Skip to main content
R
redtentacles
Participant
July 27, 2026
Answered

Premiere Pro 26.3 issues with transcription/freezing

  • July 27, 2026
  • 10 replies
  • 83 views

Two issues that seem connected. Transcription tool usually works the first time in an edit session, but after a period (5-30mins or so) it stops working - it gets stuck in limbo saying “creating auto transcription” without progressing.

At which point premiere usually stops working entirely. ie unable to load clips, play timeline etc. Saving the project is possible though. Upon rebooting the app, everything works fine for a period, including transcription, then the same thing inevitably happens. 

The freezing also occasionally happens without even using the transcription tool. 

I’ve tried many suggestions on multiple forums (eg clear media cache, revert to saved layout etc etc).

Also tried going back to previous premiere version as this issue only started happening recently. nothing has helped so far.

Working on an M4 macbook pro with plenty of RAM, using external drive for media. 

    Correct answer aalpert712

    @PaulMurphy Yes, these were separate files; two camera setup with four mono microphones per camera. I isolated the microphone with the best mono audio and hit “modify” to make the audio channels stereo.

    It didn’t matter what transcript file type I used, no words were recognized. But I now know why. Even though the audio playing on the timeline was the correct channel (and showed the waveform spikes), somehow the transcript was trying to recognize dialogue spoken from another channel. In this case, an internal camera microphone that wasn’t capturing audio. I hit “modify” to try to isolate the correct microphone again and that seemed to do the trick.

    This same problem occurred while I was exporting another project today (July 30th); Adobe somehow switched the microphone channels ONLY on track A2. I re-modified the channels to the correct microphone and it was able to export all correct audio tracks. 

    10 replies

    aalpert712
    aalpert712
    Inspiring
    July 28, 2026

    I updated to Premiere 26.3 on July 27th, 2026. For a 30 minute video with two stereo audio tracks, the transcription recognizes both media sources (and will process both) but after loading, it only transcribes the first audio track. I tried getting around this by exporting just an audio file and importing it into the project, but it omitted the second audio track. I tried opening the project in Audition, and though it showed both audio tracks with the appropriate editing cuts, there was no waveform for the second track.  

    P
    Community Expert
    PaulMurphyCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 28, 2026

    Premiere Pro can only display the transcript for one media file at a time. If those two stereo tracks are separate files, it is possible that both were transcribed and only one is being displayed.

    If you load each stereo track in the Source Monitor, does each one show its own transcript?

      aalpert712
      aalpert712
      Inspiring
      July 29, 2026

      No, Premiere only transcribed the audio in track A1 and not A2.

      P
      Community Expert
      PaulMurphyCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      July 27, 2026

      A few more details will narrow this down.

      Project

      • What is the size of the project file?
      • Does this happen in other projects?

      Storage

      • Can you tell us more about the external drive? Specifically, the connection type, for example USB-C or USB-A, whether it is an SSD or a spinning hard drive, and whether it is bus powered or uses its own power supply.
      • Do you see the same issue when the media is on your local drive?

      Media

      • What is the format and codec of the media you are transcribing?
        R
        redtentaclesAuthor
        Participant
        July 27, 2026

        Thanks very much, further info…

        project is 43mb

        I’ve been using the project for over 6 months but this issue only started happening around two weeks ago...and I didn’t change anything or add new files in that time. I haven’t used transcription in any other projects recently so don’t know if the issue would reoccur...I’ll do a test tomorrow to see.

        external drive is a samsung 2TB SSD, USB-C connection 

        I can’t put the media on a local drive, there is way too much

        format/codec is AVCHD (MPEG-4 AVC/H.264) wrapped in an MTS file

        thanks again

        P
        Community Expert
        PaulMurphyCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        July 27, 2026

        It sounds like the media connection is not the cause, so this could be project or media specific.

        I would definitely test in another project. At 43 MB, your project file is quite large. Test a new project with the same media, and if the problem does not appear there, it may be a sign that it is time to convert your single project into a multi-project Production.

        For your MTS files, I would also suggest transcoding a handful of them as a test to see if that fixes things.

          Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
          Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices