Using Proxies in Premiere Elements 16

Thanks Steve,

I'm going to need your help to troubleshoot this please.

Yes, it's Adobe Premiere Elements 2018 (version 16 under the Help>About menu)

I don't always get the orange yellow line. Here's a scenario:

These are the settings for a video file that will import without error and when I drag it to the timeline I DO get the orange render line:

These are the settings for a video file that does not give me an orange render line:

Here are the project settings:

I'm aware this contradicts what you said above about non-standard resolution but I've checked multiple times, I definitely have it the right way around.

Despite all that, it would be good to work with lower res videos for quick editing and composing and still have the option to export a finished product at a higher res.

By Premiere Elements 16, I assume you mean Premiere Elements 2018. There is no version 16 of the product.

Premiere Elements can certainly edit 4K video if it's an XAVC MP4 -- 3840x2160.

Are you sure of your video's resolution? That's a pretty non-standard resolution.

Also, when you first add your video to your timeline, do you see a yellow orange "render" line above the clip? This is an indication that the program is not matching its project settings to your video, which can result in poor and inefficient performance.

There are a number of reasons the program may not be matching project settings to your video specs. One is if your video is non-standard (which is why I asked you to confirm your video's resolution). Another is that there is an element in your video we need to address (like a variable frame rate or a dependence on a Apple codec component). And we're glad to help you troubleshoot that if you'd like.