I feel like this product is just broken

[Skounge23456]

Last year at the beginning of the pandemic I purchased Premiere Elements 2020 bundled with Photoshop Elements 2020. Photoshop Elements is slow to open but otherwise works fine. My issues are with Premiere. Premiere Elements absolutely obliterated the performance of my laptop. The specs were barely above the recommended, so I wasn't too too upset about it. I have moved on to a new computer. My gaming PC has the below specs:

Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10700F CPU @ 2.90GHz 2.90 GHz
Installed RAM 8.00 GB (7.78 GB usable)
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

It's not a bad computer. I have no issues running and streaming modern games while recording audio from my mic and 1080p video from my webcam using multiple applications all running simultaneously. But if I try to use Premiere Elements, with no other applications open, it's a miracle if I can edit for more than 5 minutes before my entire computer, including the cursor, freezes and I have to manually reset. Even when the computer isn't frozen, I frequently have to wait for up to a minute just for the application to register one single click. Frequently the video preview just goes totally black. Rendering the media takes an astronomically/unreasonably long time. Why do I have to go into Task Manager and end certain background processes just to get the application to open? This is perhaps a touch overstated, but it feels like this software is held together with Scotch tape. I truly can't use it in its current state.

Adobe, please let me know if there is anything I can do to troubleshoot. Why do I have to fiddle around in task manager just to open the application? Why is this software crashing so frequently? Why does it run so aggressively slowly/poorly?

To everyone else, I really recommend you stay away from this software.

[John T Smith]

Do not count on Windows to be fully up to date when it comes to device drivers
Go to the vendor site to be sure you have an updated driver for your graphic adapter
nVidia Driver Downloads http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
-for Premiere Pro (and MAYBE Premiere Elements) use the STUDIO driver, not the GAMING driver
-such as (this MAY not be the latest) https://www.nvidia.in/Download/driverResults.aspx/177929/en-in

There are also intermittent reports that the newest driver is not always the best driver due to driver bugs or compatibility issues, so you MAY need to try an earlier driver version

[Skounge23456]

Thanks so much for the response - really  appreciate it. It's good to know that sometimes the drivers need to be manually updated. In this case that does not appear to have solved the problem. I am writing this post using my phone because I am waiting on my computer to restart after yet another crash caused by Premiere Elements.

[John T Smith]

I can only say that I have ZERO problems with PrE 2021.3

What I have (home built Jan 2021)
Windows 10, currently at version 21H1 - Premiere Elements 2021.3
Intel i9-10900k CPU in ASUS-Prime-Z490-P motherboard with 64Gig TEAMGROUP-3200MHz Ram
Seagate-FireCuda 500Gig M.2 for Windows and programs and usual Documents files
500Gig SSD for temporary and output files, 1T SSD for video and picture input files
Video MSI GeForce GTX 1650 128 Bit Graphics 4Gig GDDR6 Ram driver 456.71 + a DVD drive

[Skounge23456]

This is good reference to have. Thank you so much for taking the time to provide all this info. I really appreciate it.

[John T Smith]

>My gaming PC

One other thought... have you ever used the driver disc that came with your computer, or by going to the vendor of your motherboard, to install any motherboard driver updates?

I don't remember the details of exactly what I did, but the driver disc that came with my motherboard had 'some' drivers that had been updated after the date the motherboard design was 'locked' to be manufactured

[Bill Sprague]

Premiere Elements is not broken.  It runs well enough to be a "best seller" and it runs very well on my relatively simple Lenevo Legion laptop.  

To troubleshoot, you might provide what you are editing, where it comes from, how you are opening projects, what your project settings are and what you are trying to do in your projects. 

[Skounge23456]

Thanks so much for the response! So glad you've had a better experience with the application than I have.

I can't open the app without fiddling around with task manager's background processes. The app repeatedly freezes my computer. My PC runs slower now that I've installed the app. This is the second PC that has experienced these exact same issues, and both of them were within the recommended specs. So it has been my personal experience that the app is broken, but I'm really glad yours has been different.

Will do my best to provide the info you mentioned! Thanks for nudging me in the right direction. I'm making simple gameplay videos for YouTube. Two mp4 files in the project - one of me playing the game and one of the gameplay itself. Each mp4 is about 7gb and around 2 hours long. I'm hoping to cut this down to be much shorter than 2 hours and would love to be able to add in some effects/animations, but I haven't been able to get that far without everything crashing. The files are saved in a folder on my desktop. I open the project by double-clicking on the project file. If it doesn't open then I go to Task Manager, look under Background Processes, click on Adobe Premiere Elements and then click on End Task. Then I can open it. Note that even if I try to open Premiere Elements through the Start menu there is no guarantee it will open. Task manager is still frequently necessary. I've uploaded a screenshot of the project settings.

Please feel free to let me know if I haven't provided enough info, and thanks in advance for the assistance!

[jean mariej75246504]

Did you try to use Elements by creating a new project with 2 smaller clips (2 to 3 min long) to see if editing is possible ?

[Skounge23456]

Thanks so much for the response! I sure did. Here's what I observed. My PC as a whole becomes less likely to freeze, which does save me a lot of time, but Premiere Elements still freezes frequently and runs slowly. A restart of the application is frequently necessary. And the problems with opening still persist, though I'm less concerned with those since there's a task manager workaround. And naturally, I bought the app so I could edit down those larger files, so really hoping to be able to make it work with those.

Thank you again for taking the time to reply!!

[jean mariej75246504]

So it could be a problem from the specs of your video clips (codec ?). You could try to import

clips from another source (like smartphone videos) and see if Elements works with the

same issues.

 Another way could be to translate clips with Handbrake to go with other video codes. By example, it seems

recommended not to use variable frame rates with Elements.

 I hope you will be able to progress.

[Doughznutz]

Hello.

I'm wondering if this issue was resolved?

When I try to run any sort of analysis on various different video clips, no progress is made.

[Peru Bob]

What are the complete computer specs, including hard drives (how many, what kind, what is on each, what capacity, and how full)?

If NVIDIA graphics, make sure to use the latest Studio Driver from NVIDIA (NOT the Game Driver).

[Doughznutz]

Computer is New:

Windows 11, Premiere 2021, Dell XPS laptop with Nvidia GTX 1650 GPU.

1TB HD with just the OS and this Adobe SW installed.

I recently downloaded Studio Driver, but behavior is the same.

I also noticed that with Smart-Trim I am not able to use the slider and can only select on of the presets "People|Activitity|Mix".