I recently updated my MAC OSX to SEQUOIA Version 15.8.1 and also had to update my Adobe Premiere from 25 to 26- I am currently running on 26.5.2 -  I currently am on a iMAC16GB APPLE M1 with 877.GB available storage space. I a video editor and have worked on MAC for more than 20+ years utilizing FANTOM 22TB External Hard Drives formatted in EXFAT as my workhorses to capture, store and edit tons of video for my company.

In a nutshell, I was forced by our IT department to upgrade and when I did it blew my entire workflow out of the water- when I attempted to go into projects, media was missing, failed to link and basically disrupted my usual workflow.  

I started doing tons of research and attempted a few things - one being copy my tried and trued EXFAT Hard Drives to a new one with the Apple File System APFS - not sure where this suggestion came from because for years EXFAT has never done me wrong- well it appeared to work at least for the project I was working in for a moment, but as of recently the same result missing media on my timeline that is intermittent, sporadic and a real headache.

I have had to restart the entire computer, do a complete refresh/deleting of the cache at Premiere start, or wait for eternity for the clips to load- there is never one answer or way it decides reloads- it is just a real problem and not sure what to do!

Relinking clips (one by one) seems to have problems where it is either grayed out or when you relink from your bin (clip grayed out or icon) - the menu comes up with the media finder box uncheck will basically bring up the spinning beach ball of death.

I even tried uninstalling the version and even downgrading but of course either no solution and or as you are aware projects won’t open up in the downgraded version. I even read where were some bugs with this version.

I am in desperate need of answers as I churn out hundreds of projects a year, relying on older projects to cherry pick from to continue moving these projects forward!

In all my years of video production (30 years) and about 27 of those years on nonlinear and on MAC exclusively, this has been a big hit for me and beyond frustrating!

Please help, I am open to any suggestions- I am desperate to get back on track!.

Thanks,

Aaron M. Pritchett

Senior Video Production Specialist

Newport News Shipbuilding