Hi everyone,I’m encountering a frustrating issue in Adobe Premiere Pro 2025 on my MacBook Pro M3 Max (also present in the 2024 version) where certain parts of the interface become unresponsive or take an extremely long time to load, despite the rest of the application performing flawlessly.Details of the Issue:When I click on the Export tab, it becomes highlighted as active, but the interface remains stuck on the previous tab (Edit or Import). Sometimes, after several minutes, it switches over, but more often, it doesn’t respond at all. I’m forced to restart the application to regain control.The Text Tool often doesn’t respond when I try to create a New Caption Track. Clicking the button does nothing.Clicking Progress Dashboard results in a long delay (several minutes) before it finally opens.What’s strange is that despite these UI issues, everything else works perfectly:Playback of 4K timelines with effects, transitions, and color grading runs smoothly without dropped frames.Exporting videos (even complex timelines) works fast and without issues.The issue is isolated to the interface's responsiveness when switching between tabs and using certain tools.Temporary Workaround:After some trial and error, I found a workaround:I open a completely blank project (with "Import Media" displayed).I open my main project timeline but keep the blank project selected in the Project Panel.When the blank project is selected, the interface becomes fully responsive:The Export tab opens instantly.The Progress Dashboard loads without delay.The Text Tool responds normally.This indicates that the issue might be related to how Premiere Pro handles the interface when switching projects or tabs.Steps I’ve Already Taken:To troubleshoot, I have:Reinstalled Premiere Pro (clean install, including cache and preferences removal).Reset preferences and cleared the media cache.Disabled hardware acceleration (Mercury Playback Engine).Reset workspaces to default and created fresh sequences.Tested without third-party plugins.None of these steps resolved the issue—the only consistent fix is the blank project workaround.System Information:Device: MacBook Pro M3 MaxmacOS Version: 15.0.1 (24A348)Adobe Premiere Pro Version: 2025 (25.1.0 Build 73) Request for Assistance:Has anyone else experienced similar issues with unresponsive tabs, the Text Tool, or the Progress Dashboard? If so, have you found any solutions or insights into what might be causing this?I believe this might be a UI bug specific to multi-project workflows or how Premiere handles project switching. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!Thanks in advance!Ruben Hemminga

Participant

Question

Interface Unresponsiveness and Tab Switching Bug in Premiere Pro on MacBook Pro M3 Max

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
January 5, 2025
5 replies
616 views

Hi everyone,

I’m encountering a frustrating issue in Adobe Premiere Pro 2025 on my MacBook Pro M3 Max (also present in the 2024 version) where certain parts of the interface become unresponsive or take an extremely long time to load, despite the rest of the application performing flawlessly.

Details of the Issue:

When I click on the Export tab, it becomes highlighted as active, but the interface remains stuck on the previous tab (Edit or Import). Sometimes, after several minutes, it switches over, but more often, it doesn’t respond at all. I’m forced to restart the application to regain control.
The Text Tool often doesn’t respond when I try to create a New Caption Track. Clicking the button does nothing.
Clicking Progress Dashboard results in a long delay (several minutes) before it finally opens.

What’s strange is that despite these UI issues, everything else works perfectly:

Playback of 4K timelines with effects, transitions, and color grading runs smoothly without dropped frames.
Exporting videos (even complex timelines) works fast and without issues.
The issue is isolated to the interface's responsiveness when switching between tabs and using certain tools.

Temporary Workaround:

After some trial and error, I found a workaround:

I open a completely blank project (with "Import Media" displayed).
I open my main project timeline but keep the blank project selected in the Project Panel.
When the blank project is selected, the interface becomes fully responsive:
- The Export tab opens instantly.
- The Progress Dashboard loads without delay.
- The Text Tool responds normally.

This indicates that the issue might be related to how Premiere Pro handles the interface when switching projects or tabs.

Steps I’ve Already Taken:

To troubleshoot, I have:

Reinstalled Premiere Pro (clean install, including cache and preferences removal).
Reset preferences and cleared the media cache.
Disabled hardware acceleration (Mercury Playback Engine).
Reset workspaces to default and created fresh sequences.
Tested without third-party plugins.

None of these steps resolved the issue—the only consistent fix is the blank project workaround.

System Information:

Device: MacBook Pro M3 Max
macOS Version: 15.0.1 (24A348)
Adobe Premiere Pro Version: 2025 (25.1.0 Build 73)

Request for Assistance:

Has anyone else experienced similar issues with unresponsive tabs, the Text Tool, or the Progress Dashboard? If so, have you found any solutions or insights into what might be causing this?

I believe this might be a UI bug specific to multi-project workflows or how Premiere handles project switching. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

Ruben Hemminga

Warren Heaton

Community Expert

@Dion34708647p3mw

If your project is complex, it would no hurt to try migrating it to a Production.

Based on where you are at with your troubleshooting, I would proceed with a clean install.

If you're already using Time Machine, I would allow it to run for one more incremental backup. If not, I'd take the time to set it up and let it do one complete backup.

Then, start with a clean instsall of macOS - including a reformat of the Macintosh HD. If project files or source footage is on your Macintosh HD, restore just the Documents from the Time Machine backup. Hopefully, though, those files are all on external storage.

Follow that with installing Creative Cloud Desktop and just Premiere Pro and Medie Encoder, but nothing else. I'd include both Premiere Pro 24.x and 25.x.

Try opening a 25.x project and see what heppans. (It might not hurt to take the extra step of openign a new, empty project and then importing an existing project into it). Dismiss any notifications about missing effects or third-party extenstions and addons. If somehow 25.x does not behave as expected at this point, try a new project in Premiere Pro 24.x from scratch. For both 25.x and 24.x try to start with something that does not use Insta360 footage (hopefully, that's possible). Assuming that goes well, add the Insta360 drivers back. If that does well, add RSMP Pro. There have been several forum posts about issues with AEJuice. Before re-installing that, check with the publisher about which version is rcommnded for use with 2025 (25.1.0 Build 73).

While doing this troubleshooting, keep Time Machine disabled so that you can do a complete restore from before you started the clean install process should you decide to revert to that. Assuming you're able to get back to things working as expected, restore just your Documents and configure Time Machine to backup as usual.

jamieclarke

Community Manager

Hi @Dion34708647p3mw - I have seen many problems with the AEJuice panel. Disabling plugins helps with plugins but not panels. Can you try closing all of your panels and let us know if that helps your issue.

D

Dion34708647p3mwAuthor

Participant

Hi Jamie,

Thanks for your response!

To clarify:

I do use multiple screens, but the issue persists even when I’m only using a single screen.
I’ve run both Apple Diagnostics and the Adobe Creative Cloud Diagnostics Beta app—both reported zero issues, and all my software is up to date.
And yes, Warren is right—it’s not possible to disable the Mercury Playback Engine on Apple Silicon, my bad on that one!

Plugins in Use:

Insta360 (for 360-degree footage)
AEJuice (for templates)
RSMB Pro (for motion blur)

However, even when I launch Premiere Pro without any plugins (using the "launch without plugins" option), the issue remains.

Storage and Performance:

All media and cache files are stored on Samsung T9 SSDs.
I’ve monitored Premiere Pro in Activity Monitor, but I’m not seeing any unusual spikes in CPU or memory usage—everything remains within normal ranges.

Mac Mini vs. MacBook Pro:

Interestingly, on my Mac Mini M4 (base model), Premiere Pro works without these issues, even when handling large projects. This leads me to believe it’s likely something specific to my MacBook Pro M3 Max, and I’m fairly certain it’s a software-related issue rather than a hardware defect.

Clean Install Question:

I’ve already reinstalled Premiere Pro, but how can I ensure I’m doing a complete clean install so that no residual data or configurations remain that might affect the reinstallation?

Diagnostic Tools Inquiry:

Is there a more advanced tool available that can analyze Premiere Pro's logs and processes in real-time to pinpoint where the issue occurs? For example, something that could show whether there’s a corrupted file or a memory bottleneck causing the issue.

Problematic Project:

The project where I experience the worst delays and interface unresponsiveness contains 31 hours of footage. However, I’ve noticed that similar issues occur in other large projects (though not all).

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated—thanks again for your help!

Kind regards,
Ruben Hemminga

jamieclarke

Community Manager

Hi @Dion34708647p3mw - I agree with Warren, it sounds like something is conflicting with your projects. Are you using multiple displays? What plugins or third party panels do you have installed?

Warren Heaton

Community Expert

Sounds like something is conflicting with Premiere Pro, but difficult to say exactly what. I would include running Apple Diagnostics in your troubleshooting as well as anything that is running outside of Premiere (in the foreground or background). Also, is any storage media other than the Macintosh HD connected?

One note, when running the Apple Silicon version of Premiere Pro the Mercury Playback Engine cannot be disabled under File > Project Settings > General > Video Rendering and Playback.