Premiere keeps crashing ever since updating to 26.2.2

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Premiere Pro 26.3.0 and 26.2.2 constantly becomes "Not Responding" during normal editing (Windows 11, Intel Core Ultra). Are there any known issues, workarounds, or logs I should collect before opening a support case with Adobe?

1. System specifications

• Laptop: Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6
• Processor: Intel Core Ultra 5 235U
• GPU: Intel Graphics
• RAM: 32 GB
• Storage: NVMe SSD
• Operating System: Windows 11 Enterprise (Build 26100)
• Creative Cloud: Up to date
• Camera Raw: Up to date

2. Problem

Premiere Pro constantly becomes "Not Responding" during normal editing.

It does not crash. Instead:

• The window becomes dimmed.
• Windows shows the blue spinning cursor.
• Premiere is marked as "Not Responding".
• After approximately 2 to 10 seconds, it recovers by itself.

The problem happens repeatedly throughout the editing session.

3. It happens when:

• Saving the project (Ctrl+S)
• Moving text layers
• Opening menus
• Moving clips
• General timeline editing
• Basic UI interactions

It is not limited to playback or rendering.

4. Project information

• Happens with existing projects
• Happens with brand new empty projects
• Happens even before adding media

5. What has already been tested

• Cleared Media Cache
• Reset Premiere preferences
• Reinstalled Premiere
• Updated from 26.2.2 Build 3 to 26.3
• Updated Creative Cloud Desktop
• Updated Camera Raw
• Disabled:
  • H.264/HEVC hardware accelerated decoding
  • H.264/HEVC hardware accelerated encoding
• Restarted Premiere after changes
• Tested with and without Wi-Fi
• Tested different projects
• Tested a completely new project
• System Compatibility Report shows "No conflict to report"
• Windows Event Viewer shows no Premiere errors or Application Hang events
• CPU, RAM, SSD and GPU are not saturated during the freezes.

6. Additional observations

Using Analyze Wait Chain in Windows Task Manager shows:

One or more threads of Adobe Premiere Pro.exe are in waiting status.

However, Premiere is not waiting on any external process (such as OneDrive, Defender, Explorer, etc.). The wait chain only shows Premiere's own threads.

7. Other Adobe applications

Photoshop, Illustrator and other Adobe applications work normally.

8. Older versions

I installed Premiere Pro 25.5 alongside 26.x.

A quick test with a new empty project in 25.5 did not reproduce the freezes.

Unfortunately, I cannot continue working in 25.5 because my current projects require compatibility with Motion Graphics Templates (.mogrt) created for the newer version.

Add me to the list of people experiencing this problem: “Not responding” but no crash reports. Here are my (extensive) details:

CURRENT PROBLEMS

“Not responding” anytime I click on any of the menu options (File, Edit, Clip, etc.)

“Not responding” any time I try to work with text (change anything in the Properties panel)

HISTORY

I’ve been using Adobe Premiere on my current machine for 3 years with no problems. In fact, until the recent problems, it has been extremely nimble.  That includes working with 4K video and mixed frame rates. All of my current problems have been with 1080p projects. I did add a Wacom Cintiq to my setup a few months ago with no apparent problems. As noted below, I think I’ve addressed the possibility that it caused the problems. I’m having zero problems with any of the other programs I use daily: After Effects, Photoshop, Cinema 4D, or Maxon Autograph.

COMPUTER DETAILS

CUSTOM BUILD by AVADirect

PROCESSOR – 13TH Gen Intel Core i9-13900KF (3.00GHz)

INSTALLED RAM – 128GB (128GB usable)

GRAPHICS CARD – NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 (16GB) latest driver installed 6/27/26

STORAGE: 2.73T (1.65T used)

OS: Windows 11 Pro – last updated on 6/27/26

ADOBE PREMIERE: Version 26.3.0 (Build 93)

THINGS I’VE ALREADY TRIED (NOT NECESSARILY IN THIS ORDER)

Uninstalled and reinstalled Premiere

Updated Windows

Updated NVIDIA drivers

Cleared Media Cache

Checked RAM Allocation (RAM reserved for other applications: 12GB/RAM available for Ae,Pr,Me, and Au: 116GB)

Set Program Panel to Lower Playback Quality

Cleared Temp Files

Optimized my hard drives

Removed all unnecessary startup apps

Moved the project to the Desktop and made sure all files are stored on local drive

Reencoded video via Movavi

Uninstalled Wacom-related files and disconnected the Cintiq.

ONE FINAL TEST I TRIED

Created a project with no assets at all. Premiere works a little better, but still gives me a “Not Responding” message.

Thanks for pointing that out. I’ve installed the update, but the problem persists. The UI keeps crashing. Premiere might respond a bit quicker after a freeze. There’s no crash report.

I’ve got the same problem. Or something similar.

For me, Premiere runs for about 10 minutes, then the programme only responds intermittently.

That means I play back the timeline and then can’t stop it. Or Premiere stops responding altogether. It looks as though the UI freezes. The video and audio carry on playing. Sometimes this happens even when no video is playing, just from using the software.

Yes, I’m very familiar with that timer issue.

My system:

Asus Flow x16 laptop

i9 13900H

96GB RAM

RTX 4070 8 GB

Video: h264 mp4, 10-bit 422

It doesn’t matter whether the data is on the internal SSD, a USB SSD or the NAS.

My solution:

No video playback and restarting Premiere every 10 minutes. That’s great fun!

I have been having the same issue. I am working with our IT dept, but we haven’t come up with a solution yet. For me, it is freezing up when I am in the text editor, graphics panel, or editing keyframes for audio. Usually the project works fine until I use one of those functions. Unbelievably frustrating as its freezing up after 3-5 clicks and after 20 years of working with Adobe Premiere, I am very fast.  

Computer specs are as follows: 

AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5955WX 16-Cores      (4.00 GHz)

64.0 GB (63.9 GB usable)

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 16GB

Windows 11

2 TB storage. 

Any ideas or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

On my macOS, I am experiencing an issue where the application unexpectedly crashes when I open my working folder. I cannot access my workspace unless I reset the plugin. However, sometimes after I finish working, save the project, and reopen it, the issue happens again. I suspect that version 26.2.2 has a conflict with a third-party plugin

Hi username.44556,

Sorry about the poor experience. We will get it checked. Are you getting any crash reports before it becomes unresponsive? Are the media files saved locally or in an external/network drive? Are there any effects applied to the clips in the timeline? We’re here to help, just need more info.

Thanks,
Sumeet

i've uninstalled and install previous version . this is so irritating

Is it always crashing when it reaches a certain video? Is it possible that you’re working with a corrupt file?