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AMER 01 Rob - AMER 04 Ed
Participant
September 2, 2026

Continuous Video Thumbnails generate significantly slower after Premiere Pro 25.

  • September 2, 2026
  • 3 replies
  • 16 views

Continuous Video Thumbnails in the Timeline generate significantly slower in newer Premiere Pro versions than in Premiere Pro 25.0.0.

This is a reproducible performance regression. On the same Windows computer, using the same project, sequence and source media, Premiere Pro 25.0.0 displays the continuous timeline thumbnails quickly. In later Premiere Pro 25 versions and Premiere Pro 26, thumbnails are generated only after scrolling to a new section of the Timeline. The visible part of the filmstrip then remains incomplete while Premiere generates the thumbnails.

This causes a repeated wait every time another section of a long sequence becomes visible.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Open a project containing a long video file.
  2. Enable Show Video Thumbnails.
  3. Select Continuous Video Thumbnails in the Timeline panel menu.
  4. Increase the video-track height so the complete filmstrip is visible.
  5. Zoom or scroll horizontally to another part of the sequence.
  6. Observe that the newly visible thumbnails are generated slowly and only after that part of the Timeline becomes visible.
  7. Open the same project and media in Premiere Pro 25.0.0 and repeat the test.

Expected result:

Continuous Video Thumbnails should appear as quickly and responsively as they do in Premiere Pro 25.0.0.

Actual result:

In newer versions, the filmstrip does not keep up with horizontal scrolling. Thumbnail generation starts after scrolling and the user must wait for the visible section to be populated.

This is not a playback-performance issue. Playback itself is not the problem. The issue specifically concerns Timeline thumbnail generation with Continuous Video Thumbnails enabled.

Continuous Video Thumbnails cannot be disabled or replaced with Video Head and Tail Thumbnails in our workflow. We digitize and inspect long family-video recordings professionally. The continuous filmstrip is used to locate camera mistakes, blank recordings, interruptions and unwanted sections efficiently.

The following troubleshooting did not resolve the issue:

  • Changing Timeline scrolling to No Scroll
  • Disabling hardware-accelerated decoding
  • Restarting Premiere Pro
  • Testing the same media and project on the same computer
  • The problem occurs on all PCs.

Premiere Pro 25.0.0 remains significantly faster for this specific workflow.

System:

  • Operating system: Windows 11
  • Processor: AMD Ryzen 9  3900X
  • RAM: 32 GB
  • GPU: [model and driver version]
  • Source-media codec: [codec]
  • Source-media resolution and frame rate: 1920x1080
  • Working version: Premiere Pro 26.X.X
  • Affected versions tested: 25.6.6 and later

      3 replies

      AMER 01 Rob - AMER 04 EdAuthor
      Participant
      September 2, 2026

      Hi Katie,

      Thank you for addressing our issue so quickly.

      Below are the answers to your questions:

       

      1. The GPU is an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super, build 32.0.15.9186;

       

      2. Clip lengths range from 10 minutes and up, sometimes as long as 90 minutes; we capture footage from old media, such as 8mm film, and many types of video.

      We then edit this in Premiere Pro at a resolution of 720x576.

      This problem also occurs with newer footage that we edit in 1920x1080 or higher resolution.

       

      3. The clips are usually MXF, but other file extensions also cause problems here.

      We hope this information helps. If you have any other questions or would like to know more, feel free to send us another message.

       

      Thanks, see you later.

      Rob

        KatieToo
        Community Manager
        KatieTooCommunity Manager
        Community Manager
        September 3, 2026

        ​@AMER 01 Rob - AMER 04 Ed Thanks for those additional details. 

        We ran tests in both the latest v26.3.2 against v25.0.0, as well as v27 Beta to see how continuous thumbnails behaved. It seems in v26.3.2 and v27.0 Beta, the thumbnail frames are adjusting during playback whenever paused, as you zoom or scroll. They at least appear consistently while it does this. In v25.0.0, there’s no adjusting of thumbnail frames at paused and at some zoom levels seem stable, but I did see it blank on fullest zoom as it scrolled, until I hit pause where it updated. It was quick, that said. Sometimes there’d be a gap it filled in, too.

        We’ll be filing a bug report so our engineer team can take a closer look into that. Once they provide any update, we’ll return to this post.

        Appreciate your time and effort reporting on this!
        Katie

        KatieToo
        Community Manager
        KatieTooCommunity Manager
        Community Manager
        September 2, 2026

        Hi ​@AMER 01 Rob - AMER 04 Ed 

        Thanks for stopping by the Premiere forums and giving us some great details about the issue going on with continuous thumbnails in v25 vs. v26. We’ll be looking into this.

        Couple more questions for you in the meantime:

        1) What’s your GPU and driver version & build?

        2) When you say “open the project with a long video file” can we get an estimated clip length that you’ve seen this issue occur in? 

        3) What type of clip codec? Important if decoding issue going on.

        Hope to help!
        Katie

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