Audio out of sync when exporting H.264

In my case, the audio was fine but I noticed the video to be misaligned with it after export, in comparison to how it played in playback (inside premiere). I eventually found why: I had cut a still image video chunk, and stretched it, to make the still image last longer. I used Clip>Video Options > Add Frame Hold. Aparently, the stretch worked fine at playback, but after export, the video part after the still image was playing instead of the still image. So the video was advancing and not holding for the stretch time. Which made it miss the audio cue I had for the start of the next video part.
To solve it, instead of cutting a chunk, I used “Export Frame” (camera icon a bit to the right of play), checked “Import to Project”, and put it in the time line. It was a true still image, I strecthed it as I wanted it without it advancing to the next part, and after export it behaved the same!

Trying changing Hardware Encoding to Software Encoding. Not sure if that will work for you, but it was an easy fix for me! 

Yes - VLC worked fine for these files for me when Quicktime did not, but I also found that other MP4 files that I had not exported myself, worked fine in Quicktime – no issues with it being out of sync. I worked with Apple to help me but they eventually disappeared and I never re-opened the case.

Even with Monterey update and a new computer, Quicktime was still giving me sync trouble with those same exported files.

Haven't edited in a while and there have been a couple of Adobe updates, so I exported a new version of that same session with all of the same export settings and now it plays fine of Quicktime! It seems that Adobe must have fixed the issue! 🙂 Are others having the same experience?

Hi Community,

I found a variety of bug reports on the same topic you can upvote. Please let the Premiere Pro team know that you want this bug fixed ASAP by upvoting. I'll add more if I find them along the way.

• Audio out of sync when exporting
• Audio out of sync on MP4 Renders
• Audio problem on H.264 MP4 output
• Audio Video Out of Sync
• Audio out of sync when exporting H.264 video file
• Keep sound in Sync when doing H264 exports
• Exporting Out of Sync

Thanks,
Kevin

I initially thought QuickTime was starting to act on me, as all videos from this project were going mute half way or sometimes going mute from the start. Each time I played a file, the audio problem changed.

Reading these posts i tried changing Bitrate settings but rendering time was ridiculous.

Then I tried to open the troubled file on QuickTime and then export it as 4k - Voilá! Problem solved.

It tells me there is something off with the audio encoder within Premiere, which QuickTime fixed during export.

Still amazed that we have to find ways around to make Premiere work. Such a great software but bugs like these really suck the love out of my soul...

Recapping > Export your file using QuickTime player (4K)...

Dear Inrot, 

The issue for me was that the source video had a different frame rate from the sequence (60fps in the video vs 25fps sequence). You can check the fps of the source file by right-clicking on the video and selecting properties. If the frame rate is off, you can use media encoder to change the fps of the source file. Use the new 25fps file in your premiere sequence with, now, matching frame rates, export it and it should be good. The same goes for audio. It took me 3 days to fix this issue and finding out the solution. Hopefully, this helps!

Ok, I have one thing to add. This worked for me.

When I was having problems, I had the renderer set to Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration (OpenCL).

I changed the renderer to Mercury Playback Engine GPE (Metal) - Recommended

With that change, the video and audio were synced after export.

Solved this in my case in a few ways. I had some footage that was falling out of sync after export, but it only seemed to be a problem when it was playing it through quicktime. You can play any local video off your device through Google Chrome, just open a new tab and literally drag the video there, you'll see a green + sign appear by the cursor. When I tried playing those same exported video files that had laggy audio in quicktime, they played perfectly fine and in sync in Chrome. So the problem there was with our quicktime was reading the file opposed to how the file itself was encoded. This was really confusing because I used media encoder to confirm that the source video had a constant frame rate (frequently the culprit for these audio sync issues) and the footage was in sync when I tried playing it in the premiere timeline.

I had some other footage that had a variable frame rate and that footage didn't even import into premiere in with audio in sync. Quicktime would play that same footage in sync, but when loaded into premiere, the video and audio instantly fell out of sync, even in the premiere timeline. I used handbrake to reencode that footage to a constant frame rate and had the audio sync issue solved. 

Hi! Adobe, I just wanted to add to this thread. I started having this issue after the 2021 update. Nothing has changed in my workflow and all of a sudden when I export h.264, my audio is out of sync and drifts further and further as the video goes on. Other codecs don't seem to have the problem but I need H.264 for the platform I upload to. I'm not using VFR although I do have a couple 30fps clips on a 24fps timeline but I've also expereinced the same problem just having a single 24fps clip that I was adding a fade in/out to. Please help! What used to be a simple export has me trying all these different work arounds that just shouldn't be neccessary. Thank you!

Tech Specs:

MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019)

2.3 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9

32 GB 2667 MHz DDR4

AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8 GB

Adobe Premiere Pro 15.1.0