Media Encoder hangs on import / dynamic link server

[JohnThomas]

I have the same problem on two different computers. One is macOS 10.13.6 and the other is Windows 10 1909. I have intermittant success importing a comp into AME but when I am successful, AME will hang when I attempt to adjust the render settings or initiate a render. It typically locks up when "Reading XMP" - the rest of the time the comps never show up in AME and AME becomes unresponsive.

I have tried all of the following recomendations found in this forum:

• Created a new user
• Cleared preferences & cache
• Renamed the "dynamiclinkmediaserver" folder to "dynamiclinkmediaserver_old"
• Checked that all languages are identical
• Imported AE comp into Premiere and then went back and tried AE/AME
• Sent a comp to render inside AE, then queued it over to AME from inside the AE render window
• Forced quit the AdobeIPCBroker process
• Queued a comp to render out to AME and cmd+tab back and forth between AE/AME
• Rebuilt the project from scratch
• Deleted all media markers
• Logged out of my acount from inside AE then logged back in through the cloud desktop app
• Fresh install of macOS 10.13.6
• Reinstalled all Adobe 2020 applications
• Unistalled 2020 applications/preferences and rolled back to 2019
• Unisntalled 2019 applications/preferences and went back to 2020

Let me know if I can provide any additional information to help troublshoot this problem. Thank you very much for any help anyone can provide. 

[JohnThomas]

UPDATE #1 - I'm focusing on troubleshooting the mac for now because the PC can be used for other projects. 

I formatted the machine, completely wiping all information and installed macOS 10.13.6 High Sierra. The first software I installed was Adobe CC. I still can not queue my comps over to AME. 

There's something wrong with the way Adobe is getting installed and I can't figure out what it is. 

[Justin Taylor-Hyper Brew]

Dang that's intense, you've tried most of the things I was gonna suggest. Something somewhere is corrupted, so I'd recommend testing sections of your project at a time till you identify the troublesome area or effect. So you could split your project in half, see if that works, if so try the second half, if that doesn't work then you know the issue is there somewhere, repeat the process, etc.

[JohnThomas · Accepted solution]

UPDATE #2 - I wanted to bring some closure to this problem. After an insane amount of time spent on diagnosing the software and hardware, it came down to the content. We don't know exactly what was wrong, but running the files through handbrake and converting them to ProRes resolved the problem. The content appeared fine upon delivery. It was imported into AE and edited without any problems. All previews ran fine. But exporting the comps with the originally supplied files locked up the software. 

[Justin Taylor-Hyper Brew]

Definitely been there a handful of times, one of the trickiest problems to pin down. Glad to hear you resolved it.