Adobe premiere pro 2019 Playback errors: Media Pending, Black screen, Play button not working

[FashionBlogger22]

Hi I was coming close to the end of editing my video on my Macbook pro 2017 retina,  I filmed on my iPhone 11 in 4K 60fps when i started having the media pending issue.

I have tried numerous fixes suggested online such as:

a) Closing the application ( this makes it freeze and gives the rainbow wheel cursor)

b) Force quiting ( when i re open the issue is still there with media pending)

c) Changing to settings to "software only" (Does pretty much nothing)

d) Selecting the sequence Unchecking enable and then clicking enable again ( This makes the whole playback screen go black, however audio can still be heard and played in the sequence) 

e) Copying the sequence into a new sequence (this worked for about 2 minutes then changed back to media pending)

f) I have also tried doing a cache clear of audio and video previews which changed nothing

g) Changing the audio hardware settings> default output > switching between my earphones and the built in option

h) Making a cut in the sequence and pressing play

i) Extending a clip and adding more frames in the sequence

I previously edited another iphone 11 4k video before this and i didn't experience this, This has been going on for 3 days now and now I am stuck on a media pending screen which sometimes changes to a white blank screen or black playback screen, 

PLEASE I AM BEGGING FOR HELP, I'VE BEEN TRYING TO FIX IT FOR 5 HOURS TODAY

[Peru Bob]

try resetting the preferences:
https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro/faq-how-to-reset-trash-preferences-in-premiere-pro/td-p/...

If that doesn't work, try resetting the Workspaces:
Reset a workspace
Reset the current workspace to return to its original, saved layout of panels.
1. Do one of the following:
• Click the Workspace menu icon and select Reset to Saved Layout.
• Choose Window > Workspace > Reset to Saved Layout.
from here:
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/using/workspaces.html

If that doesn’t work, try updating or rolling back your graphics driver directly from the video card manufacturer’s site.

Also, please use the free MediaInfo and post a screenshot the properties of your media in tree view:
https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo

If the file is variable frame rate, which although Adobe says it will support, many users are having issues with VFR.

Use Hand brake to convert to constant frame rate:
https://handbrake.fr/downloads.php
Here is a tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=34&v=xlvxgVREX-Y

[FashionBlogger22]

Hi thank you for your response,

I have reset the preferences and the current workspace and it's still saying media pending how do I update or roll back my graphics driver directly from the video card manufacturer’s site?

Also i clicked on the media info link and it's not free

[Peru Bob]

Look closer: v20.03 for Mac is free.

[FashionBlogger22]

Oh okay sorry yeah i have downloaded it now,

I've never used it before what do i need to do to get a screenshot of the properties?

[Peru Bob]

I've moved this from the poorly named Community Help forum (which is the forum for issues using the forums) to the Premiere Pro forum.

[FashionBlogger22]

Thank you 

[focused_heart5ED8]

I get the same issue, black screen during playback

[Phillip JH]

Pretty much all phone recorded media is going to have variable framerate. And if you recorded on a newer iPhone it's also probably HEVC, which is a terrible codec for editing. It's also high resolution and high framerate. That's four strikes against decent playback (and that's without knowing anything about your hardware.)

You should transcode your media into a decent editing codec like DNxHD or ProRes, but you may need to deal with the VFR first.

Not trying to be harsh or anything, but you are working with some of the worst possible media. You need to get it out of that codec and into a constant framerate. Peru Bob gave you some good links for checking and dealing with VFR. Here is another one: https://www.reddit.com/r/VideoEditing/wiki/faq/vfr

(Note: If audio sync isn't an issue for you, then I would just transcode to an intermediate codec and not worry about Handbrake or dealing with the VFR first. When you transcode just through Adobe Media Encoder the resulting file will be constant framerate, but the problem would be that it would "burn in" the variable framerate audio desync. Handbrake - or one of the other transcoding softwares that are popping up these days - are able to get it to constant and preserver your audio sync.)