Inspiring

BUG: Use Previews....Doesn't Use Previews.

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
March 16, 2023
146 replies
16567 views

This workflow has been broken for a long time and I would really love to fix this one. I know this used to be on uservoice but I can't find the old bug.

Steps:

1. Set sequence preview file to "Apple ProRes 422HQ" or whatever your favorite is.

2. Render Sequence to full green.

3. Go to Export, Select an H.264 preset, check "use previews"

4. Watch as PrPro doesn't acess a single preview on disk and instead renders the whole timeline from scratch.

From my current example I have a .png sequence from blender than I've rendered to green in the timeline.

Export->H.264, use previews checked...

Look at windows resource monitor, why is premiere chewing up PNGs when it should just be referencing the preview files I JUST RENDERED.

.aecache files being acessed for no reason.

.png sequence being read. WHY.

Amy the Stuv

Community Manager

Hello everyone,

I’ve moved this over to the Bug’s forum. Thank you @Kevin J. Monahan Jr. for bringing this to our attention.

@Mainumbi just wanting to confirm that you are on 26.3.2 and it’s still not working? Could we get some of your system specs to add to this record?

Operating System: Specify Windows or macOS, along with the version.
Mac Chip (Mac Only): Please let us know what M-series chip you have. If Intel please include GPU.
GPU and Driver (Windows only): Please let us know your video card and driver version. We recommend updating to the most recent version; for NVIDIA users, we strongly recommend the Studio version of the driver.
Video Format: The original poster mentioned PNG series. Are you using the same or does this also occur with Tiff, Jpgs, etc?
Media Storage: Are your Scratch Disks set to your Documents folder or the same as project, and is this the same as the Media drive?
Video Previews What are your video previews set to and what is your export setting?

For anyone else running into this issues, the more info we have the faster we can identify a root cause, so please also provide the information above. I will be monitoring this post from now on.

Thank you and apologies for the long delay and inconvenience,

Amy

M

Mainumbi

Participant

2026...still not working

K

Kevin-Monahan

Community Manager

Thanks for verifying. I pinged engineering on behalf of the community. I hope we can finally get this fixed. Sorry for the frustration.

Take Care,
Kevin

S

Scott.C.Author

Inspiring

I see this is now ii the "discussions" section of the forum. Leads me to believe the devs (or their managers) have no interest in making this former feature available anymore. I guess, it is not considered a bug, even though the checkbox still exsists to mock us of how it used to work. I have been doing GFX work for the past year or so maybe I'll finally ditch and go to Resolve if I get back into the editing ring. This lack of TLC has always left a poor taste in my mouth when it comes to Adobe software. Seems like Adobe is just interested in chasing investor $$$ with splashy AI image gen tools vs actually making this the most robust post workflow availiable. Between this and the busted project manager and buggy multi-camera waveform behabior, this app really has some major holes they need to fill.

MobyTrix

Known Participant

I'm working on a 4k hour-long project. In the latest version (not beta): If I pick QuickTime ProRes 422 HQ as the preview format, render the entire timeline to it, then on the Export tab (stay in Premiere, don't lauch Media Encoder) pick Quicktime ProRes 422 and check "Use Previews", then touch no other options and export to a new file... it works as intended. So while it's not a full return to the original functionality, it is acceptable.

(I have other issues with the latest non-beta version, such as the colorspaces snapping between settings randomly in clips... but at least this is working which makes fine tuning bearable on a 4k project.)

S

Scott.C.Author

Inspiring

I guess a step in the right direction, but not acceptable for software that costs 600$ a year to rent.

Path 88 Productions

Known Participant

Suggest checking the timeline/sequence and see if any 3rd party effects plugins are being used. I've found this to be something that causes problems when using "USE PREVIEWS" on export.

IanB_360

Community Manager

Hey Adobe Community friends, here is a note on the "Use previews" option from our devs. It will work just as long as the codec you choose to make preview files matches your export files codec. So Apples to Apples and H264s to H264s. Please see below explanation on how this feature works. Thank you for your patience and sorry for any frustrations with lack of responses.

Ian

Detailed Description

"Use Previews" will only export with rendered preview files in the following cases:

"Match sequence preview settings" is the selected preset, which automatically enables the "Use Previews" checkbox
"Use Previews" is enabled and the export Format & Codec matches the sequence's preview codec setting

If you enable "Use Previews" when export & preview codecs do not match, rendered preview files are ignored and files are exported from the original source media.

Path 88 Productions

Known Participant

Nope. Just to let you know, it's still not working for me. Using 3rd party plug-ins = non-functional. Should just spit out a file quickly from compiled previews, but it absolutely re-rendering. And since I'm using intense plug-ins, it takes a really long time.

FYI, I've used this "Use Previews" function in the past and it's worked fine. My sequences are set up to use AppleProRes422 and that's the thing I also want on export. Many of us understand the theory and practice of the "Use Previews" feature. We're not new users misundersatading the concept here. It's rather easy to recognize and identify that it's not working as intended.

S

Scott.C.Author

Inspiring

@Kevin-Monahan thanks for clarifying and for continuing to advocate for this internally!

Kevin J. Monahan Jr.

Legend

Hello @Scott.C.,

Thanks for the question, and sorry for the confusion. Changing the status of a bug report to "Needs More Info" signals the editor and the product team to collaborate more to ensure enough information is in place to reproduce and fix a bug.

The community has provided a lot of information here. Thank you! Since this bug has a history and many upvotes, it would be great if a product team member could comment on what else is needed. I will submit the issue again with them on internal channels to see if we can get more traction here.

This is a reminder that I'm not a Premiere Pro product team member, but I'm doing my best to solve this issue for the community. Sorry for the frustration.

Thanks,
Kevin

Kevin Monahan - Sr. Community and Engagement Strategist – Adobe Pro Video and Audio

S

Scott.C.Author

Inspiring

@Kevin-Monahan What more info do you need? I feel like we've provided a lot here. I'm happy to walk through whats going on if it moves the needle, but a little alarmed that someone can look at this thread and come up with "needs more info."

Kevin J. Monahan Jr.

Legend

The status of this bug report has been updated.

Kevin Monahan - Sr. Community and Engagement Strategist – Adobe Pro Video and Audio

Shebbe

Community Expert

That may well be true. But it doesn't change the fact that a checkbox exists that is named "Use Previews" that doesn't use preview files when encoding to any format. If Adobe doesn't deem this a bug they should remove the checkbox because it doesn't do anything. And the preset Match Sequence Settings may as well have an internal Use Previews mechanic.

But I'm pretty sure that hasn't been the intent. And multiple users including me claim this function actually used to work but years have past since and it's still broken...

JonesVid

Community Expert

Sorry I meant to add here : from a logical point of view - the fact that Smart rendering does not work when you choose the Codec yourself ( and have to use Match Sequence Settings) suggests to me the piece of code that looks to see what Codec you have chosen to output to - now doesn't exist. It only looks for Match Sequence Settings.

That's my theory !

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