Exporting to Media Encoder crashes Premiere Pro CC 2014

[Dave Bode]

Greetings,

I am experiencing a problem with premiere off and on. Right now it is an on problem. When I am exporting from Premiere Pro CC (and CC 2014) it will intermittently crash Premiere. I have tried this with several different audio and video formats (AVI [Lagarith and uncompressed], WAV, H.264, MPG2, AAC, etc). At the moment, every time I go to export to queue it locks up and hangs on the "Preparing data for export..." Media Encoder Launches and then it just freezes. I get "Problem Even Name: AppHangB1" over and over. Sometimes a full restart will fix this temporarily and sometimes it goes away for a long while. I managed to get a few sequences exported and then it just kept freezing on every PP CC restart.

Here are my system specs:

Premiere Pro CC (up to date)

Win 7 64bit (up to date)

i7 970

24GB Ram

NVIDIA 470GTX (driver up to date)

3 x 1.5TB internal

4TB internal

3TB internal

12TB RAID 5 via USB 3.0

USB 2.0 and 3.0 drives

FireWire audio device (M-AUDIO FireWire1814)... although, I am not using it for playback. It is connected.

Footage is from C100 H.264 .MTS, H.264.mov from 7D, and H.264 .MOV from iPhone.

All stock video plugins with a few third party audio plugs.

This problem happens with and without third party plugs, but it happens that this project uses them.

I have chatted with Adobe help twice about the matter and nothing has come of it. Log out, log in = same. Restart = same (sometimes), create new user account = same, and so on. The only thing I haven't done is completely re-install premiere, which seems a bit overkill. One of the reps said he would get back to me in a few days after he watched the issue via screen share. Never heard back.

I get the sense that this has something to do with PProHeadless.exe not launching or not running properly. When the crash happens on a fresh restart of PP CC 2014 PProHeadless is not running. I can start PProHeadless and it will send sequence to media encoder. When I try to export another sequence from the same project it crashes and I see another instance of PProHeadless launched.

Also, once the projects are exported to Media Encoder, I can encode them to any format with no problem. The problem is getting the sequences there!

Is there anything that I am overlooking here?

Thanks for the help!

[Mark Mapes]

First, kudos on an excellent report.

Second, sorry you're having this problem.

Does it matter whether AME is already launched and running when you send the job?

Here are the first three things I'd try:

1. Launch AME manually, then drag the sequence from PPro's Project panel to AME's Queue (or to a preset in the Preset Browser). That uses a different code path than the File>Export>Media workflow.
2. Assuming GPU Acceleration is enabled in PPro, switch the Renderer to Software Only (File>ProjectSettings>General)
3. In AME, toggle the "Import sequences natively" option on the General tab of the Preferences dialog. By default, that option should be enabled. Regardless, switch it to the opposite of what it's currently set to.

A log file might help identify the cause of the crash. Please right-click 'My Computer', select "Manage," look under 'Event Viewer>Windows>Logs>Application' to see if there's an event there from Premiere Pro. If so, copy the contents of that log and paste them here.

[pgmarcom]

Thank you, Mark! I was having constant issues with the export media dialog box hanging. After trying your method of dragging a sequence into AME directly, my exports now encode flawlessly.

[studiofortytwo]

I'm having the exact same problem on my Mac.  First export to queue after a restart usually works.  Second one always hangs on "Preparing data for export..."  How can I find the log file on Mac?

[Mark Mapes]

I'm not sure about a log file on Mac, and the one from Win that Dave sent me shed no light on the root cause. However, Mac has a better option: In Activity Monitor, select the Premiere process (which should show as Not Responding if it's hung), click the Info button in the upper left corner, then click Sample. You can then save the resulting dump, upload the file, and post a link. These forums do not support attaching file directly (due to legal and security issues), so we recommend uploading files using Acrobat.com’s Sendnow (https://sendnow.acrobat.com) or similar services (YouSendit.com, etc.)

Dave reported that two of the measures I suggested worked:

1. Launching AME manually and then dragging your sequence from Premiere's Project panel to AME's Queue (or directly to a preset or custom group in the Preset Browser)
2. In AME's Preferences dialog, uncheck the Import Sequences Natively option.

If you'd try both and report back, we'd appreciate it greatly.

[welchphoto]

Hi

I am on a PC Win 7.

Most recent updates as well. I had the same problem I did the "In AME, toggle the "Import sequences natively" option on the General tab of the Preferences dialog. By default, that option should be enabled. Regardless, switch it to the opposite of what it's currently set to."

In my case I switched it off. So far it is working.

But what will that do? Will it affect how the video is rendered?

Thanks

Dennis

[Zooropa75]

Want to add that my colleague and I have both run into this same problem, and it's very annoying! ESPECIALLY if I forget to save the project right before I try to export, because then I have to force-quit Premiere Pro and lose any work since the last auto-save. I hope Adobe fixes this issue quickly!

When it happened to me a few days ago, even restarting the machine did not solve the problem, and I had to finally export the videos one-by-one inside Premiere Pro (without "queuing" to Media Encoder).

After it happened again today and after reading this thread, I tried switching the "import sequences natively" option in AME from on to off. That didn't work, even after I restarted both AME and PPro (I did not restart the machine). However, I even tried dragging the sequence directly from PPro into AME - and that worked.

So for now, it seems I have a workaround.

(I'm on Mac OsX 10.7.5 and Adobe Creative Cloud 2014.)

[Zooropa75]

OK I spoke too soon! The sequence that I "successfully" dragged from PPro into AME? When the export process got to it (it was second in the queue), AME froze. It definitely seems to have something to do with "PProHeadless", because it was happily gobbling up memory and CPU when AME was frozen.

So, I still don't have a workaround and it's still annoying. Hope Adobe fixes this soon!!

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi Zooropa75,

If you're using OS X 10.7.5, you should update to OS X 10.8, or later for Creative Cloud 2014 applications or you might have unexpected behavior. Here is more info for you: Mac OS X 10.7 not supported for CC 2014 digital video applications

Thanks,
Kevin

[Mark Mapes]

@Dennis: Glad to hear that disabling AME's native sequence import has resolved this for you. The basic difference is that with native sequence import, all the code used to decipher the Premiere sequence is internal to AME; when that option is disabled, AME resorts to PProHeadless to read the sequence. Beyond that, I'm not intimately familiar with any differences, but my understanding is that the actual code should be the same--it's just a matter of where it "lives."

But that does lead me to wonder exactly what version you have installed of Premiere Pro and AME. I'm thinking this could result from the two apps being on slightly different versions, like PPro being on 2014.0.1 while AME is on 2014.0.0.

[welchphoto]

Hi

Premiere pro cc 2014  8.0.1 (21) build

Encoder CC 2014 8.0.1.48

I use CC for Teams so it updates all the time.

Again when I tried to use it today by letting premiere open it by sending an output into Queue it crashed both Encoder and Premiere.

In order to shut down Encoder and Premiere I had to go into Task Manager and "End Process Tree" on everything adobe I could find because just ending Encoder did not work it would not close. I remembered that years ago when Premiere would crash we had to end a photoshop process. I found photoshop open even though it was not "alive" on my task bar. I had used it yesterday but had closed it. I also had to close dynamiclinkmanager.exe *32 as well as one of the three Adobe CDF Helper.exe*32. They popped back on but Encode closed and then I got a message that Premiere needed to close and did when I clicked the button to let it close.

After all this I re-opened Encoder by itself and checked the Preferences finding that Import Sequences Natively option was again checked.

By the way for me, "Launch AME manually, then drag the sequence from PPro's Project panel to AME's Queue (or to a preset in the Preset Browser). That uses a different code path than the File>Export>Media workflow." won't work most of the time because I do live events of panel interviews that may run 2 or more hours. I need to break them down to chapters for the web

Also I know this isn't part of this problem but I and many others would still love dynamiclink to work to Encore because the DVD is not dead yet. The current work path is a drag.

Looks like some programers and engineers have some work to do.

Thanks

Dennis

My computer:

Self built PC windows 7 Professional 64 bit Build 7601 SP 1 I use auto update so it is up to date.

ASUS P6x58D Premium Motherboard

Intel (R) Core i7 930 @ 2.80 Ghz

Installed Memory  12 GB

NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580

2 Apple Monitors and a HP full HD Monitor

With a BlackMagic Intensity Pro Capture Card

[Mark Mapes]

Thanks for the follow-up, Dennis. You're at least the fourth or fifth person who's reported that the Import Sequences Natively setting reverted to the default. One possible explanation is that in the session when the option was disabled, AME ended up closing abnormally, in which case the Preferences file would not have been saved.

I must be missing something as to why exporting by dragging sequences to AME won't meet your needs. What is it about breaking live events into chapters that works with the old File>Export>Media workflow but not with the new drag-and-drop method?

[welchphoto]

Hi

First AME did close normally.

As to drag and drop, I edit the whole show, say two hours, then I set in and out point go to CTRL M make my settings, name the file, then click Queue then after it is set to AME, when all works right. Then back to the time line set the new In out and go again..

I don't see how I drag part of a sequence to AME.

Thanks

Dennis

[Mark Mapes]

In that regard, queuing a job to AME works the same regardless of whether you drag the sequence there or use CTRL+M: in both cases, Source Range defaults to Sequence In/Out.

For the drag-and-drop workflow, I recommend saving one or more custom presets, which will then appear in the section at the top of the Preset Browser. That makes it very convenient to drop the sequence on the desired preset. And if you sometimes export a given job to multiple output settings, you can collect those presets in a User Preset Group. Then dropping a sequence on the group will set add an output for each preset in the group. There's no quicker & easier way to do that.

As for naming the output file, you can do that in AME by clicking the output's path in the Queue.

Edited to add: I keep forgetting to ask how long you've waited for your export to queue to AME--before you disabled native sequence import. A few months ago I discovered a bug where in various scenarios it could take much longer than normal for this process to complete. It appeared that the process had hung, but if I gave it long enough, it succeeded. I don't recall particulars regarding the scenarios or how long it could take. I know both of you refer to the app crashing, but it sounds like you might actually be dealing with an apparent hang--and that Premiere doesn't actually crash until you start killing "Not Responding" processes.

[welchphoto]

Hi

Yes I remember a few months back it was slow sometimes but did complete the export. What is happening now is different when this happens the screen goes a transparent white with "not responding " in the name bar. It is a crash as it never recovers.

I will look into the frag and drop it might be a good way but still this needs to be fixed.

Dennis

[Zooropa75]

Darn, guess it's time to give up on 10.7. Thanks for pointing this out!

[welchphoto]

Just an update here.

I used the drag and drop. It worked, my only complaint would be that each time I clicked on the file name it defaulted to where the project is kept. I would like it if after I edit the name to a new location it would default to that same location until a new location is set.

So for now Drag and drop works but I'd still like it to export correctly.

Dennis

[Zooropa75]

So I've upgraded from OS X10.7 to 10.9... And I'm still running into this issue when I try to export/queue multiple sequences. PPro gets stuck on "preparing to export" and the app stops responding - I waited for about 20 minutes before terminating it. Changing the AME setting for "import sequences natively" doesn't seem to fix it either. Like Dennis mentioned, drag-and-drop the sequences directly into AME is a workaround. But it's a bit of a hassle compared to just using "Cmd-M".

I hope this gets fixed in the next CC update!

[coats]

I am having the same issue with exporting to the media Encoder. I am pretty new to Premiere Pro and have been asked to put 2 different videos I did together on one DVD and have them loop for 2 hours. So I brought in the sequences into a new project and this is where I run into trouble. I can't get it to encode. It just hangs. I don't know how to drop the sequences into the Media Encoder as one project. It comes in with 4 different items. This is for a Trade Show in 2 days and I am stressed. Can someone help me out? Using the latest version of Premiere on amMac running 10.9.5. Thanks.

Pat

[asdfasdfasdfafasfdasfdasf]

1. Open PP and Media Encoder

2. In PP, in the timeline, open the sequence you wish to export.

3. Right click on the tab with the name of your sequence in the upper left of the pane.

4. Select "Reveal Sequence in Project."

5. Select the highlighted sequence in the project pane.

6. Drag this directly into the Media Encoder queue pane.

7. Click on the first link below the title of your sequence in Media Encoder to adjust settings for export.

OR:

1. Open PP and Media Encoder.

2. Right click on anything in the Project pane.

3. Select "Reveal Project in Finder..."

4. Drag the .prproj file directly into the Media Encoder queue.

5. Select the sequence you wish to export. The sequence name can be found in the tab above your sequence in the PP timeline pane.

6. Click on the first link below the title of your sequence in Media Encoder to adjust settings for export.

OR:

If Media Encoder still won't work, try hitting "Export" instead of "Queue" in the export window in PP. Using Media Encoder is not necessary for export, just a convenience (assuming it's working).

[Macauley]

asdfasdfasdfafasfdasfdasf wrote:

5. Select the highlighted sequence in the project pane.

6. Drag this directly into the Media Encoder queue pane.

7. Click on the first link below the title of your sequence in Media Encoder to adjust settings for export.

This works to avoid the crash, but when I do this my PP project is re-saved to the auto-save location, automatically! I have to save-as back to the original file to get it back.

Separate bug?

[sophocles1]

I have a similar issue; Premiere hangs when exporting to AME with the message "Preparing data for export."

I've traced my issue to having audio track effects applied. Most notably, having the Multiband Compressor applied to the Master track, while having a Fill Right/Fill Left effect applied to one of the tracks. Premiere hangs; also Adobe QT32 Server. If I remove the Multiband Compressor, sequences export fine; apply it again, same error - very repeatable. Tried replacing the Multiband Compressor with a few other effects; some seem to cause the error, some do not.

Anyone else with this problem have audio track effects?

On a 2013 Mac Pro, 3Ghz 8-Core,  64GB, Dual FirePro D700s, OS 10.9.4, OpenCL encoding default

[ibhhvcc]

Yes, same exact issue caused by audio effects. Issue is caused by any newer audio effect that has an interface that looks like Audition:

Audio Effects Crash Premiere

[Guest]

Hi! Did you ever solve this issue? I narrowed it down to the audio effects as well. All the newest updates are installed, and it's still happening. Driving me crazy.

[jsalvado]

This is a problem that I actually encountered yesterday while I was working on two commercial spots that are due. When I removed the audio affects it worked fine, however, the point of those effects was to improve the quality of the end product. There is another thread that discusses the problem is due to built-in effects related to izotope.

My solution as a workaround is to open Media Encoder separately, and then drag the project timeline into Media Encoder. I do this all with one caveat, you need to be very patient because it'll take longer than usual to encode and may not even appear that it's encoding. If you just let it run for a few minutes, you'll see it start up and it lags right at the end but it still finishes up. I hope this helps someone, and hopefully this bug gets fixed with an update. Be sure to submit bug reports.

I'm working with PPro CC 2014.1 on Windows 8.1.