Media Encoder Extrememly slow to render since new update v25

[OBDDESIGN]

Hello, I recently updated the new version v25 of media encoder and videos that usually export in a few minutes are now taking hours. I am exporting from After effects and have used the same process / settings as previous versions, so dont undertand what is going wrong. Any help would be much appreciated to resolve this.  I have attached a screenshot of a current export. Thank you.

[catherined30001271]

Same! This is a serious problem impacting our livelihoods. How can it not be solved yet?? 20 second clip with just a few basic titles, no effects, using GPU taking longer than 12 minutes! It would have taken 10 seconds to export in v24

[orb69711690]

dont use lumetri color on adjustment layers. that what cause that

[audcon]

This appears to be the workaround for the moment, but this surely needs to be fixed by Adobe ASAP. Having (multiple) Lumetri Color effects within an Adjustment Layer is the entire point of having adjustment layers in the first place, and this never used to be an issue (and frankly still isn't an issue in Premiere, only ME).

[nashton]

I am having the same issue. A video 1:15 long takes 27s to render in Premiere and over 6 minutes in Media Encoder. There is a Lumetri color instance on the video for color correction, and another in an adjustment layer for grade. --> If I delete it from the adjustment layer, then I get a fast render in Media Encoder. <--

The PProHeadless jumps to 3000%+, but the GPU never engages. YES - I have hardware encoding turned on (see attached export setting screen captures).

Mac Pro / 15.3..1 / 3.2 Ghz 16-core Xenon W / 192 GB Ram / Dual AMD Radeon Pro W5700K 16GB

Most recent versions of Adobe software installed. (PP 25.1.0 b73 / ME 25.1 b65)

I updated from MacOS 13.x thinking that might help, since that was long overdue, but it made no difference with this issue.

[tscott93]

Having the same issue across multiple computers in our organization. I made a duplicate post by accident.
A brand-new Lenovo Legion with a Ryzen 9 and RTX 4080 12GB is taking 25 mins at best on 25.1, and 2+ hours on the beta.
On my 2021 MacBook Pro 14", it takes 13 minutes.
On several other machines, from powerful to pitiful, it took anywhere from an hour to 3 hours to render, sometimes crashing entirely.

It's definitely GPU utilization related as it seems to affect anything that is an 'accelerated' effect. I have a very resource-intensive 3D test file that I've sent to @EckiAME. I've also included a screenshot of my desktop's GPU use during rendering in AE vs. AME.

The 'workaround' is not really feasible either. Trying to export the same project from After Effects directly eats all of the available RAM and it crashes, even on a 32GB machine with only 4GB allowed for other apps. Disabling 'accelerated' layers and effects just makes your project incomplete.

Here's all the specs again
Render time: 2+ hours estimated

Windows 11 Pro

Ryzen 7 2700x

32GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 8GB
Export settings:
Renderer is set to Mercury/CUDA
Source is 3840 x 2160 - 29.97 fps
- Video: Based on source, Hardware Encoding
- Audio: AAC, 320 kbps, 48 kHz, Stereo
- Bitrate: VBR, 1 pass, Target 20.00 Mbps

Hopefully we can get this fixed, it's been months.

[FabioBarros]

I had a similar issue but in Premiere Pro, was working on a project in PP 2024 and I just updated to 2025 now. I had this problem exporting 4K HEVC, almost endless render times... fixed it by copying the all the content of my timeline to a new sequence in a new project created in PP 2025.

I'm assuming the problem is somewhere in the automatic conversion Premiere Pro does when updating project files to 2025. Maybe it will work for AE?

[tscott93]

@FabioBarrosUnfortunately the project files in my case were created using AE 2025. Are you queueing to AME or exporting straight out of Premiere?

[FabioBarros]

Exporting in PP was and is working fine, I was queueing to Media Encoder because I needed to batch render several videos.

[tscott93]

By the way, the beta of AME made things worse. Render time jumped from 30 mins in v25.1 to 2 hours in beta.

Also, why has this been marked as answered?? Now it doesn't show up in the post list...

[BedStudio]

I'm still having this issue - Renders that should take less than a minute are dragging over 45min. Torture.

What is going on Adobe I'm having so many random issues with lots of your products. Please get some skilled members back on your team.

[MarkCambria]

Encoder taking 2-3x longer to export. What took 4min in 2024 now takes 12min. Going back to 2024 workflow. 

[MarkCambria]

Hello everyone, I seem to have fixed the issue. Not really sure why this worked maybe a smarter person can explain. When exporting to h264, I changed the target bitrate from the default 10, to around 20 mbps. Its also set at hardware encoding, VBR 1pass. File is twice the size but the export time is just as fast as ME 2024. 

[BCSFF]

Interesting! I will have to try this if Adobe can't get us another update soon. @EckiAME Any news?

[Strillogy]

I wanted to add to this thread that both my machines have the same problem. M4 pro iMac (maxed out) and the M4 max MacBook Pro. It doesn't matter whether I use media that's ProRes 422, CRAW, h264, etc. whenever I export (usually to h264, mp4, 35MB, hardware encoding) render times are hours on fairly simple edits that would normally take 10-15 mins tops with previous versions of premiere/ame (they all have lumetri adjustment layers). 

On top of all this, adobe constantly flags my app/sends emails/forces password resets because they now say I can't use the software on two computers unless I log out of creative cloud entirely before moving to my laptop from a desktop or vice versa. 

Within one year adobe has massively cut my productivity down because of the constant issues. 

[Strillogy]

*that should say Mac mini not iMac 

[jeremy_3702]

Same issue. 25.1 was working fine yesterday. 25.2 is extremely slow and I get a notification that it's using too much CPU to have proper playback in Premiere. 

Terrible update.

[BCSFF]

Have you tried PP 25.2.3 yet?  I'm still on 25.1, just realized I missed some updates. Man it would be AMAZING to get this issue resolved... 

[Wayne G52]

Everything seems to be working with this latest release. I have the Lumetri layers added to my timeline exported a 1hr 30mins project out to Media Encoder and completed in 1hr 30mins. I also have Boris FX plugins added to some of the clips, which can slow down rendering.

So all good this end at last! 😉

[Liken7466]

I'm currently using 25.2.3. The problem hasn't gone away. On the old version, the render took 11 minutes, now it takes 1 hour, 20 minutes

[Liken7466]

Has anyone tried 25.5? Did they fix it?

[Joseph245210059knh]

Just wanted to contribute that I'm experiencing the same issue.  I upgraded PP to 25.2.3 and AME took unexpectedly long to process a 1 hour video on my machine...over 24 hours.  Rolled PP back to 25.1 and everything ran as expected.  AME version is 25.2.  No other settings changed between attempts.

[travise38589766]

When you rolled PP back to 25.1 did you roll back AME as well?  Or did its version remain unchanged (25.2)?

In other words, does the PP version determine whether AME is slow or not?  (rather than the AME version)?

[Liken7466]

No, he didn't. He only changed the versions of the PP.

[Liken7466]

So according to him, it turns out that it is the version of the PP that determines the speed 

[Liken7466]

Hello again. I noticed that when I click "preview" in the media encoder, it shows the AMD encoder. This doesn't always happen, but quite often. I think this is why the encoding time increases.I noticed this happens when watching videos on YouTube, with OBS running (without recording). And when connecting a monitor to my nvidia card. I mean, what the heck? How am I supposed to use my pc during encoding if literally anything can cause troubles?