Media Encoder not rendering

[filmspezialist]

Today I wanted to export my video from Premiere Pro 24.4.0 to Media Encoder 24.4. The project is send to ME and appears in the projects list. However when I click the start button nothing happens. I thought it might be a problem with the latest version of ME and thus went back to 24.3. However same problem here. So I also went back to Premiere Pro 24.3.0.  I opened a project which I recently successfully rendered with ME 24.3 and did send it to ME. But again - when clicking the start button nothing happens.

Obviousely something has changed. 

Any hints?

I am working on a PC under Windows  11 

[filmspezialist]

Workaround: I just found that using the "Export" button in Premiere Pro works fine - the video gets rendered. So it seems to be a problem with Media Encoder. Any ideas what the problem might be?

[eckiAMETeam]

Can you start AME first and try to send the stuff over from Export panel?

[filmspezialist]

I just tried - makes no difference. AME still not rendering my video.

Something I noticed when opening my project with Adobe Premiere Pro: it says "not responding" for quite a long time before it then finally opens my project. Not sure whether this has to do with my original problem but wanted to let you know. 

[eckiAMETeam]

Can you try with "Import sequences natively" turned on and off to see if there is a difference?

[filmspezialist]

OK -where in AME do I find this option?

[filmspezialist]

Just found it. It was checked. I unchecked it and sent my sequence again to AME. This time it is a different: there is something showing up on the "Preview" panel.  But it still does not render my sequence 

[EckiAME]

Does AME launch correctly? Do you have anti-virus, firewall or security software installed on this machine?

[filmspezialist]

Yes - it launches correctly. I have included the .exe file in the exception list of my anti-virus software. Otherwise it would not start at all (I had this problem a long time ago). I am not aware that I have changed anything regarding firewall or security software since AME worked perfectly the week before.

[filmspezialist]

I just tried the following: I switched off my anti-virus software (Trend Micro). I opned my project in Premiere Pro nds did send my sequence to AME. When I now click the start button it begins to render! That means that there is a program which I should include in the exception list of my anti-virus software. But which one would that be?

[filmspezialist]

I made another test and put the Adobe Bridge 2024 .exe file into the exception list of my anti-virus program. Now AME renders again! At least with option "Import Sequences Natively" unchecked in AME. Once I checked that option AME does not start to render.  So it seems that this is the solution.  Any thoughts?

[filmspezialist]

Obviousely I was too optimistic about having soived the problem... Today it appeared again. AME does not render. Maybe this is because of Premiere Pro and AME were released with some bugs in them? Guess I have to wait for versions 24.4.1 to become available 

[EckiAME]

Can you try to go back to the 24.3 version of AME. The app versions need to be in sync.

You may want to diasble anti-vius, monitor the processes in Task Manager and add all dependent processes to your exceptions list in antivirus: DynamicLinkManager, AERender, PProHeadless, …

Please let me know how this goes. I guess we need to revise our online help to be more precise.

[filmspezialist]

So here is my current situation:

AME 24.3 / Premiere Pro 24.3.0 / Windows 11

When I send my sequence from PP to AME the sequence is visible in AME. When clicking on the start button nothing happens at all. Checking or unchecking option "Import sequences natively" in AME does not make any difference. 

I also activated and deactivated my antivirus software - but it makes no difference in AME's behavior

[EckiAME]

How long did you wait? Sometimes, (e.g., with plug-ins or an extreme number of audio files), it may take a bit to start the job.

[filmspezialist]

Here is what I did: I deactivated my antivirus software, opened a PP project, send my sequence to AME, clicked on the start button in AME - and the render process began immediately! I stopped an cancelled it. Then I started again as before - this time with no luck: AME did not render. I tried this several times but did not succeed.  AME refuses to render. Don't ask me why it worked at the first try. 

Since I have deactivated my antivirus program it must be another problem and obviousely has nothing to do with the exception list of my antiviris software.

[EckiAME]

Can you provide your specs (OS, CPU, GPU, memory) and a bit of info about your PPro project (media types, filters)? I want to repro.

[filmspezialist]

OS: Windows 11 (Version 10.0.22631 Build 22631)

CPU:  Prozessor 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-13900K, 3000 MHz, 24 Kern(e), 32 logische(r) Prozessor(en)

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060

The PP project contains HD video files and 5.1 audio. Nothing fancy

[filmspezialist]

In the meantime I have reinstalled PP 24.0.0 as well as AME 24.0 - with those versions the problem seems to have disappeared! AME renders just as it should.

[filmspezialist]

Now that new versions of PP and AME are avilable I did some further tests:

I have two projects, project A and project B

Behavior with PP 24.0.0 / AME 24.0

With those versions project A renders in AME just fine while project B does not render at all. Checking or unchecking of option "Import sequences natively" in AME makes no difference

Behavior with PP 24.4.1 / AME 24.4.1

Neither project A nor project B are rendered in AME. Deactivating antivirus software makes no difference at all 

[filmspezialist]

I did a further test as follows: First of all I stopped my antivirus program. Within PP 24.4.1 I then created a new sequence and just put a very short mp4 file into its timeline. Then I exported the sequence to ME 24.4.1 with option "Send to Media Encoder". In ME the sequence did show up. I clicked on the start icon and again nothing happened. It did not render at all. 

Next I deleted the sequence from ME and tried to use the option to import a PP sequence by using ME's pulldown menu. I selected the PP  project and noticed that ME waits for Dynamic Link Server forever. When I open Windows 11's Task Manager I can see that there is a Dynamc Link Manger process running. 

Maybe this helps getting closer to the problem? 

[filmspezialist]

Next test: I deinstalled PP and then reinstalled it again. I opned PP, created a new sequence, send it to ME and clicked the start icon. ME immediatey began to render! But this happened only once. The next time Isent the sequence again to ME and clicked start nothing happened at all. 

[axelj5676904]

Same problem here after the last ME update.

[EckiAME]

@filmspezialist, thank you very much for all your inquiries.

OK. So I guess something is wrong with DynamicLink. Let's start with the standard recommendations and see if you already tried all of these:

1. Make sure that versions of all apps match (required for DynamicLinkManager to work correctly).
2. Verify your own AntiVirus / GateKepper setup. If applicable, deactivate temporarily to verify. On Windows, turn off the Windows Firewall.
3. Quit all DVA apps.
4. Use Activity Monitor / Task Manager to kill DynamicLinkManager if it still runs. (On Windows, you need to open the Details tab to see dynamiclingmanager.exe in TaskManager.)
5. Launch AME first.
6. Open & export the project again.

Did you already try 3., 4. and 5? 

For After Effects, you may also check these instructions here: https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/kb/after-effects-composition-export-error.html

If that all didn't work we need to look at the DynamicLink logs next.

[filmspezialist]

Thanks very much for getting into that. I think I did most of what you suggested already. But to be sure I will do  as suggested. Beforehand I need to know about 3. - what are DVA apps?