'Frame substitution recursion attempt aborting after multiple attempts on file'

[mackinnonfilmmaking]

Hi everyone, 

I've got a problem that I think others have had, I'm trying to use MXF video files in a project I'm working on, the quality of the video is the main priority (Audio has been recorded separately so there's no audio on the MXF video files). I've already tried using MP4 but the quality has reduced significantly so that's a no-go. After importing the MXF files, the error sign lights up, and 'Frame substitution recursion attempt aborting after multiple attempts on file' is the issue every time. I've imported it under different Video rendering and playback options but no luck there. Each time I've tried importing the MXF files, the number of errors alternates, sometimes there are loads, other times there are less. Does anyone know what to do to fix it? 

[hamood25206530oq8u · Accepted solution]

Save the project 

Close Adobe Premiere 
Rename the file that is giving this error 
Launch Adobe Premiere again 
It will say file not found (Because we renamed it)
Click on locate and then browse the renamed File 
Hopefully it will work, it has worked for me 3 to 4 times

[kitchemistry]

Same. On premiere 2023 and now 2024. I'm unable to render or export a new project, and am now having to migrate everything to Resolve, which actually is able to handle these MXF files. Unfortunately, going to make the move to Resolve permanent, due to Adobe's unwillingness to actually solve this issue. Been nice knowing y'all...

[Anthony LV]

Still having this issue in 2024. I am running an M3 Max MacBook Pro with XAVC-I .MXF files from the Sony FX6. Any word, Adobe? Resolve is looking really good right about now.

[ALIASLABS]

The solution has been wherever I’m running my scratch disk that storage
would be full. Of course Adobe doesn’t say anything about this. All I had
to do was empty. My scratch disk files into another drive and I was good to
go. Try that if you check where your scratch desk is located. You will
probably see that it is full. There’s no moreroom

[Anthony LV]

Thank you for the advice! It looks like my scratch disk is only taking up 34 GB of space, but my local drive itself only has 44 GB of free space left. If this is indeed the issue, it's strange that it's happening when my drive is almost full and not completely full. I'll free up some more space and see if that helps.

[Michael Grenadier]

Here's the thing.  Many things a computer does are in the background and require sufficient empty drive space.  It is recommended that you have at least 10 % free space on all drives and 20% on your startup (boot) drive.  Happy to go in to more detail about the why's... but this is very important stuff...  Unfortunately there are many things that you need to know to be able to use a computer efficiently....    For example, never use what are called "reserved" characters in file or folder names...  Reserved characters are things like *, /, \, etc...    Hard to predict what problems ignoring these basic computer rules can cause...

[Mosaic_Ace]

So is the answer to switch to Devinci Resolve? I too use MXF files and I don't have time to trouble shoot an App that can't use MXF files?

[Jeff Bugbee]

MXF files work fine. What issue are you having?

[Michael Grenadier]

there are various flavors of mxf and the camera manufacturers sometime change the specs which can wreak havoc.  A couple of years ago, some Sony mxf files had some serious issues in Premiere particularly when making proxies...   Sony changed something...  if I remember correctly, fixing it had to do with the changing the color space on the camera original in Premiere before creating the proxies...  This board was a life saver both adobe employees and users...    and a few years before that, some Sony proprietary audio format made making proxies that stayed attached impossible...  Is there a pattern here?    Although it's not always possible, I strongly suggest testing your workflow before digging yourself too deep a hole...