P: Can't render audio 25.2

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https://www.shutterencoder.com/en/

I've never used ffmpeg and not familiar with usage. I briefly checked it out, but seems like a rabbit hole I don't really have time to explore unfortunately. FWIW, I have 4 different timelines with 4 or 5 interviews (files) each and they all are experiencing the issue, so it doesn't seem like *a* corrupt file - more like a software issue imo. Had no issues with fx30 media in previous builds. I could be wrong, just not sure. Thanks though!

@JuiceBoxG Would you be able to try the things I mention in this post here? (It's the one right above yours)

I haven't confirmed it works for everyone but it works for at least one video file I was having issues with. I also have a Sony camera so it might be semi-related to that too

Same issue for me been going on about 2 weeks on PP 25.2.1 (build 2). MPB M2Pro 32 GB memory. Incredibly basic timeline with only interviews from native Sony FX30 files - one channel of audio and a music track. It seems to start when I speed up or scrub through the timeline. Then gets increasingly worse with very garbled audio (mono tracks glitch in stereo in my headphones) before gettting the message that PP can't render audio to due high CPU usage. No other apps running. Just have to keep relaunching the app. 

Can you try using ffmpeg to see if the video file has any corruption? I have a particular video file that got corrupted when copying it off my SD card the first time. Then I have a 'good' copy of the same exact file. The corrupted one caused this issue same with the latest version of Premiere only, and the "good" copy of the file has no issues.

To check if a video file has any corruption even if it plays, you can use this ffmpeg command. I would be curious if it reveals a pattern. If the error.log file it outputs is empty, there aren't any issues.

ffmpeg -v error -i whatever_video.mp4 -f null - 2>error.log

Possible workaround 1, if the command above reveals file corruption:

I was able to get Premiere Pro to at least import the bad file by using this FFMPEG command to remux the video (just repackages it without re-encoding), which didn't fix the underlying stream corruption, but apparently fixed enough of the header stuff where Premiere imported it without causing the problem.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c copy output.mp4

The output video still shows errors when doing the other ffmpeg error log command, but there are fewer and they are different. So it might be worth a try if you don't have access to a 'good' copy of the video.

I highly suspect the problem is down to an apparently new video engine/converter mentioned in the update: "Completely rewritten support for MKV (H.264/AAC) files to improve compatibility and performance"

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I also found that I was getting issues with Premiere using at on of CPU when loading media, and even more-so with the bad file. The high CPU usage at least seems to becaused by the new settings under Preferences > Media Analysis & Transcription. Disabling "Analyze all imported media to visually search your projects" and "Automatically transcribe clips", so you can try disabling those.

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Potential workaround 2 to try, for some issues  (like I couldn't get it to generate a waveform in the timeline) - We're basically going to use an old version of Premiere to just create the metadata files for the video clips:

1. Without a project open,  go to Preferences > Media Cache >  Enable "Save .cfa and .pek media cache files next to original media".
2. In the same menu next to "Remove media cache files" click "Delete", then select "Delete all media cache files" (this one is apparently only available if no project is open).
3.  It will restart Premiere. DO NOT open any projects, just close Premiere Pro 2025
4. Launch a previous version of Premiere Pro such as 2024 from last year - DO NOT open any projects yet 
5. Go immediately to Preferences > Media Cache > again Enable "Save .cfa and .pek media cache files next to original media" and hit OK. (You shouldn't have to delete the Media Cache files again since I believe they're shared)
6. Create a blank new project and import any clips that were causing problems, or just any clips you'll need. Let it create the .pek files, and any other metadata files, that should now appear next to the corresponding media files.

7. After Premiere Pro 2024 finishes generating the files, close it and re-open your project in Premiere Pro 2025.

Same here since the last 2 updates, nothing works... Plus everything is more laggy with no particular reason

I am also in the same boat.  I am on an M4 Max Mac studio with 128gb of ram.  I have tried solutions posted here and am continuing to have the same problem repeatedly.

Same issue here in version 25.2. In the rendered video, there's no sound in the first audio track. What temporarily worked for me was moving the audio clips to another track with the same settings. 

Honestly, it's pretty disappointing that this hasn't been fixed after almost two weeks. This kind of bug really shouldn't take this long to address.

Been getting the same thing without multiple framerates. PLS HLP. 

Same! I have never had this issue before until the recent update. Is there a solution yet? Clearing the cache doesn't work. Cheers.