How to disable pancaking timelines in Premiere

Report · Feb 13, 2024

How do I disable when going back and forth on timelines for it to not automatically want to drag a timeline above and pancake? It autoselects for me to do it when working on unrelated projects, and I have to end up dragging it back to where it was along the main strip of project titles. I am working on a Mac. This was added in a recent update.

Report · Feb 13, 2024

That would happen if you drag a seqence from either the Timeline or Project panel, and 'drop' (let go on the mouse) while near the top of the Timeline panel.

When doing this, you see the indicator ... that shaded blue area at the top of the Timeline panel? If you see that, it will create a new panel.

You have to get farther down in the Timeline panel center before letting go.

Report · Feb 13, 2024

It is when I am just clicking from one timeline to another thats open in the panel, somehow the mouse turns purple and I need to try to click elsewhere or else it pancakes for me automatically. I do not want this to happen. I just want to click on my timelines open and have them open in full. It's when working on the top bar in the picture attached.

Report · Feb 13, 2024

The question is not clear, do you mean that when you open a project while you work with another, you loose the arrangment of the timelines and you have to rearrange them manually, and you need a solution for that?

Report · Feb 13, 2024

They are already opened in the top bar above the timeline, vs having to go back to the project and reopen sequences when I want them. As I replied above, when clicking from one timeline to another thats open in the panel, somehow the mouse turns purple and I need to try to click elsewhere or else it pancakes for me automatically. I want that disabled so I can just click and open. Literally happens every day and it wasn't until an update that this became a pain to deal with. My coworker complains about it too.

Report · Feb 13, 2024

That would indicate you're mouse is moving when you click. They might have made the 'needed' movement to invoke a new panel segment requiring less distance to the movement, or something in your mouse or OS may have changed.

I typically have many open sequences at a time, as I work all my projects in a Production. I'm grabbing stuff from all over, and going from one sequence to another in the Timeline panel.

And I don't see this behavior. I click a sequence name tab, and it's the Active one. Without any sign of the blue segment that indicates that you're moving the name tab.

Report · Feb 13, 2024

So strange. Again this wasn't the case last year and I am now on version 24.1. It usually does happen if I am working inside the timeline within an essential graphic, then want to copy and paste something into another timeline it shows that purple cursor that I then cannot click out of. I just wish there was a way to turn it off instead of it auto-guessing my needs.

Report · Feb 13, 2024

That's truly weird and would be so annoying ... huh.

Report · Oct 22, 2024

Yes! I would love to solve this too. It drives me insane and started with an update a few months ago. I have multiple sequence tabs open above my timeline and now Adobe seems to assume anytime I click on one I want to pancake timeline them. So awful.

Report · Oct 23, 2024

THANK YOU! I am not the only one suffering from this and cannot disable it! Happens just with 1 click to activate which is so stupid.

Report · Oct 23, 2024

Are you experiencing this when taking a sequence/selection from the timeline panel of one project, then dropping it into a timeline panel of a different project?

Report · Oct 23, 2024

Hi R Neil - so that is what happens, but unintentionally. I'll have a single timeline open, working in it, with multiple sequence tabs open on the top of the timeline. I'll go to click on another sequence tab and it's like Premiere now automatically thinks I want to pancake stack my timelines and will do it, when all I'm trying to do is click into the other sequence. And you can't click away, it automatically pancake stacks the timelines - so then I have to drag that timeline tab back up next to the others to have a single timeline open. It's maddening and just started happening in the last month. I edit for 9 hours every day and I bet this happens 100x a day now.

Report · Oct 23, 2024

Sorry, to clarify - a single project is open, but with say 10 sequence tabs open on the top of the timeline. But one project.

Report · Oct 23, 2024

Huh ... I've done that type of action thousands of times, never had this. I'll have to think about what's happening there.

Report · Oct 23, 2024

Same. Been working in Premiere going back to 2017 - never had this happen until about a month ago it started (possibly with an update, though it happens in 2023 and 2024 - we're currently in both), and it happens incessantly now. Other editors here are having the same issue as well, though oddly some are not - and we all get version upgrades at the same time.

Report · Oct 28, 2024

Happens to me when I have different projects open too. Whatever tabs are open it seems to happen on mine when I try to click the top bar and it suddenly highlights purple for the pancaking.

Report · Nov 21, 2024

OMG...this has been happening to me as well. Was never a problem. It is driving me NUTS. It just keeps assuming I want to pancake the timelines when I'm just trying to click on different versions or whatnot. Glad it's no just me. I have to constantly then close and reopen a timeline to get rid of the stacked or pancaked timeline. And I don't know why it's happening. Like what action I am doing with the mouse. But in all the years I have been editing on Premiere...this was never an issue.