Focus jumps from Timeline to Source or Program monitor

[Geminidas]

I have a brand new MacBook Pro M4, 48GB Memory, Sequoia 15.6.1 and am using the latest Premiere Pro 2025, and still it keeps happening that quite often I have the Timeline selected and the focus jumps from the Timeline to the Source or Program monitor without me doing anything.

The other thing is that when I select an item on the Timeline to work on it in the Program monitor, it often automatically jumps to a different item than the one I've just selected.

Not sure if the two issues are interconnected but any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

[kglad]

in the future, to find the best place to post your message, use the list here, https://community.adobe.com/

p.s. i don't think the adobe website, and forums in particular, are easy to navigate, so don't spend a lot of time searching that forum list. do your best and we'll move the post (like this one has already been moved) if it helps you get responses.

<"moved from using the community bugs">

[Geminidas]

Thank you for the advice!

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi,

Have you tried the steps I recommended? Let me know.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Geminidas]

Hi Kevin,
Thank you for your reply and the tip.
If I reset preferences would I also lose custom settings such as a Track style I have saved for my subtitles, or does it only reset preferences such as keyboard shortcuts and the layout of the panels etc.?
Many thanks!

[Kevin-Monahan]

If you are concerned about losing the customizations but still want to see if corrupt preferences are the issue is to locate them on your HD and drag them to the desktop. That way, you can always place them back if it was not your preferences after trying a go at resetting them. 

Cheers,
Kevin

[Stan Jones]

@Geminidas,

> If I reset preferences would I also lose custom settings such as a Track style I have saved for my subtitles, or does it only reset preferences such as keyboard shortcuts and the layout of the panels etc.?

I'll add a bit to this. The short answer is yes, the reset will affect track styles. And as Kevin says, it is easy to save them. But you must do it correctly.

First, see this help page:

https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/using/reset-preferences.html

But what it doesn't tell you is where those preferences are exactly, so you know what to replace once the reset is complete. I'm sure there's a feature request somewhere for the reset to include a backup, or for a list of all of them to be available, etc.

I know you're Mac, but I'll answer for Windows and someone can point you to the correct locations.

On Windows, there are 2 most important directories:

C:\Users\[User]\Documents\Adobe\Premiere Pro\25.0\ (Keyboard shortcuts, workspaces, and lots more)

C:\Users\[User]\Documents\Adobe\Common (Text styles and more)

When I'm doing something major, I just backup all the directories under this:

C:\Users\[User]\Documents\Adobe\

Stan

[Geminidas]

Hi Stan,
Thank you for the advice. I have now tried resetting the preferences but there are still random moments when the focus sjumps from the Timeline to the Source monitor, and when selecting specific clip on the timeline to work on them on the Program monitor (let's say to zoom into an image) there are still some of them which focus on a different clip right above it.
Is there anything else I can try?
Best wishes

[caroline_edits]

Really sorry for this frustrating issue, let's keep trying.

Do you have any external monitors or bluetooth devices connected? Maybe an external mouse? If so, try unplugging them.

What type of footage are you editing? What did you use to record it?

Please let us know! Happy to help.

Caroline

[Geminidas]

Hi Caroline,

It happens both with external keyboard and mouse and without. @Stan Jones, I also tried reset the workspace to the saved layout, to no avail.

The footage is a mix of Canon EOS R50 4K and iPhone 4K footage. The random jumping to the Source Monitor seems to be happening with any footage. It really is temperamental, sometimes it doesn't happen for quite a while, and then suddenly it jumps again. If let's say I want to delete an item on the timeline the only way I can do it is by keeping the item clicked while pressing the backspace button at the same time.

I just solved the issue of a image being selected on the Timeline but a different image being selected on the Program monitor: it only seems to happen with pngs, once I replaced them with a tif file that image remained selected in the Program monitor! Are tifs and jpgs generally preferable over pngs in Premiere? Which format is best practice regarding stills?

Thanks,
Geminidas

[Geminidas]

PS: Just discovered some pngs where it works fine! Really puzzling...

[Ishan Y]

So does this issue only happen when working with specific PNG files? If so, could you let us know the source of these PNG files? 

[Geminidas]

I just did some more testing. It's not the png files (which are graphics exported from Adobe After Effects), but it happens with any files (jpeg, tiff, etc.) that are on top of each other.

This is how random it is: I just single-clicked on a png, a tiff and a jpg that are on top of each other, and invariably the top one remained chosen when I went to the Program Monitor. Then I tried the same at a different place within the same timeline and everything worked fine (I single-clicked on an item and it remained selected when I clicked on it on the Program monitor). I then went back to the one I tried right before and now it suddenly worked without any issue!
How can this be so random? The computer is brand new and I'm using the latest version of Premiere.

[Stan Jones]

@Geminidas, I would also reset the workspace to the saved layout.

But I cannot imagine anything that would cause this problem.

Stan

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hey there Geminidas,

Thanks for the post. Your issue sounds rather odd. A couple of things you can test. See if a new test project behaves the same way. If so, then reset preferences and see if that doesn't work for you. Let us know your findings. Sorry for the hassle.

Thanks,
Kevin