Peak files need to be created constantly on mac

[JP-PostMan]

I have two different projects that I'm working on from my macbook. I'm experiencing this issue on both projects. I open up the project, everything loads. I'll check emails for 5-10 minutes and come back to the program. All of a sudden it's generating peak forms on a bunch of clips, mostly on the Blackmagic clips I think. I will wait till it's done, then I start editing and everything is fine for a few minutes, then suddenly it starts generating them again. Everything works fine, then it's generating them again. Mind you I'm not adding any media to the project, just editing existing footage. Sometimes it removes the waveforms and generates the peak files for the clips I'm working on. So frustrating. The media cache database is set to it's default location, an intermal folder on the macbook. This is not happening on my desktop PC with the same projects. Any Idea how to solve this?


OSX 14.0
PP 24.1.0 Build 85

2.3 GHz 8-Core Intel Corei9

16GB RAM

[mattchristensen]

@JP-PostMan You mentioned the location of the Media Cache Database, but just to confirm do you also have the Media Cache Files set to your local drive?

Is your media stored on a network share, and if so, what kind?

[JP-PostMan]

Yes @mattchristensen both Media Cache Database and Media Cache Files are set to my internal SSD on the macbook. I should have mentioned that, and the media is stored on an external SSD attached via USB C

[mattchristensen]

@JP-PostMan Thanks for confirming. That rules out any network storage which sometimes can have issues like this.

Most times we see this happening it's because the Date Modified metadata on the media files is changing. When that happens, Premiere Pro invalidates its cache (including waveform/peak files) and re-generates it to make sure it's up to date. Could you make a note of the Date Modified field in Finder for some of the media files in question, and then the next time you see new waveforms being created, see if that date has updated? 

Or, off the top of your head do you know if you have any software running that may be checking files or modifying or updating them?

[JP-PostMan]

Ah ok, that is helpful info. I use a company macbook and there isn't much software that should be running in the background, except IT recently installed some kind of monitoring + security software. I will check with them if it is maybe scanning the files. I'm not really sure if this issue was around before they installed the software or not, but I will check with them.

[mattchristensen]

@JP-PostMan Ah yeah, that would be good to check with them. Spot check some of your media files on the external SSD – do they have recent "Date Modified" columns in Finder? If so that's a definite clue as to what we're suspecting. In theory it may be that when you plug in the drive, the monitoring software is checking the files. It shouldn't be updating the Date Modified, but, I've seen stranger things.

[JP-PostMan]

Hi Matt, I just checked and the files that are having peak forms generated have a "date modified date" of July 8, 2023 according to Finder. That is obviously way before today's date.