds removed:

• Open the project.
• Delete the unnecessary clips.
• Replace them with text.
• Save immediately.

Then close and reopen CapCut before attempting audio import.

4. Import one audio file at a time

Instead of:

• Background music
• Sound effects
• Voiceover

all together,

do:

1. Add background music.
2. Save.
3. Reopen project.
4. Add one sound effect.
5. Save.
6. Repeat.

This reduces memory spikes.

5. Use compressed audio

If your music is WAV or high-bitrate MP3, convert it to:

• MP3
• 128–192 kbps

Large uncompressed audio files can cause imports to fail.

6. Lower preview quality

If your version of CapCut has:

• Performance Mode
• Low Resolution Preview
• Proxy Preview

enable it before editing.

7. Clear CapCut cache (NOT project data)

Inside CapCut settings, clear only the cache if available.

Do not clear app storage or uninstall unless you're certain your project is backed up to the cloud, as local projects can be lost.

8. Duplicate the project

If CapCut lets you duplicate the project:

• Duplicate it.
• Edit the copy.

Sometimes project files become corrupted, while a duplicate behaves normally.

If audio import is the only thing crashing

Try importing:

• a 5-second MP3

If that works, the problem is probably your audio file rather than the project.

If even a tiny MP3 crashes, the project itself is likely close to CapCut's memory limit.

Last-resort workaround

If you can finish the video without music:

1. Export the video first.
2. Create a new CapCut project.
3. Import the exported video.
4. Add background music and sound effects.
5. Export again.

Since the second project contains just one rendered video instead of hundreds of timeline elements, it's much lighter and is often stable enough to finish.

If CapCut crashes immediately on opening the project

That usually indicates the project file is corrupted or exceeds the phone's available memory. In that case, avoid uninstalling the app unless the project is definitely synced to your CapCut account.

1. Is your phone Android or iPhone?
2. Does CapCut crash only when importing audio, or does it also crash while simply editing or when you press Export?

If you can share these details we can determine whether this is more likely a memory issue, a bad audio file, or a project corruption issue.