Media Encoder not making Proxy

Report · Nov 11, 2025

Hi! I suck with computers and I need help!
I've been using Premiere Pro for a few years now and I've recently started to use Proxies to help smooth out the editing process. It has been going well but recently I've started to get an issue that keeps coming back. I try to make proxies of my videos and Media Encoder starts but never finishes it. Today it stopped after a few seconds. I paused in the queue, started it again to see if it would restart but it didn't. I then stop it and remove it from my queue.
Here is my real issue: Not making Proxy is not a big deal but the problem is that this issue affects Premiere Pro somehow. let me explain.

I try to close media encoder. It freezes. After a while, I force it to close. Then, the next time I open a project (ANY project, not just the one I tried to make proxies with) my render line turns red even though I already have proxies made for that project and my render line was yellow just before!!! Both time it happened, I had an upgrade to do for my NVIDIA GeForce so I thought it was the issue. I installed the new update and upgraded my Premiere Pro and Media Encoder if needed. I tried to do that before upgrading NVIDIA but Media Encoder said that they couldn't upgrade because it was active (probably why it froze when I tried to close it??) Once the NVIDIA upgrade was done, somehow now encoder wasn't active anymore and I could upgrade it. I upgraded Premiere Pro & Media Encoder and uninstalled / reinstalled them (someone said to upgrade before unistalling/reinstalling them so that why I do it this way...) Once all was up to date, I would open any project and the render line would be back to yellow. I could make the proxies again in Media Encoder without any issue.
But now that I have just done the same process for the second time (it happened twice remember), media encoder just cashed again and I don't know what to do to at least fix my render line.. I can edit without proxies but I can't edit with a red line. I haven't tried to render in Premiere pro but I don't get why I would suddenly need to do it if the line was yellow before!! Do I really have to render now? Do I try to install / reinstall PP & ME again (Media encoder will not want to do it anyway...)
Also, My Window bar starts to freeze or be very slow every time it happens...
Premiere Pro: 25.5
Media Encoder: 25.5
Window 10
PS: I'm sorry if I'm not clear, It's my second language. Ask Further questions and I'll try my best ot answer

Report · Nov 11, 2025

Could you give us more specs on your system including memory and disk space. Is there a reason why you haven't upgraded to Windows 11? Also what resolution are you working with?

Report · Nov 11, 2025

Hi @Natasha32922694au2v - Thanks for submitting your bug report. We need a few more details to try to help with the issue.
Please see, How to Report a Problem.

Can you right click on your media files and select Media File Properties..., then post a screenshot.

Sorry for the frustration.

Report · Nov 11, 2025

Hi! You guys are fast! Here are the info you both asked:

memory is 32GB
graphic card NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER

both projects and PP / ME are on a SSD Samsung 870 EVO 4TB
My brother told me Windows 11 is not great and I should stay on 10... He told me: "even numbers are great but stay away from odd numbers" XD

Here are the pictures of my media files.
I make movie reactions so there are 2 parts of my reactions made from my camera phone (variable bitrate) and 1 file for the movie screen recorded with OBS.
The files were transcoded from another hard drive because my SSD is new and I wanted the project to be at the same place as PP while editing it.
I don't think it has anything to do with the project though because the first time I had this issue, it wasn't a transcoded project..
I hope that's what you asked as for the pictures cause I wasn't sure..

Report · Nov 11, 2025

I forgot to say that I managed to unistall Premiere pro. I had to use to task manager to force shutting down something called "link manager" but I can't uninstall Media Encoder cause it says that it is active and task manager can't force shutting it down.. Same issue as last time. I don't understand why Media Encoder is still running even though the window is closed

Report · Nov 12, 2025

@jamieclarke @RobShultz

I'm re-sending my answers cause I fogot to tag you both and I don't know if you can see my answers otherwise (I suck at computers!!!)

Hi! You guys are fast! Here are the info you both asked:

memory is 32GB
graphic card NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER

both projects and PP / ME are on a SSD Samsung 870 EVO 4TB
My brother told me Windows 11 is not great and I should stay on 10... He told me: "even numbers are great but stay away from odd numbers" XD

Here are the pictures of my media files.
I make movie reactions so there are 2 parts of my reactions made from my camera phone (variable bitrate) and 1 file for the movie screen recorded with OBS.
The files were transcoded from another hard drive because my SSD is new and I wanted the project to be at the same place as PP while editing it.
I don't think it has anything to do with the project though because the first time I had this issue, it wasn't a transcoded project..
I hope that's what you asked as for the pictures cause I wasn't sure..

I forgot to say that I managed to unistall Premiere pro. I had to use to task manager to force shutting down something called "link manager" but I can't uninstall Media Encoder cause it says that it is active and task manager can't force shutting it down.. Same issue as last time. I don't understand why Media Encoder is still running even though the window is closed

Also update: Media Encoder doesn't appear in my task manager menu anymore but I still can't uninstall it. Same message appears.

Report · Nov 12, 2025

Hi @Natasha32922694au2v - From the logs it looks like Media Encoder is stalling and then a force quit happens.

"My brother told me Windows 11 is not great and I should stay on 10"

You can stay on whichever OS you choose, but just a warning Windows has officially ended support for Windows 10.

What are your steps for making the Proxy files?

How much drive space do you have?

Report · Nov 12, 2025

@jamieclarke

Yep I know for the support on windows 10.. Could that be an issue? Cause my Window task bar freezes or lags everytime this problem happens. It's normally a recurring thing until I update NVIDIA and then the bar stops lagging.

PP & AME are both on my internal SSD with all my projects. The internal SSD is 4TB & I've only used 793GB of it.

To create proxy I have 2 methods:

1. If it's a transcoded project (coming from an external SSD) Once I have transcoded it to the new internal SSD where PP & AME are, I select the files in PP, right click and create proxies. AME opens and starts doing its thing.
My proxy settings are

Quarter / H.264 / I made a proxy folder in my project folder

I know the everybody hates H.264 format but I tried once to make it in ProRes and I couldn't edit with the proxies cause the images kept stopping every 2 sec.. I haven't tried the other formats though..

2. If it's a new project that is directly in my new internal SSD, I simply select the option to create proxies (same settings) before adding my video files in PP and I add my video files after. AME opens and starts doing its thing..

Report · Nov 12, 2025

Hi @Natasha32922694au2v - When a company decides that they won't support an OS anymore it's usually a good idea to upgrade at least for security updates.

Are Premiere and AME on the same drive as your OS?

Report · Nov 12, 2025

@jamieclarke

No not on the same drive. My first SSD (C Drive) is where I have everything related to Windows. It's only for that cause it's only 222GB. Then I have a hard drive(D drive) for my personal files and finally I have my new internal SSD that is for editing. I used to edit on the D drive but it's not an SSD so my new drive makes it so much faster to edit.

Report · Nov 12, 2025

Hi @Natasha32922694au2v - premiere and AME work best when they are installed on the same drive as the OS, I would try that first.

Report · Nov 12, 2025

@jamieclarke

really? I was told that it is best to have PP on the same drive as my project files. Is it not true then? Cause it's the reason why I installed it on the new SSD..

Report · Nov 13, 2025

Hi @Natasha32922694au2v - Adobe apps work best when installed on the same drive as the OS. I bet you are thinking of the project being in the same folder structure as the media.

Report · Nov 14, 2025

@jamieclarke

No someone who edited as well told me that I could put PP on my editing hard drive to help with lagging. I guess they were wrong XD
I could finally uninstall AME after a window update so I reinstalled them on my C drive and PP is back to where it was (no red render line anymore) so I'm able to edit again.

I haven't tried to make proxies yet.

I think I'm gonna wait a bit (I'm tight on schedule) and will try again in a few weeks.

If I have the same issue, I'll try to document it a bit better to get your assistance!
2 questions before I let you be :
Do you think AME not being able to make proxies was the result of being in the wrong drive or could it be that I'm not using the last version (10) of Windows?
And how do I know which format of proxies to make? As I said I only successfully made proxies with H.264.

If you remember ProRes made my proxies choppy in PP to the point that I couldn't edit with the proxies..

But wherever I look on the internet, people seem to think H.264 is the worst format for proxies...

Report · Nov 14, 2025

Hi @Natasha32922694au2v - I'm glad you are back in a stable place. Please let us know if you encounter other issues.

Proxies really depend on your workflow, hardware, and use case. In general, ProRes Proxy performs best on macOS because it’s hardware accelerated across Apple platforms. On Windows, I recommend H.264 8-bit 4:2:0 proxies the standard option since most GPUs offer hardware acceleration for that codec.

If you’d like to dive deeper, Puget Systems has an excellent article on hardware decoding support in Premiere Pro.

Hardware Decoding Support in Adobe Premiere Pro