Serious audio desync issue after reopening project (Windows 11)

Report · Oct 27, 2025

Hey everyone, I’m running into a really weird issue in Premiere Pro and I’ve already tried everything I could think of, but nothing fixes it.

I’m editing a project with external audio. There are only two files in use:
– one video file (.MP4)
– one audio file (.WAV, 48kHz, recorded on an external recorder)

I manually synced them in the timeline, made a few cuts, and everything was perfectly in sync. Then I saved and closed the project.
When I opened it again later, some audio clips suddenly became completely out of sync.

Here’s the strange part: everything plays fine up to 02:22:27 on the timeline. After that point (right after a simple cut), the audio clip suddenly changes to a completely different part of the same source file. The video plays correctly, but the sound doesn’t match — it’s like Premiere is playing a random portion of the WAV file.

Here’s what I’ve already tried (none of it worked):

Cleared all Media Cache and Cache Database
Re-imported the original files
Relinked the audio
Re-exported the WAV as a new 48kHz 24-bit PCM file
Opened the project on another computer
Copied the sequence into a brand new project

The issue remains exactly the same — after that specific point, the audio in the timeline is reading the wrong section of the same WAV file.

The original audio file plays fine in Audition, so it’s not corrupted.
One detail I noticed: the processed audio file (which I exported from Audition) is much smaller than the original — it went from 1.95 GB to 184 MB. I’m not sure if that has anything to do with the issue, but I thought I should mention it.

Has anyone experienced something like this?
It really feels like Premiere somehow “shifted” or “re-mapped” the audio inside the project file, and I can’t find a way to force it to rebuild or resync properly.

Any help or ideas would be really appreciated — this one’s driving me crazy

Report · Oct 27, 2025

HI @Mystic_Mirage5EF0,

Thanks for the message. Welcome to the forums. I'm sorry you're having audio issues. What version of Premiere are you using? How did you sync the clips? Are the merged, or did you use a multicam timeline or a different method? Merged clips can sometimes have this issue, especially with longer clips.

Did you sync with a proxy created in Audition, or did you sync with the original, and the Audition step was just for testing?

If you look at an autosave file from when the sync was done, does it have the file with the correct sync? If you have time, please give the team a few more details. See: How do I write a bug report?

Report · Oct 27, 2025

Thanks for the quick response! I really appreciate it. Here’s some more detail about my situation:

Premiere Pro version: 25.5

How I synced the clips: I synced manually — there is just a single video file (.MP4) and a single external audio file (.WAV). No multicam, no merged clips, and no proxies were used. The audio was aligned with the video waveform directly in the timeline.

Audition usage: I did some light audio cleanup in Audition using “Edit Clip in Adobe Audition.” This step was only for minor cleanup, not for syncing.

Autosave check: I’ve checked several autosave versions, and in all of them the audio is messed up. After syncing the audio, I only made a few cuts to remove breaths and minor mistakes from the speaker. The video is a simple “talking head” setup — one video file (with scratch audio) and one WAV audio file. After editing, the audio became desynchronized.

Issue description: Everything plays correctly up until a specific point in the timeline (02:22:27). After that cut, the audio suddenly jumps to a completely different part of the same WAV file, while the video remains correct.

What I’ve tried:

Clearing the Media Cache
Relinking the audio
Importing the sequence into a new project
Converting the WAV to PCM 48kHz 24-bit
Opening the project on a different computer

None of these steps have fixed the issue.

It seems that Premiere is somehow “losing” the correct reference to the audio frames internally after reopening the project, rather than this being a problem with the source files themselves.

I hope this helps clarify the situation. Please let me know if you need screenshots or sample files — I can provide them to help diagnose the issue.

Thanks again!

Report · Oct 27, 2025

Thanks for the quick response!@Rach McIntire For some reason, I’m unable to reply to your message directly using the “Reply” feature, but here it is.

Here’s some more detail about my situation: