Playback keeps pausing after 1-3 seconds

I’ve been struggling with this issue for quite some time. I realized it was related to the audio hardware's output settings—when I selected a different output (software), playback would work, but there was no sound. Today, I finally found the solution for my system. I'm using just the two front speakers from a desktop 5.1 sound system (Creative with a subwoofer), connected to the PC via three jack connectors: front, rear, and subwoofer. The problem was resolved when I unplugged the subwoofer and rear jacks.

Seems this issue is always related to audio hardware.  In my case, I had recently told Premiere to use my microphone as an input.  To resolve the issue with playback, I simply had to change the Default Input to No Input, and it worked.  

Why this is still a problem 5 years after this post was first made, I don't know.

Hey, I don't know if anyone else found this specific solution, but I was having this problem and tried everything. I eventually noticed that my audio track mixer was glitching every time I hit play (Video would play for a second and then stop). No audio was coming through so I checked all the audio hardware, and my audio interface wasn't connecting with Pr for some reason. 

Basically, I had to go into the audio hardware settings in premier and set "Input Device" to None.

A little annoying but I never use pr to record so it's fine for me, hope this helped someone!

Hey David and whoever is reading this;

I ran into this problem again for like the 12th time on and off, and I FINALLY found the fix behind it.

If this was mentioned before by either admins or other users, if there are other 'processes' or 'drivers' that are being enabled and disable in the middle as you do your playback, you'll have errors.

To the point, my issue had to do with my AUDIO DRIVERS! Where I went was to my sound settings where all my drivers are to enable/disable them. For me in my recording section, I noticed that my webcam that has a microphone was connecting and disconnecting repeatedly for no apparent reason, even though I had it disabled. As if I was plugging it in and out of my computer. All I had to do was unplug that drive out of my computer and it worked! My camera is faulty, and I still question why it's still plugged in (lol), but this solved it.

I recommend that if you are still having this issue to either do the same thing as me or check your device manager to see if drivers are disappearing and reappearing.

I'm having this same issue. Ryzen 5 2600, 16 GB ram, Nvidia GTX 1060, audio output is through aux to speakers. It's not always consistent, sometimes a few seconds, up to about 15 seconds.

I have been strugling with this problem for a long time. I have understood this is a problem with the audio hardware > output settings, when I select a different output (software) I have playback but no sound. today I have found the solution for my system. I am using only the two speakers from a desktop 5.1 sound system (creative with subwoofer) the input to the pc is with 3 jack connectors, front, rear and subwoofer. the problem was fixed when I unpluged the subwoofer and rear jacks. 

I found it was the fact that I was playing back through Bluetooth audio that made my Premiere pause. As soon as I went back to built in output the issue stopped!

Did you ever figure this out? I have the same problem! I push play above my timeline (either with a mouse click or the spacebar) and it only plays briefly...between a fraction of a second to a few seconds. It doesn't stop on anything in particular (I looked for whether it was ending on an edit point...nope).

I have a Dell XPS8700 with Intel i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 745 graphics card, and Samsung Pro 860 1TB SSD. Everything on Premiere and every other application runs like lightning. Any ideas?

What is the source of the .mov files?  What are the file specifications?  How are you setting up the project?  What are the project settings?