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Participant
September 24, 2026
Needs More Info

Mask tool keeps showing a watch symbol and freezing

Bug Description below  

Since updating to the latest version of Adobe Premiere Pro, the masking/object tracking tool has become extremely slow or completely unresponsive.

When I attempt to create or track a mask around a moving object, Premiere displays a watch/stopwatch-style loading icon and appears to get stuck processing indefinitely. In previous versions of Premiere Pro, I was able to perform the same masking tasks quickly and reliably on the same system and with the same type of footage.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Open a project in Premiere Pro.
  2. Select a video clip.
  3. Attempt to create/use a mask and track a moving object.
  4. Premiere displays the watch/processing icon.
  5. The masking process becomes extremely slow or appears to freeze indefinitely.

Expected Behavior

The masking tool should begin processing/tracking the object within a reasonable amount of time, as it did in previous versions of Premiere Pro.

Actual Behavior

Premiere becomes stuck displaying the processing/watch icon, making the masking feature effectively unusable and preventing me from continuing work that depends on object masking.

Additional Information

This behavior began after updating Premiere Pro. I did not experience this issue with the masking workflow before the update. I have also seen reports from other Premiere Pro users describing similar problems with masking/tracking performance.

The September update does not appear to have resolved the issue. Because masking is an important part of my editing workflow, I would appreciate it if Adobe could investigate this as a potential regression and address it in an upcoming update.

    10 replies

    Participating Frequently
    October 14, 2026

    I am getting the same the mask tool keeps showing a watch symbol.

    Apple M1 Pro

    15.7.9

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    Participant
    October 10, 2026

    Same problem with object mask – it became extremely slow after update from 26.3.2

    Mac Sequoia or Sonoma

    Macbook m1 pro

    All video formats

    Premiere 26.5.2

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    Participant
    October 6, 2026

    Been having the same exact issue for the last few weeks. Whenever I hover over my footage with the object mask tool it just shows a stopwatch symbol.

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    Participant
    September 29, 2026

    Exact same issue here. No solutions?

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    Amy the Stuv
    Community Manager
    Community Manager
    September 29, 2026

    That depends, would you mind sharing your Premiere version and system specs? 

    • Premiere Version: How to find the exact version of Premiere you're using.
    • Operating System: Specify Windows or macOS, along with the version.
    • Chip (Mac Only): Specify which M-series Chip or CPU/GPU combo.
    • 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: If the issue relates to playback or export, please specify the format (and ideally share a sample video).

    Helpful Context

    Comparing when and where the issue occurs helps us narrow down the cause:

    • Does it affect all projects or only some?
    • Does it affect new, empty projects?
    • When did the problem first begin?
    • Does this happen on all clips or just some (in which case, format of that clip would be good to know)
    • Was 26.5 the version that did not have the issues or was it 26.3.2?
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    Participant
    September 29, 2026

    I’m running the 26.5.2 on my M1 Macbook Pro running Sequoia 15.5. Previously I was using the 2025 Premiere build and it ran smooth as butter,  never a crash or a hitch on massive projects. I had to upgrade for the first time for a client’s simple project and suddenly Premiere is running like malware. Can feel my computer rising in temperature dramatically. What gives?

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    Participant
    September 27, 2026

    I’m having an identical problem, and hope you hear back soon with a solution. I’m currently using Premiere version 26.5.1 with an M3 Pro chip on MacOS Sequoia 15.7.9. I’ll be updating my computer software to see if that fixes it. 

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    Amy the Stuv
    Community Manager
    Community Manager
    September 28, 2026

    Please let me know if that resolves it. It could also be helpful to know if it happens in a freshly created project with a freshly imported clip. 

     

    Thank you,

    Amy

     

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    Amy the Stuv
    Community Manager
    Community Manager
    September 24, 2026

    Hello ​@intuitive_Miracle475c 

    Welcome to the Premiere Forums. Sorry to hear you’re experiencing this issue. We still need a little more information to help us identify and reproduce this issue internally or find a pattern with these reports.

    • Premiere Version: How to find the exact version of Premiere you're using.
    • Operating System: Specify Windows or macOS, along with the version.
    • Chip (Mac Only): Specify which M-series Chip or CPU/GPU combo.
    • 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: If the issue relates to playback or export, please specify the format (and ideally share a sample video).

    Helpful Context

    Comparing when and where the issue occurs helps us narrow down the cause:

    • Does it affect all projects or only some?
    • Does it affect new, empty projects?
    • When did the problem first begin?
    • Does this happen on all clips or just some (in which case, format of that clip would be good to know)
    • Was 26.5 the version that did not have the issues or was it 26.3.2?

    This information will be invaluable to the investigation.

    Hoping to help,

    Amy

     

     

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    Participant
    October 10, 2026

    Same problem with object mask – it became extremely slow after update from 26.3.2

    Mac Sequoia or Sonoma

    Macbook m1 pro

    All video formats

    Premiere 26.5.2

     

    Translate