Losing render files

[cmacfido]

I am working on a very heavy project with multiple sources, green screen and virual backgrounds.  It took me over five hours to render this thing out and when I shut it down and re-opened it, all my renders were gone. In fact one time I duplicated a sequence and lost half the render files.  I am on Premiere Pro 2020 and this is a major problem.  I have more of the shows comming and if this keeps up I will have to switch to Avid.  Is there anyway to avoid this?

[basil1891]

Not to address your exact issue, but I've noticed all red render bar in your project. Check if you can rearrange effects according to this rules, for faster render: https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro/order-of-filters-effects-and-drop-in-cuda-rendering-spee...

[Peru Bob]

Where are your preview files located?

Are they on an external drive?

[cmacfido]

Yes, they are on a G Drive with athunderbolt connection.

[Peru Bob]

I'm a Windows guy, not a Mac guy, but I suspect that the preview files being on that drive is at least part of the issue.

[philippec24614733]

Hi there, i have been experiencing the same problem. I'm working on a 90 minute documentary with multiple footage on a Full HD timeline in Premiere Pro CC2020. It takes a while to render the whole thing as you can imagine but my timeline eventually turns all green.

If i close Premiere and reopen it, the timeline is back to yellow and i would have to render again.

There's no problem with the render files location (on the same SSD where all my files are) so i don't understand why this is happening.

Did you manage to find a solution? or got any feedback from Adobe regarding this issue?

Cheers,

Phil

[LumpySpaceMilk]

I'll echo pretty much everything here. 85-minute documentary and within two days of rendering from beginning to end the render files on my external Thunderbolt 3 drive become unlinked and the green render line is again yellow and red. This has happened about 10 times over the past month. Not an issue to render overnight but I have to explain to the producer in a remote Zoom session why smooth playback is not an option. The Adobe name gets tarnished a little bit each time...I did not have this problem with Avid Media Composer.

I'll expand the topic to workarounds...is there any way to relink the render files to the sequence or restore the folder's relationship with the project or sequence?

[LumpySpaceMilk]

I'll also mention that the thunderbolt drive has a touchy power supply, and any turbulence on my bookshelf has the potential to turning it off. I get them started again before I do any operations in the Premiere Pro project, and the link to all of the video and audio files are restored. I haven't observed this to be the moment when Premiere "forgets" where the render files are, but I thought I'd add that observation in case render-file-amnesia is somehow related.

As a former Avid user I'm thinking things like, "2022 and still linking issues, Adobe?" The sparse response to this 2021 thread is also underwhelming.

[Jacquelyn5E78]

Is there a solution to this issue? I have worked on several versions of Premiere Pro on Window and Mac, now on Mac in 2022 version. Why do we lose connection to the render files????  I can have 2 timelines open, render sequence 1, switch to sequence 2 and then switch back to sequence 1 - the red lines are back. I have the render folder with the project on an fast external SSD. Otherwise the internal drive fills up, especailly as I need to re-render everytime I switch to export another sequence. Please advise or fix this.

[James5FC9]

Having the same problem. V23.3 and PP just seems to randomly forget all the render files after a day or two, sometimes after just closing adn opeing it. Also I have one complex project that takes minutes after openng to find the render files when they do wotk. They are stored on an external drive within the project foldres. 

[Peru Bob]

 They are stored on an external drive within the project foldres. 

By @James5FC9

Does the external drive have a setting that allows it to sleep?  That could be the issue.

If that's not it, try a different cable or port to the drive.

[James5FC9]

Different cables have been used, and it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the drive going to sleep or not. Yesterday I checked that the project was rendered, closed PP and unhooked the drive and then this morning first thing I plugged the drive in, launched the project and render files lost. 

[Peru Bob]

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@James5FC9 wrote:

unhooked the drive and then this morning first thing I plugged the drive in,

---

Did you assign the drive a fixed drive letter?  If not, that would be the issue.

[James5FC9]

Thanks but I'm on a mac, that's never been a thing I've needed to do in 20 years. Also other projects on that drive link back to their render files fine, it's just the very complex projects with lots of layering and mogrts that are losing  the links. 

[luke unsworth]

Not sure if this will help but I've just lost my render files (again!) when my PC went to sleep. Previously it's been on 24/7 as I've been working on a project involving 12x 1-1.40mins multicam dance shows (that'll teach to save energy!). What I did notice however is that I only lost the render files of sequences that were open in the timeline when last saved e.g any sequences that were closed at the previous save retained the render files.

[LumpySpaceMilk]

Interesting that it affects only open sequences.

One trick that works in offline transition renders (especially morph dissolves) is to turn off "enable" for the media and then enable it again, which seems to repair the pathway to the render file. Dunno if that would work for selecting all the clips in a whole sequence, right clicking and unchecking "enable" then rechecking them (it would, of course, mess you up if you have intentionally disabled clips in your timeline!).

[JonesVid]

Is anyone on this thread still losing Rendered files - as of Premiere 23.5 version ?.

I have a major issue with 4K Pro Res rendered files being lost.

See my post  in bugs : https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro-bugs/some-prores-422-video-preview-files-lost-on-closing...

If anyone has any info to help avoid losing rendered files let me know.

The files are in my project folder on an internal fast NVMe drive.

Media Cache is on a different internal NVMe drive as well. (Not System C:)

Appreciate any info as I have radio silence from Adobe.

The problem occurs on my older separate Intel 9900K machine as well. Similar setup.

Thanks