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nachoragone
nachoragone
Participant
January 7, 2026

Timeline UI Intermittently Freezes (Playhead & Clips Unresponsive) – Fixed only by Zooming

  • January 7, 2026
  • 8 replies
  • 255 views

Hi everyone,

I’ve been experiencing a persistent and extremely frustrating issue for some time now that is making the software almost impossible to use.

The Issue: Randomly, the Timeline UI seems to "lock up" or freeze.

 

  • Suddenly, the playhead becomes laggy or gets completely stuck.
  • At other times, I lose the ability to move, trim, or resize a clip. The mouse cursor doesn't react to the clips.


The Workaround: The only way to "wake up" the interface is to change the zoom level on the timeline or click on a different panel. As soon as I zoom in or out, functionality returns to normal immediately... until it happens again a few moments later.

Context:

  • It happens in massive projects (feature films) as well as ultra-simple 1-minute sequences.

  • It happens with or without effects applied to the clips.

  • It happens regardless of whether "Snap" is toggled ON or OFF.

It is becoming unfeasible to work under these conditions.

Has anyone else experienced this behavior? Is there a known solution or a specific setting causing this?

Thanks in advance!

Specs: Mac Book Pro M4 Pro / 24 GB RAM / Sequoia. 15.7.3. 
Premiere 25.6.3 (Build 2)

8 replies

nachoragone
nachoragoneAuthor
Participant
January 7, 2026

Ok. Will try. Thanks!

jamieclarke
Community Manager
jamieclarkeCommunity Manager
Community Manager
January 7, 2026

Hi @nachoragone - I wasn't saying import your entire project to your internal hard drive, as a test you could import one file or use your 1 minute sequence with your media and see if you still have the issue.  It sounds like you have a lot of media files there could be a corrupt file in your Project.

    nachoragone
    nachoragoneAuthor
    Participant
    January 7, 2026

    @jamieclarke Are always SSD external disks, recently bought, different ports, differents brands. I can't have 2/3 TB in my internal disk.
    What a pity that you don't have a clue what might be happening.
    Thanks anyway! I'll come back to this post if I find a solution.

    jamieclarke
    Community Manager
    jamieclarkeCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    January 7, 2026

    Hi @nachoragone - Before you upgrade I would try keeping your project and media on your internal hard drive saved on your desktop and see if that helps, your hard drives might be spinning down causing premiere to stop responding.

    nachoragone
    nachoragoneAuthor
    Participant
    January 7, 2026

    @jamieclarke Can´t tell. 
    I stored media in external disks, both Ex Fat or APFS. 
    When it happens again I will try to make a screen recording. I'm also thinking to upgrade to macOs Tahoe. would you reccomend that? Any other idea?

    Thanks!!

    jamieclarke
    Community Manager
    jamieclarkeCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    January 7, 2026

    Hi @nachoragone - It is very unusual since it sounds like an intermittent issue.  Where is your media stored?  Does it happen if you create a new project and save everything to your desktop?

    nachoragone
    nachoragoneAuthor
    Participant
    January 7, 2026

    Jaime, thank you very much for your prompt reply!

    No, I'm not using any third-party plugins, and I haven't noticed any unusual activity. I should take a look when it happens again, but I don't remember it happening before.

     

    What do you think could be causing this? It didn't happen before; it started suddenly.

    I even thought about the disks, but it happens to me both in Exfat

    jamieclarke
    Community Manager
    jamieclarkeCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    January 7, 2026

    Hi @nachoragone -  Thanks for submitting your bug report. We need a few more details to try to help with the issue.

     

    Are you using any third party plugins or panels?

    Do you see any activity in the upper right hand corner like a blue circle?

    Sorry for the frustration.

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