Toggle source/timeline does not work as expected in premiere production across projects

Hi Peter,

Thanks for reaching out!

I've tested this a bit on my end to try and find the culprit, but first, just confirming, when you say toggle source/timeline, you mean Toggle Source/Program Monitor Focus, correct?  Just want to make sure you're trying to switch between the Source and Program monitors, and not two separate source and destination sequences both open in the Timeline panel.  Toggle Source/Program... does, essentially, switch between Source and Timeline since you can continue to cut things into the Timeline from the Source Monitor to the Program Monitor, but there technically is a distinction so I just want to be sure I'm undersanding your workflow correctly.

Assuming the above is correct, I found on my end that this behavior only seem to happen when the Insert or overwrite sequences as nests or individual clips setting in the timeline is set to nests (the left-most toggle underneath your Timeline timecode display).  When I load a stringout sequence from a media project into the Source Monitor, and cut a section of that source sequence into an edit timeline (from a different project) as a nest, the Project Panel gets activated as a result.  What's happening is that Premiere Pro needs to duplicate the stringout sequence into the edit sequence project once you cut the nest into the edit sequence; Premiere Pro doesn't reference nested sequence across projects in a production, so it duplicates the stringout sequence in the edit project in order to use it in the edit sequence.  In creating this new item in the project, the Project Panel is activating to notify you of the new item creation.  After the first nest is inserted into the edit timeline, all subsequence insert/overwrites will reference the existing duplicate nest (as long as the original stringout sequence in the media project remains unchanged/identical to the new duplicate), and insert/overwrite edits will toggle betwen source/timeline as expected without activating the Project Panel.

Is the behavior above what you're also experiencing?

If so, are you intending to be working with nests in your edit sequence?  If not, make sure you set Insert and Overwrite Sequences... to individual clips before cutting with sequences loaded inot the source monitor.  You should not see any Project Panel activation when performing edit that use individual clips.

If you are actually intending to work with nests in your edit, just a few other things to note:

• I currently have my Toggle Source/Program Monitor Focus mapped to the C button on my keyboard.  Even after the Project Panel becomes selected, I am able to press C to toggle back and forth between Source and Program monitors. This behavior should be true for you as well. Pressing this keyboard shortcut with the Project Panel active will first switch focus back from the Project Panel to the last active monitor.
• You may want to consider turning on the Set focus on the Timeline when performing Insert/Overwrite edits option in your Timeline Preferences, if it is not on already.  This will always activate the Timeline Panel after you perform an edit from the Source Monitor, and in my testing appears to override the Project Panel activation you're experiencing.  This may make your toggling between Source and Program Monitors more predictable in these cases where nest duplicates need to be created.