Repeatable HEVC export failure in Premiere Pro

I’m reporting a repeatable HEVC export failure in Premiere Pro that persists despite extensive troubleshooting and is not related to captions, effects, or corrupt media.

Issue Summary

Premiere Pro fails to complete HEVC (H.265) export at the final frame of a long timeline, consistently returning Error Code 39 (“Error finishing encode”). The failure always occurs during end-of-file finalization, regardless of timeline adjustments.

Project Context

• Platform: macOS (Mac Studio)

• Timeline: ~2+ hours, UHD 3840×2160, Rec.709

• Export format: HEVC (H.265), Main10

• Encoding tested: Software and Hardware

• Bitrate tested: Multiple VBR settings

• Timeline content: Fully pre-rendered clips with subtitles already burned in

• Final sequence: Simple stitching only (cuts, no effects, no captions, no overlays)

Observed Behavior

• Export always fails at or one frame before the end of the timeline

• Trimming clips or adding black frames only shifts the reported timecode; failure remains at the end

• Exporting short ranges succeeds

• Exporting individual clips succeeds

• Exporting the same sequence to ProRes or H.264 succeeds

• External HEVC transcodes from a mezzanine file succeed

This confirms the issue is not frame-level corruption, but a Premiere Pro HEVC exporter container-finalization bug.

Exact Error

Error compiling movie
Export Error
Error finishing encode
Writing with exporter: HEVC (H.265)
Error code: 39

Impact

Premiere Pro cannot reliably export long-form HEVC content, even when all clips are finalized, and no rendering is required. The only workaround is exporting a mezzanine format and transcoding externally, which should not be necessary.

Request

Please escalate this case to the Premiere Pro engineering team as a confirmed HEVC export bug and provide:

A bug tracking/reference ID

1. Confirmation that this issue is logged for resolution

Thank you.

[title edited by mod]