Premiere Pro 26.2.2 hangs indefinitely on startup ("Initializing application")

Title: Premiere Pro 26.2.2 hangs indefinitely on startup ("Initializing application") — infinite loop in CoolType / ATEWrapper FontServer while scanning a specific font (Windows 11 25H2)

Severity: High — Premiere Pro cannot launch at all until the offending font is located and removed. No error is shown; the app hangs silently on the splash screen.

Affected version: Adobe Premiere Pro 26.2.2. (The same hang also occurs with Premiere Pro 2025 on the same machine, indicating a shared font-engine code path.)

Operating system: Windows 11, version 25H2. Reproduced on two independent machines.

Summary On startup, Premiere Pro hangs indefinitely on the splash screen at "Initializing application." The process stays alive and one worker thread spins continuously (~one CPU core, ~6% total), but initialization never completes and the application must be force-terminated. The hang occurs during font enumeration: ATEWrapper's FontServer initialization calls into CoolType (the font engine), which enters an apparent infinite loop while resolving/parsing one particular activated font. Removing that single font resolves the hang. This was reproduced on two separate machines, both running Premiere Pro 26.2.2 on Windows 11 25H2.

Observed behavior / reproduction

1. Launch Premiere Pro 26.2.2 on Windows 11 25H2 with the offending font activated (system- or user-level).
2. The splash screen appears, shows "Initializing application," and never proceeds. One thread loops at ~one core; the app must be killed.
3. Launching in a clean/new Windows user account (without that font activated) succeeds normally.
4. Removing/deactivating the single offending font in the original account → Premiere launches normally.

Root-cause evidence — call stack of the spinning thread (captured with Process Explorer) Symbols are nearest-export approximations (large offsets), but the modules are accurate. Top frame = currently executing:

CoreMessaging.dll+0x3daa
CoolType.dll!CTGetVersion+0x11451b
CoolType.dll!CTGetVersion+0x159d8
CoolType.dll!CTGetVersion+0x11ba0
CoolType.dll!CTGetVersion+0x251b29
ATEWrapper.dll!ATEWrapper::GetCachedRenderDocumentInfo+0x6795
ATEWrapper.dll!ATEWrapper::GetCachedRenderDocumentInfo+0x6ed3
ATEWrapper.dll!ATEWrapper::FontServer::FindFont+0x9f
ATEWrapper.dll!ATEWrapper::GetCachedRenderDocumentInfo+0x5dba
ATEWrapper.dll!ATEWrapper::FontServer::CheckIfFontMissing+0xa01
ATEWrapper.dll!ATEWrapper::FontServer::GetInstance+0x5c
ATEWrapper.dll!ATEWrapper::FontServer::Initialize+0x3
ATEWrapper.dll!ATEWrapper::Initialize+0x220
dvacore.dll!  (config / threads / utility::FileUtils::CacheServerHost)
...
KERNEL32.DLL!BaseThreadInitThunk+0x17
ntdll.dll!RtlUserThreadStart+0x2c   [thread start]

The thread is busy-looping inside CoolType (font parsing) beneath ATEWrapper::FontServer::CheckIfFontMissing / FindFont, called during ATEWrapper::Initialize at application startup.

Trigger A specific activated font whose data appears non-standard / malformed. On both machines, a font of the same family/type was the culprit, and removing it resolved the hang. These fonts were usable in earlier Premiere Pro versions, which suggests a regression in CoolType/ATEWrapper font handling in 26.2.2 and/or an interaction with Windows 11 25H2. A sample of the offending font can be provided privately for reproduction on request.

Ruled out (did NOT fix the hang)

• Resetting preferences; clearing the media cache; clearing Adobe font caches (AdobeFnt*.lst, TypeSupport)
• Removing third-party MediaCore plug-ins
• Disabling all audio output/input devices and ASIO drivers
• Clean NVIDIA Studio driver reinstall (DDU). GPUSniffer.exe runs and completes normally, so GPU detection is not the cause.
• Other applications (e.g., DaVinci Resolve) launch normally → the OS audio/font subsystem is healthy.
• The hang is version-independent on the same machine (Premiere Pro 2025 also hangs), pointing to the shared CoolType/ATE font path rather than a 26.x-only install.

Workaround Launch in a clean Windows user account to confirm it is a per-user font issue, then binary-search the activated fonts (third-party font managers, per-user installed fonts, and Adobe Fonts) to identify and remove/deactivate the single offending font.

Requested fix During the startup FontServer scan, CoolType / ATEWrapper should not enter an unbounded loop when it encounters a malformed, non-compliant, or registered-but-unresolvable font. It should fail gracefully (validate/skip with a timeout), continue initialization, and ideally log or surface the name of the problematic font, instead of hanging silently on the splash screen.

Environment

• Machine 1: Premiere Pro 26.2.2 / Windows 11 25H2 / NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (Studio driver). Font managers present: Morisawa Passport, Fontworks LETS.
• Machine 2: Separate company Windows PC, Premiere Pro 26.2.2 / Windows 11 25H2 — same symptom, resolved by removing a same-type font.