Premiere Pro 2025 Freezes and Crashes on MacOS

Community Manager

Hi @autonomy16, sorry you've been experiencing issues. Are you using any third-party plugins or effects at all? What about proxies (particularly for the raw files)? Do the suspect clips have anything in common like file format or effects applied?

Since this project has already gone through a few updates, have you tried starting a brand new project from scratch, and importing the project through the Media Browser? This can often fix project-specific issues. Are you getting a crash report dialog box after force quitting? If you add your Adobe account email in the dialog box, the team can look up the reports and see if anything is standing out.

autonomy16

Participating Frequently

I've been experiencing similar problems with this too. Constant FREEZING with one particular project file that's been solid before. Been wrestling with all kinds of attempts to "work around" all weekend 😞

I'm working on a Macbook M3 Max, 128gb RAM, Premiere Pro 25.2.0 (Build 147), OS Sequoia 15.5 *I WAS ORIGINALLY TRYING ON 25.3 (Build 84) but due to separate Audio issues I was having, a work around for that exists in 25.2

I am trying to update a particular project file (about 24MB) as part of a feature I'm making. Media has been working successfully on a RAID 5 setup with USB3 connection. However, I just transferred all my media and necessary files to 3 external SSD drives (which are twice as fast as the RAID 5). Media Cache is set to its very own SSD (so 4 fast SSD drives here total)

I've been working with many different video sources, mostly 4k files (raw files from Sony FS7, Canon C300) and some 1080 files (dot movs C100, Canon 5D, mp4, various) off and on for many years now. My timeline is 1920x1080

For the most part, PP has been fine with throwing a lot of different things into the timeline and utilizing various effects. Things were running smoothly in PP 23 AND THEN I UPDATED...

I made the rookie mistake, never upgrade software in the middle of a project. To be honest, I have upgraded a few times bc this project has been going on for years. I upgraded this time to work on another unrelated paid project- which was much less intensive and worked fine. Ok, that's now in the past and I really want to make this version work for my more complicated feature. I'm near the end and PP2025 has been a total disappointment so far.

But since v25 has come into my life the timeline lags and eventually everything FREEZES while it never did before. I'll get the perpetual spinning beach ball and can save the project but very little else. I usually have to FORCE QUIT everytime and start all over.

I've tried dumping the preferences. I've cleared the cache. I went back down to v24.0 (then upgraded again) and still experience the same thing. I'm now suspecting whatever is corrupt here is one or several of my clips. I've started to make prores files from the suspected ones. Before, whenever the timeline is playing, where it stops and freezes I figure that particular clip was the problem. I'd go create a prores substitue and it seemed to get over the hump before it randomly stopped (and froze) again.

As I mentioned above, I've worked on other much less intensive projects in this new version and PP worked fine. In fact, another project file (same feaeture project; different files) works ok in 25 so far. This particular project's timeline only goes to about 18 mins of the film. There's a healthy mix of various clips and a couple of nested clips. About 8 tracks of video and 8-10 tracks of audio in use.

Now, the project ends up freezing before I have the chance to actually reneder and replace any of my clips. PLEASE HELP!

Community Manager

Sorry that happened again @astonished_customer7329, I sent a message to your Community inbox if you'd still like to share the project. Where do you have your media cache saved? Have you tried clearing it?

Known Participant

I upgraded to 25.3 today, and have been working a few hours. Just got my first crash. Same behavior as before. Complete lock-up, entire computer needed a hard reset. I was clicking on the timeline (adjusting a title graphic) at the time the program crashed. It usually seems to happen on a click, but I haven't been able to quite determine if that's true or just coincidence since I am clicking fairly often.

Community Manager

Sent you a message @astonished_customer7329!

Peru Bob

Community Expert

Try updating to version 25.3.

Known Participant

I don't have any compatibility issues to report. What would be a good way to provide you with some sample footage and project file?

Community Manager

That's very frustrating @astonished_customer7329, I understand. Another thing you could potentially try before you start editing and the issues start, is if you go to the top menu > Help > System Compatibility Report > Export Report (even if there is 'No conflicts to report'), that will export a couple of .txt files that could provide more information.

Otherwise, I would usually recommend using proxies if dealing with 4k MXFs mixed with .mp4s on an Intel Mac, but if you weren’t before and you are not seeing these issues with 2024, would you be interested in sharing your project and some of the files that seem to be contributing or causing issues? I can send you a direct message if you’d like to share.

Known Participant

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