Skip to main content
Participant
December 24, 2018
Answered

Left audio only in timeline, but both left and right audio in source. Help?

  • December 24, 2018
  • 19 replies
  • 80406 views

In premiere, the audio file that I have is only playing from the left side. I have followed all of the YouTube videos on how to fix this, from modifying the audio channel to adding the "fill right audio with left" effect. After adding the effect, the audio file in the timeline still only plays from the left, but in the source it shows that both the left and right audio channels are filled. And when I play the audio file in the source window, it is playing from both the left and the right. So basically, in the timeline, I only get left audio, but the source shows both left and right. Any ideas on how to fix this or what I need to do to make both sides play in the timeline? Thanks!!

Correct answer adeo85103157

Not very helpful and not sure what your suggesting, this didn't work for me.

But I figured it out after a while. Try going into sequence settings, under audio change 'number of channels' to 2 if it says 1 and press OK. After this it work as normal, both left and right audio returned.

19 replies

Participant
June 29, 2025

Try changing the actual audio file to stereo. Here's what I did

right click on the file (from project) -> click modify -> audio channels ->clip channel format to stereo -> click L and R channels 


Then try again. Sometimes the file being read gets converted and not the sequence file. Hope this helps

Participant
February 18, 2025

This is an old thread, but I wanted to share a solution I had to rediscover on my own. 

 

I absolutely HAVE TO have the audio tracks separated when I export, so I can use the sequences later without having the audio mixed together into a MONO track.  Here's how I do it, when I need to separate the tracks, but still want to hear both L/R channels when the vid plays in the timeline:

 

When you create a sequence, go to the TRACKS tab.  Where it says "MIX", select the STEREO option.  However, where it says, "TRACK TYPE", choose the MONO option for all tracks.  Then, under PAN/BALANCE, pan the tracks LEFT or RIGHT, on every other track.  This way, when you export your sequence, you'll be able to separate the audio, but you'll still be able to hear everything while you're editing.  

 

Once you get this how you want it, I'd also recommend hitting "SAVE PRESET' at the bottom, so you can always utilize this when you need it.  

Participant
January 21, 2025

I had kind of a similar problem using Abobe Premiere Pro 2025. The thing is I can see both channels in the timeline. but only one shows on the spectrum/visualizer. I tried many things said in this thread and the given link also tried checking the channels which are 4. while I only need 2. I am working with a multi camera footage but using one audio. I tried left to right and even the other way around. Nothing worked then I went to the Clip Mixer. It didnt help but when I went to the Audio Track Mixer and saw that the Output 1 was on -100 which means eft turned it to 0 and viola. It was back. I hope it can help some of you if not all.

 

Participant
October 17, 2024

I TRIED EVERY SINGLE SOLUTION THAT WAS SUGGESTED IN THIS FORUM. None of them worked. Eventually I found a solution that worked for me.

My problem:
The source audio would play from both the L and R channels. When I drag it into a sequence (even with the correct settings) it would only play from the left channel.

The solution that worked for me:
Now in the timeline, I duplicated the audio clip and put the duplicate under the original clip (in track A2). For some reason, when I put this duplicated audio clip in the second track, it only plays on the R channel. So now having the same audio clip but in two different audio tracks in the timeline, I now have stereo audio from both the L and R channels lolololol.

No idea why it's like this and why this worked for me. If anyone has insights, I'd love to hear. Maybe there is a setting I overlooked. For now, I guess it's just some stupid bug.

If this wasn't helpful, hopefully you find a solution that works for you.

Participant
March 28, 2025

Hi. I'm glad you found a soliution. I had a similar issue with L + R on source audio and only L audio on the sequence timeline. In my case, I hadn't noticed PP initially defaulting to a "Broadcast/mono discrete" preset when opening a "New Sequence". Naturally, consciously selecting one of the  "HD" seqeunce prests solved the proboblem.

Participant
April 23, 2024

Alright so it's April 28th 2024 and I just faced the same problem here on my timeline. Not my first time having this problem but it looks like a finally found a quick workaround that works well. 

 

I had problems with unsolvable left/right panning on the 4 first audio tracks of the timeline. I selected all my audio clips, dragged them down 4 tracks so that my upper track was on the 5th one and then I deleted the 4 first tracks. 

 

Everything works perfectly well now, actually it doesn't because it's a very stupid way to solve a bug but it does work if you want to keep using Premiere, I suggest you keep this one close ! 

Participating Frequently
February 11, 2024

What worked for me was moving the audio clips down 1 more track on the sequence. So if they were in Track 1, I would move them to Track 2. I pay $58.63 a month for Adobe CC, and there is no excuse for Adobe to allow this to happen. If you are listening Adobe, I'm considering switching to Davinci Resolve. I don't like to have headaches trying to export my project correctly. A lot of editors are moving to Davinci Resolve. Please do something about this. This is a serious priority to us artists. - Paul

Kevin-Monahan
Community Manager
Community Manager
February 15, 2024

Hey Paul,

Thanks for the message. This is a user-to-user forum. Sorry about that. I'm not sure what happened with your sequence. Sounds like you may have gotten a sequence corruption with that audio track. I've seen that happen before. Test it with a new sequence and see if the issue resolves using the same clip. I hope the advice helps. Sorry for the frustration.

 

Thanks,

Kevin

Kevin Monahan - Sr. Community & Engagement Strategist – Pro Video and Audio
Participant
January 23, 2024

Right click the clip, selected 'create sequence from clip' - then it will work.


emily.Snell
Participant
January 20, 2024

This HAS to be a bug. It just came out of NOWHERE. I edit every single day and it seriously just popped up and its happening on all my projects. Creating a new sequence from clip DID work for me though. thank god. 

Participant
December 11, 2023

I was having this issue today, and after two hours of troubleshooting, I found the solution. In the Audio workspace and in the Audio Track Mixer, each of the 4 levels were the following: 100, -100, 100, -100. I changed them all to 0s and that worked. No idea what I did to change this, or if Premiere decided to surprise me with a problem to solve, either way this solution worked for me. 

grayhuze2
Participant
December 11, 2023

I think the answer is that FX Panner is missing at times from the effect controls and you have to add that back in the adio effects add Balance to all of your audio clips and boom it works.  I litterally put fx panner back in.  crazy but it works