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

[mackinnoncreative]

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? 

[omedennis]

I have the same problems. Kevin asked me to start a new topic, see the link

below.  
https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro-bugs/frame-substitution-error-on-m1-macbook-pro/idc-p/13...

[samuelboneham]

Here is a shoot resolution for those using the C70 or Canon - shoot your files with the following settings for no drop frame issues - Long GOP seems to be the issue potentially or Clog2...

If you have already shot and have drop frame issues create Quicktime proxies and work from those - won't be any issues. Then when you export make sure you close down Premiere, then re-open and begin export process. Keep an eye out for drop frames on the export and cross your fingers.

Camera settings:

XF-AVC YCC422 10 Bit

3840X2160 Intra-Frame 

250mbps

Colour profiles tested so far are:

C1:BT. 709 Wide DR

Clog3

Yet to test Clog2

[nico444]

Its unfortunate that this is still an issue... This bug has been following updates for quite some time now. People wonder why editors are dropping off of the Adobe map, it is because of unfixed issues like this. Do better Adobe, please.

I have found there are two fixes that work for me. If one doesn't work to fix the issue, the other one usually does.

1) Change the "playback resolution" in the program panel. If it is on 1/8 and I am getting the error message, I will change it to 1/4 and it usually solves the problem.

2) If that doesn't work, i will try this: Right click the offending clip, uncheck "Scale to frame size".  I try to never use this feature, but sometimes my AE will use this method and I have found it causes many different problems. So, if i uncheck scale to frame size, and then just manually scale down or up the image to fit the timeline, there isn't a problem.

It seems like there is no one fix for everyone with this issue. Hope this helps someone!

[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...

[adams40061578]

Over and over agian 😕

[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...

[indiancowboy.com]

wow! exported a small clip out of resolve to do a lil title animation in after effects thinking it'd be easy peasy and ran into this mess. tried it in premiere, tried all the various solutions just because I got curious, but what a collosal waste of time. I really need to find a way to get out of having the creative cloud subscription as a backup when I rarely use anything beyond occassional photoshop nowadays... specially when going to AE or even Premiere Pro (yep, tried it in there too) give these errors for a clip that literally every other package I have plays back fine (VLC, Resolve etc). No, it's not VFR... this is a prores file. I find it unbelievable that this error has been going on since 2022 and I'm hitting it now in 2024... 

[greggyp89]

1. Sad to say I'm still having the same issue and I ended up using cap cut for their noise removal for raw video. Even my long GOP clips have no issue in any other editor. I even returned a Canon camera because it could not shoot intra frame above 30 FPS. Still using Adobe Premiere and I am still shooting alin intra frame

[jdvideo]

I had the same propblem with a .mov file. I opened it in Media Encoder and exported as an .mp4

[Michael Grenadier]

What codec was the mov file?

Michael Grenadier
917-362-3396
*www.michaelgrenadier.com <>*
mgrenadier@gmail.com

[jdvideo]

AAC, H.264

[Michael Grenadier]

.mov is just a file container...  h264 is not an ideal editing format.  Better to conert to a prores .mov in which each frame is discreet.  Happy to go in to. more detail if you're interested.    But since you got over the hump, maybe not necessary..  

[jdvideo]

Thanks Michael, that's a good idea, I'll try a prores conversion. As this was for a web video, I wasn't really concerned about the h.264 quality.

[Thyageshwaran]

FRAME SUBSTITUTION RECURSION ERROR

Changing video codec can help....I had the same problem while importing HEVC with alpha in premier pro 2023 and i need to convert it to h.264 to work smoothly

[Senta Studio]

Congratulation!! You're still going to have a headache in PR 2025 because this bug issue is still there, my friend.