Slow thumbnail generation in Premiere Pro

[Itam]

Hi,

I have this problem already for almost 2 years and I cannot seem to find a solution for it. And I am not the only one: https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911233-premiere-pro/suggestions/33849352-save-thumbnails-ca...

The generating of thumbnails in the project window is annoyingly slow. It really is the only thing in Premiere that slows the whole editing process down. Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbCvkeJvLv4&feature=youtu.be

It is not really the generation of thumbnails itself I believe. The thumbnails can generate quite fast, but Premiere only generates the ones that are visible in the project window at that moment. So the moment I scroll down it has to generate those that become visible...than I have to wait...scroll down...etc. Only this way I can make all the thumbnails instantly available when needed. But once I close Premiere...and start up the project a next time it all starts over again. The thumbnails don't seem to be generated all in one time and also don't seem to be saved or cached in a way.

I already tried a lot, tweaking with cache settings. Using another drive especially for my cache, etc. But more and more am I convinced it is a Premiere problem, or am I (and the other people that voted on Adobe User Voice) doing something wrong here?

The files in the example movie are 1080p, 10-bit, h.264, 4:2:2 .mov files, straight from a GH5 camera. But I get the same problem with 8-bit files and other codecs/container formats.

My system setup is: I7-5930K processor, 32 gb of RAM, Geforce GTX 1060 6gb and I edit from a internal Samsung SSD 970 PRO 1TB M.2 NVMe drive (where also my cache directories are located...not ideal, but should be fast enough). I also tried to put my cache on another internal HDD (7.200rpm), but get the same results. Besides that I have the latest version of Premiere, latest version of windows 10 and I update my hardare drivers regularly.

Also good to mention that my OS and software is installed on a seperate SSD and that the Samsung 970 PRO is only used foor footage, project files and the caching.

The slow thumbnail generation was the reason for me to buy the Samsung SSD 970 PRO 1TB M.2 NVMe hoping it would speed up the process and also to try Davinci Resolve which indeed is much faster with stuff like this...but sadly has its own flaws.

[Itam]

Hi @Kevin-Monahan and the others,

I posted this 4 years ago and because a motherboard mallfunction I needed to renew my editing system end of last year.
At the moment I am running Premiere (always up-to-date) on a i7-13700K with 32gb ram combined with a RTX 3060 on Win 11. I run everything with seperate SSD's for OS and software, footage and cache.

Although the loading is quicker than before, there is still a lag when I open my footage bin in Premiere and scroll inside it. I don't know if I am just too demanding and impatient, but it just would be nice if I could see all of my thumbnails all at once. I don't mind waiting during startup of premiere, but having a fluent workflow during editing is just a thing that helps getting into that editing flow.

[BrianDavison]

Agreed! I'm working on an archival heavy project right now and thumbnail loading is glacial. This sounds insane, but I've found that interacting with the UI (i.e. scrolling up and down) will make them generate faster.

[Gabrielle36420925e6da]

Agreed. Still a problem in August 2024. No new builds have helped this issue.

[Kevin-Monahan]

I'm wondering. How many clips are in these bins, @Itam, @Gabrielle36420925e6da, @BrianDavison, @cendrick1, @dominicr92369200? A developer might be able to shed light on load times for icon modes and how they might look into speeding up the process.

I commented on this issue with the dev team. They appreciate the feedback.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Itam]

Hi @Kevin-Monahan,

Thanks for replying. Ofcourse it depends on the project, but I estimate the average is between 100 and 200 clips.
With bigger projects I often make multiple bins to sort the footage. But still I think the average per bin is between 100 and 200 clips.

[BrianDavison]

I've found that the issue often happens when there are more thumbnails than can fit on the screen. I'd expect in that case that premiere would continue to process the thumbnails that are below the frame of the UI, but what more often happens is that it will create thumbnails for the items that are currently displayed, then I could go take a tea break, come back, and scroll down and THEN it will process the items once they're on the screen. When the bins are small it's fairly imperceptable, but when you get into the hundreds, it can definitely take some time.

[Matthew Johnson Films]

As a wedding videographer, we are typically handling 100-150 clips and 200-300gb in size, depending on formats and lengths, all stored locally when editing on a project. I have my programs installed on my C drive and Cache / temps going to my D drive for storage reasons. Im not sure if that contributes to the issue (along with pre-rendered areas of the timeline going back to yellow on start up) but I figured I'd throw that out there since some have asked about working on an external drive which I'm not but I do have those things split in hard drive destinations. 

That will be good news if the issue is resolved in new builds. For stability reasons, I work out of a build a few iterations back unless I am working on a joint project with another company and they happen to be updated. Hence my appreciation for the access to other versions in CC. During a slow part in the year, I'll take a peak at some of the newest builds and see how it handles and eventually stick with one. 

Thanks Kevin

[cendrick1]

I can confirm that the issue is not fixed sitting here in September of 2024 with the most recent build of 25.6.1

When I have a bin of say 200 clips put into gallery mode and when I scroll down to view those clips I would hope that after the bin sits there for say 5 minutes the thumbs would be already generated for me. This is not the case, they only populate when I scroll the bin and then have to wait seconds for each few rows to populate before I can scroll some more to then wait again. Incredibly frustrating.

[Alex367466572b5i]

@Itam Show in Task Manager who is responsible for hardware decoding of thumbnail generation.

[cendrick1]

Is it ok to link a video here showing what we are all talking about. This is a bin of only 163 items. The video has not been slowed down in anyway.

Thumbnail population 

[cendrick1]

and I think the most annoying part is when I close premiere I will then have to sit there to regenerate the thumbs in all my bins so I can see them in gallery mode once again...am I alone in this?

[demetrisag]

Of course the problem still persist cause adobe isnt really working on building a thumbnail cache @Kevin-Monahan 

but instead it regenerates them every single time. its wokring needlessly too hard. You can just generate them once and then use the cache to load fast. iits been like that as long as i can remember and i dont understand whats stopping them from implementing that

[Milan35517782ro4h]

Time to change to resolve.

Intel 14900K, 192GB 6400Mhz, Gen. 5 NVme, Rtx 4090 and still waiting many minuts edit after edit, btw. On my Mac M4 Base, this wont happen, all work pretty well. Lazy Adobe, please do something. Dont give us extend generation, we need stable and fast software.

[tagagency]

Just swtich to Davinci Resolve. It seems that Adobe is too busy to count money instead to manage their suite from someone that work in that specific sector daily. Premiere is not meant to be developed by someone that makes video montage, is like ok I have to develop this but WHO CARES. I'm really about to replace every single software with other ones developed by someone that actually works with that software in the real work. Tired of paying this bugged suite monthly for having this scrap softwares.

[tagagency]

I feel you. It's so ridicolous.

[Itam]

Dear Adobe,

I have posted this original message here five years ago. In the post I mentioned that I already had this problem for two years, so basically the problem for me already exists for around 7 years. This weekend I filmed an after movie for a two day festival. Two days, ten hours filming per day, resulting in 615 seperate shots in total. I think you could probably guess what happend today when I started editing. Tremendously anoying footage spotting, because the only thumbnails that are being generated are the ones directly visible in my footage bin. Still, like seven years ago, I have to scroll down a bit, wait untill those thumbnails are being generated, scroll down a bit and wait untill those thumbnails are being generated, scroll down.....wait....scroll down....wait. I think you get the point. And next time when I start the project......indeed....I have to start all over again.

Ofcourse in those seven years I upgraded my editing hardware, hoping the issue would be resolved with a new motherboard, a better processor (i7-13700K), a new graphics card (an RTX 3060 with 12 gb of vRAM), Seperate SSD's for editing and caching and plenty of RAM (32gb). I even invested in buying Davinci Resolve, which to be honest isn't perfect also, but at least is fast. The sad thing is that I am being dependend of Adobe because with most of my clients it is still the standard way to go when it comes to projects and brand identity made in After Effects, and I think I am not the only one in this situation.

To be honest, I don't need stuff like AI generated extending of shots, because I am a professional and know how long to press the record button. I don't need AI tagging of footage to find stuff, because I know what is being filmed and I know how to find stuff by myself. I don't need a new "fancy" import function, because there was (and stilll is) already a way to import footage, working just fine.

I believe you already have video editing software focussed on amateurs. Since Adobe Premiere (oh....wait...I almost forgot the PRO there) is focussed on and being used by professionals, just keep premiere PRO than. Listen to the users and focus on stuff that is actually needed by us. Year by year the price goes up, but we end up paying a pro-price for "disfunctional" software.

Don't get me wrong, I think a lot of us share love for Premiere since it is still amazing software to use, but please keep it amazing and focus on what is really needed before giving us all that other crap. If you look around on this forum you can find traces of tips that users give to improve the software. Stuff that is actually useful, like showing the audio waveform underneath the footage in the source panel, or something simple like by default deselecting all the attributes in the 'remove attributes' function so you don't need to deselected all of them everytime one by one when you only need one of the attrributes being removed, just to name two. Please take this stuff seriously because we are the ones that are actually using the software. We are the ultimate "beta-testers".

Maybe it is time to convince your shareholders that improving the core of your software is important to keep your customers. I understand that AI is a fun gimmick for marketing purposes, but it won't last if the rest of the software is not living up to the expectations and price.

[Matthew Johnson Films]

I wish I could flood this post with gifs of Shia Labeouf aviciously applauding because this is how WE (professional editors) feel. Thank you for bumping this post in a brutally honest and acurate way. 

The only 'solution' to this for me has been exclusively working in proxis. No exceptions. No matter how small or large the project or the size, format or codec of the footage. EVERY project gets proxies immediately. Even still, this workflow of generating thumbs, re-rendering the timeline (after I did once again before clocking ou the day before) and basically enjoying a cup of coffee while Premier gets fired up is a daily rhythm to my work day..

[GabrieleLS]

Do yourself a massive favor: switch to the competition. After two challenging months of re-learning, you'll be the happiest editor on Earth.

[Itam]

Hehe, yeah, I switched to the competition already a couple of years ago, was quite enthousiastic about DR, but stumbled upon practical problems (like handling a lof of seperate sequences at the same time for e-learning purposes...long story, but those e-learning movies are being used modular and managing that in DR was quite a pain in the ass), I also don't like the way DR handles files and projects. Premiere is more straight forward. DR also had other issues that made me come back to Premiere again. But that most of my clients use After Effects to make MOGRT'S is one of the biggest issues. I don't have time to remake everything in Fusion.

[GabrieleLS]

I still open Premiere once a week for the same reasons you mentioned, but I stopped using it for editing. I cannot afford to waste an extra 20% of my time on every project just because the software does not work as it should. My clients will never cover that added cost.

On the other hand, DVR has its own strengths that bring extra value to the final result. You can live without them, of course, but once you have them you use them, and over time it shows clearly in the output.

[Itam]

I don't want to sound bitter (I know I do :P), but to whom is Adobe actually listening? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k24EWjrDgC0&t=11s

[Itam]

I have to admit though....audio waveform underneath the source panel is coming 🙂 Very happy with that.