CC loses links to render files?

[jamesp2]

Render an area, save the project, close the program and load the project, and the previously rendered area comes up red again.  Alternately, close the project and reload it, and you may or may not be asked to relink.

Anyone else seeing this?  The render files are still there; but the links are apparently lost -- and irrevocably, once you close program.

[Cavemandude]

If you don't want to ever lose render files use Premiere CS5.5. I can still open old projects from version that have render files intact. Problem started with CS6 and later. The "empty project" seems to help but isn't full proof.

[dfconn2]

Thanks for your reply, but I'm not going back to the future...I've simply rendered the offending clips and added the video clips to my timeline...extremely poor followup by Adobe...

[Phil_Crook]

Two years later, and this is still an issue. What an absolute joke.

Shame there's no real competition or I'd have left long ago. That's not to say there won't be in the future.

A simple acknowledgement and assurance it's at least being looked at would be appreciated. If only they put as much effort in to fixing bugs as they do avoiding corporation tax.

[HarleyTDavis]

‌the evidence people are laying out points to some unlink that occurs.  select a blank or new empty sequence on opening, wait 10 to 20 minutes and check if your drives where previews are kept are being accessed.  after 20 min. select main again, chek if renders have come back.  turn off pek file generation, and xmp rewrites, and try with and without audio renders.  once it works, go backward from there until it doesn't and find your culprit.  my cs6 has been working fine with the system i described above.  if you are on a later system with later software:

win and mac now do versioning of files stored on internal or native system formatted drives (ntfs or hfs), which only lets you work on a copy of the file (changing the filename on disk slightly) which some programs have trouble with when they use a recursive pointer back to the file that uses the original file's name.  this results in a false location.  those that search with the open file's name in a search term won't find the files, as their path matches the original save file, not the open copy, leaving you searching for a pthway that doesnt exist.

i use disk images because i can dump all versioning & permission structure BS and get to work.  They are easily split and archived.  i can format them however i choose.  for windows, just use a version of FAT that your system supports, hopefully exfat, and build a large partition for holding your project files and one for your previews.  cache area should match your running system format and be permission capable for secure memory use.  try it, you might get to like it.

and stop being whiny about adobe fixing this.  m$oft and apple introduced this problem into xml process scripting apps, its an OS bug.  Adobe didnt make your OS, didnt foce an update that forces non-pathway-compliant versioning of files.  it may take a while to build the code into all apps to keep track of the original file location, and use that to find related previews.

[Phil_Crook]

"Stop being whiny", get off your high horse tonto and don't tell us paying customers to be content with time (=money) wasted every day rendering the same files. The complaint is not about getting a fix, just acknowledging it. This has been an issue that has been around since cs3 and been on and off since then. For this issue not even to be noted two years after it's posted (in this particular instance) is not on. Don't take much to add it to a fix list, they can ignore it then.

[dfconn2]

Dumped the Premier CC 2015 trial... digging into FCP X (oooof...) but it seems to be much, much more stable....

[LMProductions]

Just throwing my hat into the ring. Same problem. Losing render files. Ive had so many problems with Adobe I can't wait to move to ANYTHING. After this project is done Im going to start with Resolve/Fusion. Cant wait to be done with Adobe for this and many other reasons.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Just throwing my hat into the ring. Same problem. Losing render files. Ive had so many problems with Adobe I can't wait to move to ANYTHING. After this project is done Im going to start with Resolve/Fusion. Cant wait to be done with Adobe for this and many other reasons.

Hi LMP,

Have you contacted support and opened a case yet? Please do so. If they cannot help you, send me a PM and I will escalate it.

Thanks,

Kevin

[LMProductions]

Kevin, I must've been asked that question a dozen times this year alone. I appreciate your efforts, but Adobe's products consistently fall short of any standard of reliability. Their CC release strategy for bug releases belies comprehension, and the customer support is inefficient and mostly ineffective. Of the dozens of issues Ive had in the last year or two, Adobe support has not been able to resolve any of them. Any further attempts to find help result in a game of 20 questions which I have to play every single time Im transferred to a new person. Im done. And by the way, I spent 2 hours rendering a huge section of video. It finished 20 minutes ago and already the rendered previews are gone. I didn't even so much as close the sequence. Searching the forums people have been having this problem for YEARS. These problems are not your fault, but for the hours and weeks and months of headache Ive had to endure using the CC, I would be insane to keep using these apps and hoping for the best.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi Studio LM,

I appreciate your efforts, but Adobe's products consistently fall short of any standard of reliability. Their CC release strategy for bug releases belies comprehension...

I am in support and don't build the products, so you really need to file a bug report to reach the right people.

the customer support is inefficient and mostly ineffective. Of the dozens of issues Ive had in the last year or two, Adobe support has not been able to resolve any of them. Any further attempts to find help result in a game of 20 questions which I have to play every single time Im transferred to a new person. Im done.

First of all, I'm sorry that support seems inefficient and ineffective to you. I find it troubling that they couldn't solve any of your issues. The many questions they do ask, though, is for a purpose as there are so many variables as to the many things that could go wrong. I do empathize with you and can feel your frustration. That sucks and I apologize.

And by the way, I spent 2 hours rendering a huge section of video. It finished 20 minutes ago and already the rendered previews are gone. I didn't even so much as close the sequence.

I have no idea why that happened as that simply has never happened to me on the various systems I am running (both Mac and WIN). Are you using portable drives or internal drives? I have heard that portable drives can cause these issues. If you have a portable drive, can you render previews to an internal drive?

That said, I was able to find a similar bug describing lost render preview files set "to fix" for the next major version (dot 0) of Premiere Pro, however, it had to do with nested sequences. Are you having trouble with preview files for nested sequences or all clips?

What kind of effects are you applying that you've lost the render files for? Warp Stabilizer?

Sorry again for all the issues and the lack of a certain and quick fix.

Kevin

[LMProductions]

can you render previews to an internal drive?

I can render files to any drive, but they are eventually lost. Im rendering to a thunderbolt raid.

Are you having trouble with preview files for nested sequences or all clips?

All clips.

What kind of effects are you applying that you've lost the render files for? Warp Stabilizer?

Masks [in opacity]

Lumetri Color

Crop

Ultra Key

Lightwrap

Fast Blur

no warp stabilizer

no nested sequences

I believe the culprit is related to the Ultra Key or the mask. Note in the image below how the render preview for still images are lost, corresponding to the clip below that has the ultra key and mask on it (even though those layers are not visible at the start). In other places preview renders for still images are maintained. The lost clips correspond to the size of the clips with the ultra key and masks on the timeline, irregardless if they are visible on the screen).

[digabyte]

FWIW, if the drives in your RAID spin down (sleep) or the connection to the external storage is not in a state of constant awareness by your computer, Adobe Products will often assume the information is simply not there.  I have taken to "waking up" my drives or RAID (by accessing it with a File Explorer) before opening a project that accesses said drive(s).

[jasonc34160536]

I found that if I open the project from the Pr welcome screen rather than the finder, the rendered files were available, if I opened through the Mac Finder the rendered files weren't linking up.

Not sure if someone else already mentioned this as I didn't read through the whole thread.

Hope this helps. It did for me.

[HarleyTDavis]

Okay, I'm going to jump in here... ...Premiere caches the plugins when it opens.  It keeps the list of plugins in the proj file as well.  Opening from the welcome screen allows it to search for the plugins first, along with any cached data locations, before the file is actually opened, and before any plugins or previews are done.  It sounds like an order of ops problem.  I've seen it happen where I've tried to open a proj on another machine (external drives) and, while everything was contained in the external drive I used, it failed to load previews when I first tried to load up.  It had to "conform" the preview files, which essentially means it has to compare data to load the previews.  It took 2 hours to do it, but when finished, all plugs and effects were fine, and everything worked.  I saved and reopened, all was well.  It has to do with how the file is saved, when, and also... ...IF you have put any markers in source monitor by dropping clips from the timeline, or made any in\outs, it creates a discontinuity, somehow.  The latest update fixed that for me.  And it fixed my Previews problem.

[Cavemandude]

Has nothing to do with failing to load preview files, the preview files always load with this issue, since you can watch them being loaded at the bottom of the interface when opening a project. Problem is that those preview files are no longer recognized as rendered in the timeline.

[LMProductions]

I found that if I open the project from the Pr welcome screen rather than the finder, the rendered files were available, if I opened through the Mac Finder the rendered files weren't linking up.

Not sure if someone else already mentioned this as I didn't read through the whole thread.

Cant explain your issue, but I've never opened my project from Mac finder. Always the welcome screen and I still have the issue.

if the drives in your RAID spin down (sleep) or the connection to the external storage is not in a state of constant awareness by your computer, Adobe Products will often assume the information is simply not there.

I've always had the "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" option unchecked. None of the drives ever go to sleep, but I still have this issue. Im confident this is a Premiere bug an not related to my setup.

[red+yellow]

Hello,

I ran into the same issue this morning. Working with Premiere Pro CC 2015 + After Effects CC 2015.

Left my 4 minute project to render overnight, came in this morning and saw it was all done. Saved the project, and restarted the computer.

Opened the project and all the render was un-done.

Seems like only the sections that are round-tripping with After Effects seem to lose their render files.. All other media (mix of various file formats, images and effects) are intact and rendered.

I will open a support ticket with Adobe and share the results here when I get them.

Thanks

[Cavemandude]

Problem is when a project is opened you can see, at the bottom of the interface, that the preview file names are loading so the project file does know where the preview files are it just doesn't show that in the timeline that has been rendered. Once a project loads like this it will never load correctly.

[daxmacrog]

This has been a constant nuisance in every version of Premiere since I started using it with CS5.5. I'm on the latest version of CC now.

When working with H.264 source files, rendering is required just to play back clips that have simple color correction applied. So I have to render after just about every cut. (The lack of background rendering is another glaring omission from Premiere’s feature set, but that's another topic.)

In my current project, I would say the connections to about a third of the rendered segments get lost if I quit Premiere and then reopen the project.

[daveg78802948]

I found out that my PC only had 4G of ram, so I upgraded to 16G, purchased a 2TB external hard drive and built, rendered, and saved everything to it and stopped really working on the embedded hard drive. My problems went away

Sent from my Windows Phone

[Brit.b]

Yes, it has gotten worse I think over the years. I exported the warp stabilized files as non-lossey AVI files, and that worked, but other files that are nested have also had this problem with out this effect. Hopefully Adobe does something about it. It has become a very common and sometimes serious problem.

[Rob Claisse]

Just bumping this up in some futile hope that Adobe may well pay attention and fix this. Its still a massive PITA for those of us who need to render complicated sequences so we can review and make changes to a full res version.

(Yes, I've logged it as a bug using the bug reporting form, but no feedback ever comes from that)

[graphic_design]

Also throwing my experience in here in the hopes that Adobe will see our frustration and come up with a fix.

I've also been having the worst time with this problem (newest version of CC) in trying to break a 4-hour video into roughly 45 minute parts. It takes about 1.5 hours to render each section (and I'm not doing anything complicated with the video - intro/outro title slides with dip to black/cross dissolve and 2-3 five second lower thirds with cross dissolve). I left my computer running the render when I left work last night, and this morning it can't find the rendered files, though I can see them in the Preview folder. I get the option to navigate to where the rendered files are, but it won't link when I navigate to the file. I tried to just export without rendering (yellow bar) - it took another 1.5 hours to export. When I view the mp4, it tells me the file size is 1KB and the format can't be played back. I'm spinning my wheels on this project because of this bug. It's beyond frustrating.

[bsbeamer]

Have you tried force rendering smaller sections at a time, then saving, then continue with smaller sections?  Sometimes this helps.  Also would suggest exporting IN/OUT of what you have rendered with reference timecode (match sequence settings) so you can drop on top if the renders go missing again.  Helps to "rebuild" the rendered timeline and get a project out the door, when needed.

Complete PITA that this needs to be done, but it's one of the ONLY workarounds to get around the lost render files, or the projects that tend to keep crashing in the middle of overnight renders...

[dscantling]

Earth to Adobe...come in Adobe!

When will this issue be fixed?!!  It has been pending for over two (2) years.  I'm trying to edit a feature length documentary film and Premiere CC has become unusable due to this issue.  A day in my post-production life: I render a sequence (all green), save the file, close the project, open the project and--voila--randomly anywhere from 1/3 to half of the clips revert to unrendered (red) status.  WTF??!!

I've tried every possible combination I can think of to stop this from happening--plus all the suggestions mentioned in this multi-year support thread (plus other suggestions on CreativeCow and various post-production blogs).  NOTHING WORKS!!!  Thus, after many wasted hours, I've come to the following painful conclusion: YOUR SOFTWARE IS NOT FIT FOR USE.  Or, to put it another way, Premiere CC is an epic fail as a software product unless this issue is resolved--IMMEDIATELY!

Also, please don't respond to this note with a request for me to fill out yet another support ticket.  Just address the multitude of support tickets already filed regarding this issue over the past several YEARS...

My system info (i.e., this is not a hardware performance problem on my end):

OS Version: OSX 10.11.1

Model Name: Mac Pro

Model Identifier: MacPro5,1

Processor Name: 6-Core Intel Xeon

Processor Speed: 3.46 GHz

Number of Processors: 2

Total Number of Cores: 12

L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

L3 Cache (per Processor): 12 MB

Memory: 128 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ECC

Processor Interconnect Speed: 6.4 GT/s

Boot ROM Version: MP51.007F.B03

SMC Version (system): 1.39f5

SMC Version (processor tray): 1.39f5

2 x NVIDIA GTX680 4GB (via external Cubix PCIe chassis)

Areca 1883ix SAS controller with 9TB of Seagate 15k SAS drives at RAID0 (ATTO benchmark of 2.2GB/sec read/write performance)

2 x Fusion-io 420GB ioFX PCIe SSD cards at RAID0 (used for cache)

Samsung 512GB PCIe M.2 SSD (OSX/boot drive)

Please advise...

Regards,

David Scantling

Akron, Ohio

dave.scantling@gmail.com

P.S. Does anyone have a recommendation on alternates to Premiere CC (i.e., conversion issues, learning curve, performance, stability, non-loss of rendered files, etc.)?