Add media failure

[mfurtman]

I am using Premiere Elements 15, Windows 10 Pro, latest updates to both in place.

I use this program almost daily, so am very familiar with it. Until today, I could "add media" via the drop-down in the upper left, at which point the media would show up in "project assets."

This no longer works. The program SEEMS to be adding the media -- I get NO error message, and the progress bar shows the media being added -- but the "project assets" drop-down merely flashes when clicked. It doesn't open. In other words, if the program IS adding the media, I can't access it. However, I can add a single file if I right-click on it in Windows Explorer and chose "open with Premier Elements" but that precludes adding any additional files. Once the media is opened via this method, the program functions as it should, but again, I can't add any additional media of any type (audio, video).

I have uninstalled and reinstalled the program. The problem continues. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Mike

[Bill Sprague]

You use the software regularly and the software hasn't changed.  That leads to the guess that you are either running short of working space on your hard drive, you are having early symptoms of hardware failure or RAM is being crowded with background programs.

[mfurtman]

Thanks for the reply. I have 32 GB RAM, so I don't think that's the problem, and the scratch disk is an SSD with 266 GB free. I will try a different scratch disk, but I suspect that's not the issue. I discovered after writing the original post that "add media" fails only in the Expert mode. If I use Quick mode, all works as it should.

[Bill Sprague]

Not only is your issue really odd, I've not seen it ever posted here. 

[mfurtman · Accepted solution]

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE BELOW!

I guess I spoke too soon. The "fix" below didn't last long. After using the program for one edit, the "add media" and "project assets" in Expert mode quit working again.

UPDATE -- changing scratch disks did not improve the situation, but I have solved it nonetheless. I did two things, so I'm not sure which one solved the problem, but here's what I did:

I uninstalled it once again, and this time selected the optional "remove preferences." I then downloaded a fresh version of the program from the Adobe website, and used that to reinstall. Once those two steps were done, the Expert mode "add media" now works again. I wish I had done each step individually, but if anyone else runs across this problem, one or both of these steps may solve your problem.

Thanks for your input, whsprague.