Major lag on timeline with Premiere Pro v 23.1 - macOS

[Mary Betsy]

Since updating to Premiere v 23.1, I'm experiencing serious delays when performing standard actions on the timeline (scrubbing, trimming, playback, etc). Restarting the application seems to provide temporary relief, but performance quickly gets sluggish the longer I edit.

The lag occurs regardless of:

• whether the playback resolution is 1/4 or high
• whether High Quality Playback is checked
• whether I've rendered clips on the timeline
• the type of media (compressed video, proxies, just audio)

I've also tried:

• updating macOS
• setting my audio input to none
• clearing the media cache
• resetting the workspace

I use Productions and am working on the same projects (now upgraded to the new version) that had no performance problems before the last update. If anyone can help me troubleshoot or provide insight, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks, y'all.

System specs

• macOS Monterey
• Version 12.6.2
• Mac Pro (Late 2013)
• Processor 3.7 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5
• Memory 64 GB 1866 MHz DDR3
• Startup Disk Macintosh HD
• Graphics AMD FirePro D300 2 GB

[Francis-Crossman]

Hi everyone, I'm the product manager on Premiere Pro and I want to let everyone know that we are working hard to fix this issue.  This is a bad bug for sure.  Our engineers are very confident they have tracked down the root cause and are working hard on a fix.  In the meantime, this is what we know.  We are only getting reports of it affecting MacOS, but the problem could in theory affect Windows too.  Closing and reopening the sequence is the best workaround that we know of right now, but it's not a permanent fix.  Slower machines are affected more.  This only affects Premiere Pro version 23.1.  Rolling back to 23.0 will definitely fix the issue.  I have posted a Known issue doc over here: Known issue: Timeline performance in Premiere Pro 23.1. I'll post updates over there and also here.  Thank you to everyone for the detailed notes you put in this thread and elsewhere.  It really helped us get to the bottom of this issue.  

[Michael Grenadier]

Hey Kevin, I guess you qualify as the horses mouth...  Thanks for posting the workaround...

[Michael Grenadier]

Thanks Francis...  This kind of post is so important, letting us know that the adobe team is on the case...    

[Francis-Crossman]

You got it, Michael.  We're working hard on this one over here.  Actually, we have a speculative fix in testing now.  Will keep you posted.

[jamesdrakefilms]

Glad to hear the bug fix is in the works. Thank you!

[Itam]

Good to hear there is a fix coming up @francis-crossman and thanks for informing us. I can assure you there are a lot of Windows-users having this problem as well (including me). It has been reported along this forum a lot. Don't know if it is exactly the same issue (I will leave that to the engineers 😉 ), but the similarity is striking.

[sercanerturk]

Finally, good to hear some official stuff about this. Thank you.

[Francis-Crossman]

We have a fix in hand!  The fix is in Premiere Pro beta version 23.3 build 22 which was made available just this morning.   In Creative Cloud Desktop, go to the Beta section and click "check for updates" – Beta info and FAQ   I encourage you to download the beta and let us know if it fixes the issue for you.

[Mary Betsy]

Thanks so much for the update about the Beta, @Francis-Crossman! Appreciate the team working to get this fixed.

A couple questions:

• If I upgrade my current project to the Beta version, will I be able to easily transition to an upcoming version?
• If so, how would that be affected if further changes to the Beta are needed?
• And what about projects in a production?

I realize that editing current work in the Beta version is a risky move, but given that it sometimes took an hour for this bug to kick in, I'd love to invest that time on work I need to do anyway, if at all possible.

In any case, thanks again for the team's hard work on this.

[Tom Layson]

I have nothing to add here - just another verification of some sort of problem I can't find a way to work around. I have a great experience for my first five minutes or so - and then the wheels start falling off with laggy everything. I have tried all the standard fixes from this forum and others, but there is a ghost in the machine right now that REALLY makes editing quickly difficult. Following this. I was way ahead on shows, so I decided to upgrade to the current CC and to Ventura... and oh boy - not good.

[Michael Grenadier]

Have you tried the beta version as recommended?

[Tom Layson]

I have not - since I'm not a Beta tester. Don't let me stop you.

[Warren Heaton]

The public beta can be installed along side the current release.  Unless our Creative Cloud subscription is controlled by an administrator that has restricted access, it should be available via the Beta tab in Creative Cloud Desktop.

If the issue that you're experiencing is indeed that Sequences in the current version are not releasing RAM, you can also roll back a version.

[francis-crossman]

@Mary Betsy  you can install the beta alongside the shipping version and the projects are compatible back and forth. The only trouble you could run into is if you use any of the beta features that are in development but  have not been shipped yet. If you stick to standard functionality that you were using in the shipping version, you will be fine. I agree that it's generally not recommended to edit mission critical projects in beta, but it's actually very solid. We've had major broadcasters and film productions edit in beta without issue. Still, I'd recommend making a backup of your project file and doing a test editing session for a little while. This all holds true for Productions as well. Please let me know how things go for you.

[Mary Betsy]

Thanks so much, @francis-crossman. That's great news and I'm jumping onto the beta right now.

[nickn28798207]

This is crushing my workflow. I'm testing out the beta option today but is there any update as to when this fix will be rolled out in an official shipped version?

Trying to be patient but this UI lag is unacceptable in a professional post-production environment. Especially for a program we're paying monthly for. Please fix this, Adobe. 

[Warren Heaton]

@nickn28798207 

It's definitely an inconvenience.  If the issue that you are experiencing is Sequences under macOS not releasing RAM as expected, roll back to version 23.0 or use beta 23.3.

[John Tariot]

Just a quick note of thanks to you too, Francis. Historically, my experience is that a direct response from Adobe here in the forums can be pretty rare. I realize that this is first and foremost a user-supported forum, and that Adobe can't engage with every user on every issue here. That said, I appreciate this clear update- and applaud any effort to stay in touch.

And EVERYONE is relieved to get validation of what we've all been seeing!

[John Tariot]

Hi Francis,

Beta is still exhibiting lagging/sluggish playback:

Adobe Premiere 23.3.0 Beta Build 24

macOS 12.6.3

iMac Pro

32 GB

Ultrastudio 4k Extreme 3

20TB Pegasus2-R RAID 20 Gb/s x1

Sequence settings (run smoothly in prior versions of Pr): 

24fps timebase

Video previews: 2048x1556 ProResHQ, LT, 4444 (and all others available)

Source files: 24fps 2048x1556 10-bit DPX

Have also tried setting audio input to none.

I will be rolling back to 23.0 or 22.6.x and hope things get back to normal.

[francis-crossman]

@John Tariot I really appreciate your words of thanks. We had people working over the weekend to fix this issue and I will be sure to pass it on to them. FYI we are this👌 close to having a permanent fix that we can put into a release version.

[Avery28321898myr0]

I've had the same issue and have been looking everywhere for a fix. Only uninstalling and rolling back to 23.0 works! Will wait in the meantime to update. 

[Michael Grenadier]

itam, thanks for posting your solution...  

[Itam]

Hmm I have to take it back. One hour later and Premiere timeline is stuttering again andgetting less responsive

[francis-crossman]

Based on our understanding of the problem I do not expect GPU driver updates to fix the issue. The main thing that initially made you think it was fixed was probably the relaunch of PPro. Closing and reopening the sequence only will also have the same effect. 

[JuiceBoxG]

I've only been using 23.2 beta for a short time today (2017 iMacPro 3.2Ghz 8core, 32GB RAM) but just wanted to report that the lag issue seems to have been addressed. I have copies of the same project open simultaneously in 23.0 and 23.2 beta. I actually didn't realize how bad it was in 23.0. 23.1 was completely unusuable for me, but 23.0 is also remarkably laggy by comparison. Just didn't realize it. When you scrub the playhead rapidly throughout a 1080P timeline in the Beta, it actually keeps up with the cursor and the program media updates accordingly and appears frame accurate. But in 23.0 it chases the cursor and is very nonresponsive. Glad a "real" fix is finally here, but honestly feeling frustrated that I've just been putting up with this for so long. Will go back to 23.0 to finish my current project as I don't have time to test further.