A low level exception occured in: Importer MPEG (Importer)

[RickJMcClelland]

Okay, first some system specs:

Macbook Pro

2.2 GHz Intel Core i7

8 GB RAM

Radeon HD 6750

OSX Lion 10.7.5

Premiere Pro CS6 (updated to lastest available version)

--I remember installing updates a few days ago (maybe last week), but don't remember if any of them were for Premiere and could possibly be the problem.

The trouble I'm having is with one .MTS clip. I have a timeline about 20 minutes in length. I edited the whole thing and had no problems the whole time, with any clip. All clips originally imported correctly, played back fine, etc.

I exported a copy for client review (from Media Encoder CS6) the other day. One clip (the .MTS clip in question) showed as "Media Offline". It is not offline, I did not move the clip, etc. I unlinked the clip in the project, relinked it, and it did show up in the project and was able to be played back.

Exported another copy, found the same error occured with just this one clip. Now I'm noticing that when I open the project, I receive the error in the topic title (A low level exception occured in: Importer MPEG (Importer). The clip will not play back and shows up as "Media Pending", as if it's not coming in correctly. Unlinking and relinking doesn't fix the issue.

I have many other .MTS clips in my timeline. All of them work correctly, play back correctly, and export correctly. There doesn't seem to be any inherent problem with the clip itself; it plays back smoothly in VLC, and I've transcoded it to a .mov to try and just bring that in and get around this stupid issue. This didn't work either; I unlink the clip, then relink to the transcoded .mov -- it actually will play back in the preview monitor, but will not display when trying to view it on my timeline. I have also created a copy of the project, tried this inside of the copy, as well as created a new sequence and pasted over the information; none of that worked either. There are also other sequences this clip is on, and it will not play back in any of them either, but as I mentioned, plays back in the preview.

I did find one other topic with a similar issue; they recommend deactivating Premiere, restarting the computer, and activating it again. I did do a restart initially to try and diagnose the problem, but to no avail. I tried deactivating the program, but the Adobe Application Manager doesn't load; it has almost never loaded for me whenever I try to use it, which is frustrating in and of itself.

I tried creating an entirely new project and importing the other project. When I did this Premiere just froze; I'm assuming it can't handle all the pieces (it's a fairly complex project with hundreds of clips) and they are also coming off an external drive through a USB 3.0 cable.

I've temporarily "fixed" this by bringing in the transcoded clip, resyncing it to to the spot I need it in, and cutting it as necessary. I typed this post as I went and tried various things, and while I've found my way around the problem, it doesn't really solve it. I opened another old project that was very similar to this one and also encountered the same error message. I didn't stick around to find out if there was just one clip causing the issue; the fact that it was there was enough for me.

So, what do I need to be doing here? I'm guessing the stock answer is to uninstall Premiere and reinstall it, which I don't want to do unless I have to since it's a pain in the ass. I'm kind of through the problem for this project, but want to be able to deal with it for the future. Hoping someone with knowledge can chime in and tell me whether it's the update from the other day causing this.

If the answer is to uninstall and reinstall Premiere, do I need to run some cleaner tool? I vaguely remember hearing about that before in regards to uninstalling and reinstalling.

[dpsebaino]

I'm having the same issue here.

Error: A low level exception occurred in: Importer MPEG (Importer)

Anyone here who can help with this?

Some Specs:

MBP Retina, NVIDIA Gforce GT 750M, 16GB Ram, i7, G-RAID Thunderbolt (external media storage)

Premiere CC 2014

I'm working in a 1080p25 Timeline with Canon C300 footage (.MXF), normally it runs properly.

[dpsebaino]

I think I found my mistake...

The Codec of the Render Previews in Sequence Settings was set to "I-Frame MPEG". I changed to Quicktime / ProRes 422 and now it seems to work (Canon C300 .mxf Files in Timeline).

[AdamLC]

I'd like to second what you say. I am on a Mac Pro 2013 with a new and up to date Premiere CC. I am working with a mix of EOS 5d footage and h264 mp4 files. I was getting the " A low level exception occurred in: Importer MPEG" error, but changing my sequence settings to CUSTOM from DSLR, and using the Pro Res 422 as my render codec sorted me out. No probs now! Thanks!

[Chris Vicari]

I've been struggling with this issue for a week and this thread just saved me a ton of frustration! Running on a Mac Pro 4,1 early 2009 model with the latest PP CC and after changing to Quicktime / ProRes 422 crashes are gone. Thanks!

[DrJuan Pablo24285873ezx4]

Bravo!! thanks

[Camden5F97]

Solved 2021!! Adobe Premiere Pro Low-Level Exception Occured In: ImporterMPEG (Importer: 25) Fix!

I've going crazy trying to figure out this error message, but here you go!!! This should help.

https://youtu.be/09R6BMF5auU

[Bennale]

I've been having the same issue for the past couple weeks. I'm using a AVC-Intra 100 720p editing mode with a AVC-Intra 100 720p preview file format. I've tried the solution to change this but the only other option I have in changing it to I-Frame Only MPEG and I'm still getting the same issue?

[thehelpone · Accepted solution]

I came across the same issue when importing JPEG's into Adobe Premier.

When I used the new Export as in Photoshop CC 2015 (Windows CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+W) I was unable to import the JPEG's into Adobe Premier.

I got the issue "A low level exception occurred" or "the importer reported a generic error"

When I used the legacy Save for Web (Legacy in Windows CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+S) I was able to import into Adobe Premier with no issues.

I would suggest using legacy formats when exporting images from Photoshop as there seems to be a compatibility issued with CC 2015.

Assuming this is the same issue with newer codecs in video. New ones = issues with compatibility so go old school LOL

[rrhphotog]

I know this is an old post so this is to benefit anyone experiencing a similar problem. I had an issue with "low level exception importer MXF" in an existing project that would lock up with "Media Pending." What helped me was updating the video display card driver. The issue appeared to be GPU acceleration because after the driver update it said the card wouldn't support GPU acceleration (which is ironic since it did before the update) so Premiere automatically switched to software only mode for previews which allowed my media to be online and viewable again.

One possible fix might be to switch from Mercury GPU acceleration for previews to software only. I also recommend updating drivers and CC programs such as Premiere and Media Encoder to ensure you are using the latest codecs.

System Info:

Windows 7 Pro SP1 64-bit

2 Intel Xeon 2 GHz processors

16GB RAM

Premiere Pro CC v9.2.0

[GAPmedia]

WARNING if this problem was fixed for you in Premiere version 2015.2 or previous...

The June 2016 upgrade will probably re-introduce the problem.  That is my experience with AVCHD footage and I have just spoke with a number of colleagues who are having the same problem with this and other codecs.

DO NOT UPGRADE to Premiere 2015.3

Adobe please be advised of the play-back problems introduced with the update to Premiere 2015.3.

[edited post to refer to June 2016 upgrade, as intended, not "June 2015 upgrade" as originally written — MOD]

[John A+S]

Does anyone know how to fix this problem on a sequence with RED and 4K DJI footage?? I've configured my sequence settings to ProRes 422 and Quicktime, and now it's giving me different ImporterMPEG problems. I'm working with Proxy files for the RED and DJI footage since I am mostly working on a MacBook Pro 2015 (Mid-season). Whenever I try to play it back, it starts to lag and then playback just freezes. When I try to quit Premiere, the program freezes and I have to force quit, causing Premiere to load up a recovery file.

WTF IS GOIN ON???? Please help!!!

[Willy ROMY]

Exactly the same for me here with DJI 4k files. I've been working on the same project for a month, and today I have the low level exception and it freezes my project !!! I'm short of time to render this project and I don't know what to do...

Did you fin a solution ?

[thehelpone]

What version of Premier are you using? It seems to be a recurring issue when new updates come out and new codecs/file compression.

Are you getting the same error "A low level exception occurred" or "the importer reported a generic error"

If not you might need to start a thread to get appropriate support.

[Willy ROMY]

Thanks for the answer.

I've been updating Premiere CC today, thinking it would resolve the problem but nothing has changed.

Each time I re-open the priject after the crash, the same error reappear "low exception error : Mpeg importer"

The thing is I've been working on this project for several weeks and I had no issues until now.

I' using a Mac Pro 12 cores 2010 with 48Go of memory and a GTX 980 Ti.

the card driver has been updated yesterday, so I don't know if that could be the problem,

but I worked yesterday and this morning I ha no problem.

I will try to make a custom sequence with ProRes previews instead of MPEG iframe, to see if it changes something.

[Willy ROMY]

So I converted all my sequences' preview setup to "custom > quicktime > prores" and the error "low level exception: MPEG importer" seems to be gone.

I also deleted the "corrupted" file that was supposed to caused the crash (highlighted in red in the timeline),

which was is not corrupted in reality because quicktime perfectly plays it in the Finder.

[iamthebestjuan]

Thanks! this had been bugging me for so long!

[Randune23]

You are SERIOUSLY a LIFE SAVER!  I wonder if I change the "Editing Mode" back to DSLR or HDV 1080p if the same errors come back???  I kind of laughed when you talked about "...highlighted in red in the timeline" b/c, for the life of me, I couldn't find any red files.  But then again I have 1000's of files on my timeline.  It was like searching for a needle in a pile of needles.  Thanks again!!!

[Randune23]

Well, and then again...it reared its ugly head and it's back again.  UGH.  I've been searching the 5-hour timeline for the magical red file.  I did find one, deleted it, reimported it) and once I put it on the timeline it was working.  Then it started re-producing the same error messages...

[tajaun]

I have a problem with my premiere whenever I open it & import a clip & click tr lumetri color panel it says "no clip selected. Due to this I cannot colour grade my footage. Do you happen to know what's the problem ? I'd appreciate your help.

[victoriac34584198]

I'm having the same issue with gopro videos that appear in a mp4 format...I get the 'low-level exception' message and all videos upload as sound files. Help?

[adampomata]

I'm in the process of reconnecting an old project that I updated to the latest version of Premiere (2017.1.2 v11 Oasis) and I keep getting the low level import error others are reporting here.

I am able to import the clip if I copy it to a different drive. If I delete the previous copy on the drive I was having problems importing from and copy the copied clip I was able to import on a different drive it still doesn't work.

Odd.

But for anyone having problems try coping the clip over to a different drive.

[frankbiganski]

A different drive didn't work, along with all other suggestions one will find.  All of my clips are the same, but only 2 of the 8 won't import.  They were playing fine in Davinci Resolve, so going to try some other oddities to see if I can find an answer.

[frankbiganski]

Here's what I just discovered... unfortunately it fixed one problem but caused another.

I renamed the video clips that wouldn't import, and doing that allowed those clips to be imported.  However, after renaming the two problem clips, that caused the other clips not to import.

All of my clips were named "01-claxton-creek," "02-claxton-creek," and so on to "08-claxton-creek."  So I renamed the 2 problem clips to just "06-claxton" and I could import them just fine.

Unfortunately, all of the other clips named "##-claxton-creek" now won't import.

Good grief Adobe!

[Jasketti]

Same problem have appeared again after the latest update (CC v.12.1)

I have a bunch of clips from same camera. Some of the clips import ok but some only import audio.
All files play and appear ok in Windows.