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

[HootieGPop]

Since I've upgraded to version 23.1, virtually everything is significantly slower.  This includes simple things like scrubbing through a clip on the timeline as well as more complex things like exporting.  Also, the Dip To White effect has changed and no longer works as it used to - was that intentional?  And will it be changing back or at least renamed as it no longer dips to white?

I am running a Mac with the Apple M1 Pro chip, have 32GB of memory and Ventura 13.0.1. Nothing changed on my computer that I am aware of besides the upgrade to 23.1 of Premier Pro.  

Please let me know if the performance of Premier Pro will be corrected so at least it's no slower than it was before version 23.1 - and if the Dip To White effect will be changed.

Thanks!

[Kevin-Monahan]

Sorry about that, HootieGPop,

Some users are having a lot of trouble with v.23.1. Can you try 23.0 instead? Let us know how it goes. The team is working on a fix right now.

Thanks,
Kevin

[HootieGPop]

Hey Kevin.

Thanks for the reply and the suggestion.  Reverting to a previous version isn't that simple for us.  We're using the team function and have already saved the project under 23.1.  If we downgrade to 23.0, we get messages saying we can't open the project.  Any suggestions for a work around when the project has already been saved under a newer version of PP?

Thanks!

[cparkhurst00]

Thanks for the reply, Kevin. I hope the update happens sooner than later. The slow responsive timeline is a real bummer. Making the editing process feel like a chore for a lot of us, by the sounds of it! 

[HFDWHALERS97]

I'm with you my friend. I have a practically brand new Mac Studio with 128 of RAM and the M1 Ultra chip. My Premiere Pro is acting like I'm running on 1GB of RAM. Hopefully it gets fixed because before it was so effortless and easy to go through my 4K footage!

[craigm61395782]

Since updating to v 23.1.0, sequence/timeline scrubbing progressively gets worse, very sluggish.

Saving my work, then restarting Premiere fixes the issue temporarily.

Then it gets progressively sluggish again.

Previous version was fine with scrubbing, very responsive.

iMac Pro 2017

128 GB

macOS Monterey

2.3GHz 18-core

[craigm61395782]

**Also closing the offending Sequence, then re-opening it temporarily fixes the sluggishness.

[Benzonio]

I've read several posts re. this issue, so when is Adobe going to acknowledge this?! I don't feel like I need to list all the details of what I'm experiencing since everyone else has already done that. Please Adobe, can't you acknowledge this and get back to us?! I thought it was my fault and it produced so much stress and wasted so much time that always ends up with me pulling more hair out of my head! I'd be understanding and far more loyal to your company if you could just acknowledge the issue and let us know there's hope!  

[R Neil Haugen]

There have been threads here with devs asking questions, including wanting project files and sample media. They're working on fixing it.

Neil

Mod note: edited for content.

[Benzonio]

Hey Neil, 

Your insights are greatly appreciated. On one hand, it feels good to know it's NOT ME. On the other, it couldn't have come at a worse time now that I have a deadline to meet. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to provide the lay of the land and here's to hoping the Adobe team will figure it out in the new year!

Benson

[R Neil Haugen]

Hoping they figure this out, yeah, me too!  😉

And if you can work better in 23.0 or 22.x, well .. .at least you're working ... always practical here.

Neil

[BrianLevin]

I'm on a Mac Studio M1 Ultra and a MacBook Pro M1 Max machine and I've noticed this problem on both machines running Ventura 13.1 and Premiere 23.1.

[Mary Betsy]

Adding the projects to a new Production also hasn't resolved the issue.

[katcroft]

Same Mary. I hope this gets fixed! 

[M1Storyteller]

Thanks for posting this. I've experienced the same thing as you, though I am not using Productions.

System specs:

macOS Monterey (12.3.1)

Adobe Premiere Pro 23.1.0 (Build 86)

Macbook Pro 16-inch, 2019

2.4 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9

64GB 2667 MHz DDR4

AMD Radeon Pro 5600M 8GB

Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536MB

[Mary Betsy]

I switched to a different device (specs below) and am still experiencing the same issues. 

• Mac mini
• M1, 2020
• Chip Apple M1
• Memory 16 GB
• macOS Ventura 13.1

[leebergtally]

I went back to 23.0 and it fixed the problem for me on my 2017 IMac Pro, 3.2 GHz 8-Core Intel Xeon W, Radeon Pro Vega 56 8 GB, 32 GB 2666 MHz DDR4

[M1Storyteller]

One other possible symptom, albeit a small one, that may help is that I've noticed with more regularity that my "Selection Follows Playhead" timeline setting constantly reverts back to turning on. I prefer this setting to be off. I've experienced this before but not with the frequency I saw on my last project.

[Benzonio]

Kevin, I tried all the above and it hasn't helped. Premiere works fine when I boot it up, but after a couple of hours, it slows down like it's totally run out of steam and gets incredibly laggy. What's the next step? You mentioned something about filing a bug? Please advise.

Thank you,

Benson 

[Rett5DE3]

Ive had major issues since upgrading to premiere 2023 as well. I have a fully specked out new MacBook Pro M1 Max silicon and 64 GB of ram so its not because of a lack of performance from my machine. Firstly, when I re-open a project after closing now I have to re-render now. This is taking up hours of my week that previously I did not need to waste. Secondly, it takes far longer to render and to export. I've had a couple of other glitchy issues happen that were uncommon with previous versions but less consistently so I'm hoping a patch fixing bugs is coming soon.

[Karlis Bergs]

I am experiencing the same thing but one thing that helps is switching to "Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration". For some reason I always have to switch manualy to it. Before the update i didn't need to do it every time. And of course, I was working on raw Alexa 4k files with no problem.

[default0x1u5j1j3s8k]

I'm on the same config, while I know it isn't a positive reinformcement I feel a lot more sane knowing another M1 Max user is running into the same issues! Felt like my M1 Max turned into my old Intel Xeon, and I watched in iStats as my RAM was gobbled all the way down to 3GB for seeminly no reason at all. Rendering with ME while Premiere is still open crashes the system, this program is unbelievably useless. 

[mezera]

Hello all - I'm looking for a little bit of help with Premiere. I updated my computer yesterday to the new Mac OS Ventura 13.1 and now, I basically cannot use Premiere. It starts out ok for a few minutes, but then the program starts to lag really bad; so bad that I can't really work. Oddly enough, playback seems ok, it's really when I'm working/moving things around the project that it gets bad. The playhead isn't even stopping where I need it to - by the time the program has registered that I'm trying to pause in a particular spot or edit to music, the playhead stops behind the place in my timeline where I hit pause. Even moving clips forwards or backwards in the timeline takes a long time, I'm ending up with edits all over the place. I've tried all my normal fixes, turn it off & on again, restarting my computer, clear my cache, etc. I'm still having problems. Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated, thanks! (attached photo of computer specs)

For reference:

Version of the app: v 23.1 (updated 14 days ago)

Platform and OS: Macbook Pro, 2019, os ventura 13.1

[Kasper Garam]

I can tell you, it's not a corrupt sequence or project or anything we can do with caches or anything. It's a major performance bug that's being discussed on multiple different threads, reported by dozens of users. I have tried every single trick in the book I could find, and nothing helped. The only solution was to downgrade from 23.1 to 23.0. That helped a ton, but downgrading should never be a solution.

Kevin, if there's anything you can do to let the developers know about this (I bet they do already though), please do so. This NEEDS to be fixed. At the moment, the latest release of Premiere is literally unusable.

[Julius Woods]

Hi, I have performance issues using Premiere Pro on my Macbook Pro.

Version I use: Premiere Pro 23.1

Macbook Pro 16' 2021 Model with Apple M1 Max 64 GB and MacOS Monterey 12.5.1

For example, after I work on the project for 1-2 hours, moving clips or the playhead becomes slower, almost as if Premiere itself is working at 5fps. The playback of the clips is not affected. The problem only occurred after I updated to the new version 23.1. The project I'm working on is very big, includes about 70 hours of video material from a wide variety of codecs (ProRes4444, ProRes 422, H264) and has about 100 sequences in which the days of shooting are summarized. The master sequence is about 2 hours long.

(It is a documentary film with 1.5 years of material and meanwhile over 400 hours of editing. Please help me!)

What can I do to make Premiere run smoothly again? All tips and tricks are welcome.