Premiere Project Freezing

I'm currently working on a project and am encountering an issue I've never had before. When I open the project file everything is fine, but after several minutes the program monitor will freeze on a single frame. The play button stays at the pause button as if it's currently playing. I can scrub through the timeline - although this doen't affect what's on the monitor. The program itself is not frozen, and I can access the top toolbar and I can click around in the timeline. Freezing happens at various parts on the timeline, so I don't believe it's a corrupted clip. If I try to export a section before it freezes, it will freeze before the audio can be rendered. 

Is it possible for the project file itself to become corrupted? I tried loading an older autosave file and haven't had issues with it yet. Only problem is I'm losing a lot of work that's be done. Any help is appreciated 

I'm currently using Version 24.6.1 (Build 2)

• Issue - Premiere Pro freezes while editing. The pause/play button will be stuck with the Pause icon. I'm able to scroll through the project - though the image within the monitor is stuck at the still it freezes at. When it's frozen, I'm also able to access menu items etc but can not view playback on any clips. Freezing happens on any number of clips and doesn't seem to be isolated to one clip like was suggested by someone in this thread.
• Adobe Premiere Pro version number: 24.6.0 (Build 86) I was also having this issue with Version 24.6.1 (Build 2). I tried an older version most recently and am still having issues.
• Operating system - Mac OS Sequoia 15.0
• System Info: CPU, GPU, RAM, HD:
  • 3.8 Ghz 8-core intel core i7

  • AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT 8 GB - 72 gigs of RAM

  • External Lacie Hard Drive connected via Lightning 

• Video format: MXF
• Workflow details: Raw footage is on the external harddrive with no issues until recently. 
• Steps to reproduce - (Very important!) Open Project - Sometimes will freeze right away - Sometimes it will take a few minutes of playback and scrubbing around.