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

[M1Storyteller]

Thank you Kevin. Also, anyone else having the part of the issue where it constantly seems they need to re-render some footage without making changes? 

By @Rett5DE3 

I've also experienced this. My biggest headache came from a .mogrt I imported from Stock - titled "Bullet Point Network." Even sliding the clip a single frame on the timeline required re-rendering the entire thing. So, unless this .mogrt was more complex than most, it seemed unusual to have it not only take so long to render but to constantly have to re-render every. single. time.

My thanks to everyone contributing to this thread to work towards a solution.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Thanks for the additional feedback, M1Storyteller. I think the info is helpful, as others have mentioned the problem. I wonder what your codec is for video previews. Is it ProRes LT or something else?

Thanks,
Kevin

[Julius Woods]

that's my guess too.

BTW I cut from a G-Raid external hard drive with 36TB and still 22TB free space. I also edit with a proxy workflow AND the problems really only appeared right after the update to 23.1.

Unfortunately, my director continued editing on his computer with the 23.1 version in my absence, which is why I was no longer able to open the project with the 22.6.3 version and was forced to update to 23.1. Pretty mess. But I'm trying to convert the project file back into a 22.6.3 version file.

Thank you for the help so far.

Hopefully there will be a fix with a new version.

Premiere 23.1 is therefore not usable for me.

[Michael Grenadier]

Have you tried reverting to the 23.0 version?  That should be able to open a version saved in 23.1...  You might also try the beta version.   

[M1Storyteller]

Thanks for the additional feedback, M1Storyteller. I think the info is helpful, as others have mentioned the problem. I wonder what your codec is for video previews. Is it ProRes LT or something else?

Thanks,
Kevin

By @Kevin-Monahan 

It is currently set to MPEG I-Frame. We're exposing a knowledge gap for me here. What do you recommend?

[Kevin-Monahan]

You can unlock and change the characteristics of your video preview files in Sequence Settings > Editing Mode > Custom. I change it in the Video Previews section.

My world revolves around ProRes LT as it supports this process I like called smart rendering. My workflow involves eschewing H.264 and HEVC as much as possible.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Christian.Z]

never upgarde mid-project.

Is this happening on brand new projects as well?

Try changing the location of your cache folder. or roll back a version

[Valerie23318456tmed]

Re-rendering is all but normal these days when sliding media, regardless of the size and complexity. I just find something else to do while I let it re-render previews.

[scrozier]

I have been banned on these forums before without explantion.

[scrozier]

And yes there is never any rhyme or reason, but Premiere Pro has been a lag-fest for about as long as I have been using it. Yes playback and scrubbing are similar with maybe a slight edge to resovle on some formats. But interface responsiveness has been bad in Premiere and even worse in After Effects. Once you get over ~20 layers or so in AE selecting keyframes and moving things around becomes a chore. There were some comments on User Voice or this forum about addressing the "jank" last year but it simply didn't happen. 

[Kevin-Monahan]

Christian.Z

The issue appears to be a bug with Premiere Pro 23.1 but not 23.0. All versions of macOS are affected. 

Cheers,
Kevin

[David Druckenmiller]

After spending some time here and seeing major failure for 23.1 and also in the middle of a massive project, we made the call to revert back to 23.0 gulp! .. and thus far all is well after several edit sessions working this massive 8 hour long sequence project. Snappy timeline is back thanks be to the Lord!

Also, for Adobe engineers, with 23.1 I lost the ability to hit the < and > to jump to previous or next mark in a sequence timeline. We use colored markers a good bit in our sequences to call out tweak areas. One color for audio, other for a content fix, another for a graphic fix etc. This is a feature critical for teams work when calling out tweak areas and additional reviews and editing coming behind the main. In 23.1 this feature was basically gone and even reassigning it as short, it did not function. (Maybe have your engineers look there in the code, the software is literally not functioning as it was designed for markers, related to the lag perhaps?)

David

[David Druckenmiller]

8 sequences, each over an hour long .. ha

[David Druckenmiller]

Oh ha, wrote this in haste .. forgot to mention with the removal of 23.1 and install of 23.0 ..  the < and > were there upon install. 

[Bobby Broadway]

David.

Thanks for sharing. I use markers all the time and color coordinated and It
would jump in the middle somewhere random in my timeline.

How do I get my 23.1 project into 23.0?

Best, Robert
[Signature removed by moderator as per forum guidelines.]

[Warren Heaton]

@David Druckenmiller 

As the default keybaord shortcuts for Go to Next Maker and Go to Previous Maker are Shift + M and Shift + Command + M, you'll want to set your own custom options for Go to Next Marker and Go to Previous Marker in the Keyboad Shortcuts.  

We can use Premiere Pro Sync Settings to sync our Keyboard Shortcuts via our Adobe ID.

">" (greater than key) and "<" (less than key) are actually "." (the period key) and "," (the comma key) which are already in use for Insert and Overwrite.  As such, it might be better to use Shift + . (shift plus period, which is greater than key) for Go to Next Marker and Shift + , (shift plus comma, which is less than key) for Go to Previous Marker.

">" and "<" are very easy to remember and good choices for Marker navigation.

Premiere Pro Keyboard Shortcuts showing "Go to Marker"

[David Druckenmiller]

Thanks Warren, ha I guess I must of set those as custom shorts some time ago, perhaps starting with the FCP shorts set as a base and customizing from there. I do like having them there next to the M button. Who else here goes back to FCP 7.0 days? Anyhow, the go to next mark or go to previous mark in 23.1 did not seem to work. When I uninstalled 23.1 and re-installed 23.0, they worked. More than likely unrelated to the lag issue, but who knows.

[David Druckenmiller]

Hello Bobby, maybe one of the moderators here might comment. It appears projects are backward compatibile for updates of a version revisions like 23.0 to 23.1 but not across version full releases like 22 to 23.  I was not aware of this.  The way I did it was .. from the CC "all apps" interface, selected the three dots to the right of the "open" button for 23.1 and select uninstall.  A dicey feeling indeed if you are week in on a 23.1 project.  (Note I still have 22.6.3 on my system, not sure if that makes a difference - don't think so.) Once 23.1 is uninstalled, come back to "all apps" and hit the same three dots for the Adobe Premiere app, select "other versions" and install 23.0.  Hoping that might work.  The timeline lag became so unbearale in 23.1 I had to try something.

[Bobby Broadway]

Hey David thanks for responding.

I was able to have some time this afternoon and did the uninstall and
installed 23.0 and all my markers work. I was able to open up the project I
was fighting with and taking a beating.

I usually wait till there is a .1 when Adobe does the big update, because I
have found in the past that .0 usually had the most bugs.

Anyway everything is smooth sailing.

Have a good one.

Cheers, Robert.
--
Robert Fraser
Editor | Colorist
720.530.4352 | bobbybroadway.com

[Nicolasj]

idem in premiere 23.1

Mac Studio M1 Ultra 64Go / OS 12.6

v23 work fine

[Warren Heaton]

@David Druckenmiller 

I miss Final Cut Pro 7 and QuickTime Player 7 Pro to this day:  the Browser, Viewer, Canvas, and Timeline as separate windows;  iChat Theater Preview (way ahead of it's time);  Add/Remove buttons at the upper right of the Timeline that allows for anything in the Keyboard Layout;  Shift + Down Arrow for Mark > Next > Marker;  Command + Option + Z for Zoom to Selection.

The General Error dialog box... I don't miss that so much.

Final Cut Pro 7 General Error Dialog Box

[M1Storyteller]

Just here to report another minor but potential symptom - and keep this thread current. One of the shortcuts I like to use for quickly copying video clips within the timeline is Option+Click/Drag (Mac) or Alt+Click/Drag (Win). While it can be hit-or-miss when Premiere is running optimally, it doesn't seem to be working at all for me at the moment.

[jamesdrakefilms]

Same issue on my M1 Max mbp with 23.1 timeline responsiveness is glacial 

[CraigTonkin]

PPro 2023 is seriously busted. I've experienced this same issue as have my clients on their machines. It's definitely not a user or machine problem. Drop back to PPro2022. You can downgrade your project file here:

http://downgrader.elements.tv

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi,

I finally hit this bug today. Bad scene! Closing all sequences and reopening only the one you need to work on is a quick workaround. 

Thanks,
Kevin