Premiere Pro 2020 Crashing constantly

Report · Dec 16, 2019

I have recently bought the Creative Cloud package and Premiere Pro 2020 is always crashing.

I mean I literally open a new project, try to import a single file and it freezes and eventually crashes itself.

Other apps are working fine strangely like After Effects and Photoshop. It just seems to be a problem with Premiere Pro?

Does any have any suggestions? I've still got a few days left of my free cancellation policy and am seriously considering using it due to being unable to do ANYTHING in the program.

Report · Oct 23, 2020

*ridiculouly

Report · Nov 03, 2020

My Creative Cloud updated last week and everything was fine. I did notice that neither After Effects nor Premiere Pro changed their opening images, unlike Photoshop, Illustrator and the like, and thought it odd. Today, I tried to open Premiere Pro and was asked to log in. That was odd. I log in and begin my project. a short time later, I suddenly get a prompt asking if I want to save my project before closing. Hoping it was a one-time thing, I saved and let it close, then started back up. Now, it's done the same thing and is asking me to log in again.

Report · Nov 08, 2020

@Adobe ... any update on this? It's November 8, 2020 and I'm also (still) dealing with Premiere crashing. The software is becoming unusable on a Mac.

Report · Nov 10, 2020

Same. I work for The Times newspaper. My mac has been fine for 8 months working from home. Just this week, CC is crashing, Ai, Ps and Id all crashing every 10 mins. Also sending my iMac fan crazy. I've never heard the fan until this week. Help!

Report · Nov 15, 2020

Adding a "me too." Here's a list of things that definitely cause PP2020 to crash every single time (and resetting the workspace doesn't help), so I'm listing these as something others might want to avoid:

Using File>Import or Ctrl+I to import footage (so drag and drop is the only way I can import footage without crashing the program)
Using "replace footage"
Using Export > Media and then trying to change the file name in the first window (however, if I add the export to the Media Encoder queue and then try to change the file name, it doesn't crash)

Those are the ones that I've consistently noted; it also crashes at random. I'm on a PC using Windows 10.

I was going to just switch back to 2019, but my company built motion graphics templates that only work in 2020. So now if I have something complex to build, I have to build it in 2019 then export that file, then bring it into 2020 so I can use the motion graphics templates. I've never seen a program crash as much as this one does.

Report · Nov 16, 2020

Me too, suddenly crashing at random, usually starts with (local) footage saying Media Pending in Source window. Beach ball of death and fans in overdrive. I'm working with mobile phone footage in a new project on the simplest of edits (under 5 mins). I've tried downgrading and upgrading. Enough to make me switch to DaVinci Resolve.

Report · Nov 24, 2020

I have been struggling with this EXACT problem amongst many other ridiciulous problems within Premiere. Needless to say, I am switching back to Final Cut after I complete my current edit now that is possible to work on again using this workaround that discovered. I opened Premiere, made a new project, then opened the project that i was working on and copied the whole sequence timeline and immediately closed out that project before it crashed again. I then pasted my old timeline into a new sequence in the new project and this instantly brought back all of my source files into my main bin. So far this has worked. So frusrated with adobe. I am running a 2020 imac, 10 core, 96gb of ram, and 16gb vram.

Report · Nov 25, 2020

I was suffering from constant Premiere program hangs as well—Application Not Responding spinner spinning after edits, requiring by a forced quit. After a day or few of workarounds (basically saving my work after every step), I opened a text chat with Adobe Support and the agent walked me through a rather convoluted process that stabilized Premiere completely. I’ll outline those steps below, but it might make more sense for anyone suffering from these problems to text chat with Adobe Support as well. I’ve been using Premiere aggressively since without issues.

I assume part of the problem relates to the recent enhancements to MacOS security. These new restrictions may have curtailed access to resources Adobe uses for caching and configurations. It could also be that there are configuration options that don’t carry forward through upgrades properly, since resetting all of mine across all Adobe CC products was the final requisite fix.

Michael

[Steps taken with Adobe Support via text chat on 11/24/2020]

1: Open System Preferences> Security and Privacy>Privacy> Full Disk Access

2: Unlock and add Premiere Pro by pressing plus [+] sign and navigating to the app in the Applications folder.

3: In Premiere Pro, go to Preferences>Media cache and change the location of BOTH caches to your Documents folder. Press Delete when prompted.

4: Restart Premiere Pro. If problems persist, proceed to 5.

5: Reset Preferences… Alas, doing this will remove all of your custom settings (but not Plug-Ins).

5.1: Close ALL Adobe applications. (Quitting Creative Cloud is not necessary)

5.2: In Finder, Go>Go To Folder

5.3: In the search box, type ~/Library/Application Support and hit enter. Note: Be sure to include “~” or further issues will arise.

5.4: Locate and Rename "Adobe" folder to “Adobe.old"

5.5: Again, in the Finder Go box, type ~/Library/Preferences and hit enter

5.6: Locate and Rename "Adobe" folder to “Adobe.old"

5.7: Go to "Documents" folder and Rename "Adobe" folder to “Adobe.old”

5.8 Restart Premiere. If all is well over time, you can delete the “Adobe.old” folders created in step 5.

[end]

Report · Nov 26, 2020

Thank you so much, this is really helpful. After updating to Big Sur and
updating Premiere again this problem seems to have stopped for me now. I'm
really glad I have some troubleshooting options to pursue should it start
up again though.

--

*Brigitte Sutherland*
Lead Animator

[Personal information removed by moderator.]

Report · Nov 26, 2020

Thanks for the reconnaissance Brigitte. I'm glad to hear the issues sorted themselves out without too much fiddling.

You've reminded me that I should note that, in my case, I'm running Adobe Premiere Pro 14.6.0 (Build 51) on macOS Catalina 10.15.7.

Michael

Report · Dec 11, 2020

It's December 2020, a few weeks into 2021, and Adobe premiere 2020 keeps crashing. Someone, please fix this problem once and for all.

Report · Dec 26, 2020

This is incredibly FRUSTRATING, to say the least. I've been working in a new project and PP just keeps crashing!!! I try to do almost anything and it locks up. Try to rename the video tracks in the sequence...IT CRASHES!!! Add a new video track...IT CRASHES. Import a new video to the project and try to add it to the sequence...IT CRASHES!!! Change to a different workspace (as mentioned in this thread) and guess what...IT CRASHES!!! It seems like with every new update it brings about more bugs. I am sick and tired of "rolling back" my PP version to correct the new issues with the new versions. This is just getting so old and it doesn't seem like Adobe even responds to our issues.

Report · Dec 26, 2020

Have you tried what I outlined in my 11/25 post? My problems were previously comparable to yours, but PP's been rock-solid since.

Report · Jan 05, 2021

Well...in unrelated to Adobe crashing issues, on Monday, December 28th I had a blue screen of death moment with my Dell Precision workstation. The night before, I had spent a few hours perfecting a new technique, created the new technique in my latest travel video, rendered it out, and went to bed. I woke up to preview my work and I was amazed at how cool it looked. I was feeling very confident and excited that the technique looked so professional. I had a Dell pop-up screen telling me I had updates to do. So I clicked "YES" and that's when the BSOD popped up. I tried the many quick things to do (restart to see if Windows could fix the issue, reboot in safe mode, etc.) and none of them worked. I spent two hours on the phone with Dell pro support two different nights and they basically told me that my hard drive (and more importantly) and my Windows version was corrupt and there was nothing they could do about it.

So needless to say, I haven't had time to try your options yet. I took the hard drive to a local data recovery company in hopes they can salvage all of my files from that drive. Fingers crossed. If they are able to save my files, then I will gladly try your tips. I am running on a new hard drive so maybe many of those PP locking up issues will magically fix themselves after the clean install.

Randy

Report · Dec 26, 2020

If the following are true:

None of the software-based solutions solve your crashing problem - clearing caches, changing configs, etc.
You have a desktop computer (most likely).
You've recently installed new RAM, a graphics card, sound card or other add-on card...
Newly installed RAM or card may not have been properly seated in a slot,
OR
You've been using the same machine (that was upgraded sometime in the past) for months or years without any change..
Vibration and heating/cooling can cause components to stop making consistent contact, contacts can get dirty. Less likely to happen with factory installed parts.
In either of the above cases, a machine may work just fine most of the time but experience crashes when accessing particular features of software that push the computers limits, uses more advanced features (like Adobe products or game software for example), or causes the computer to access a particular location in the computer's RAM or video card RAM.
When all else fails...
Unplug everything from the computer (especially the power), ground yourself, open up the case, remove each stick of RAM and each add-on card, clean contacts, and re-insert everything verifying that each component is fully seated in it's slot. If you aren't familiar with doing this kind of thing:
There are lots of videos and how-tos tailored to just about every experience-level - it's not rocket science but due caution and care are required.
Always unplug power before opening the case.
Static electricity kills computers. Be sure to include videos/how-tos on grounding yourself in your research before you open the case.
Proceed at your own risk.

Removing components, cleaning contacts, and firmly reinstalling components has saved me from pitching a computer and/or piece of software out the window more than once.Try things that don't involve opening the computer first but keep this in mind when all else fails.

Report · Dec 27, 2020

Have you found a solution yet? Ive been trying to fix this problem for months now and still nothing has changed always just crashes pretty much as soon as i open a project. How has adobe still not fixed this ??? What am i paying them for honestly. Ive uninstalled and re isntalled still crashing ive cleared all my storage on the laptop got an external hard drive to see if it was a spcae problem and no. still crashes everytime its bs.

Report · Jan 04, 2021

Adobe shows by not addressing bugs for years on end that they don't care about stability in Premiere nearly as much as jamming more features in to expand their user base. I suppose it's "good enough" as a popular editor for fairly simple and short projects. That said, it's maddening in a professional setting for a feature-length project how often it crashes and how slowly it performs, and how often you must restart Premiere for stability reasons. No number of support phone calls or tutorials about how to reconfigure it really seem to help much. You may discover settings that run a bit faster but no stunning breakthroughs or fundamentally better reliability. If you're stuck with it until you finish a complex project I recommend you set autosave to work every 5 or 10 minutes and run Premiere on a really high-end machine so you can restart it quickly. If, on the other hand, you're about to start a large, new project I strongly recommend Davinci Resolve.

Report · Jan 05, 2021

Wmudge I COMPLETELY agree. I believe Adobe puts out additional features to enhance the overall production value of PP but DOES NOT address the simplest issues like Legacy Title messing up, Adobe Stock not working inside PP, and now this constant crashing. It is no surprise that many of the great content creators I follow on YouTube are dumping Adobe and using other (less expensive and less volatile) video production software. The ONLY thing that has helped me if it keeps crashing is rolling back a version or two. Twice I've had to do this just to finish a project I was working on. Yes, the older versions don't have as many of the new bells and whistles but it gives you a viable option. As far as the other products (like Davinci Resolve), I am just a too bit invested (20 years) in Adobe to change now and learn a completely new system. So as Jim Carrey says in Liar Liar when the tow truck company scratches his car I will just continue to take these issues b/c what else can I really do?

Keep creating!!!

Randy

Report · Feb 01, 2021

Sorry I'm so late to this, but the 2 solutions I found are relatively simple.

1. File > Project Settings > General >Renderer

Set to software only.

This will make the encoding process slower, but it's a quick fix. If you just need to get the project done, do this, but if you need it to move at lightening speed like I do, try option 2.

2. Go into your graphics card settings, or google search driver updates for your graphics card. SPECIFICALLY make sure you have STUDIO DRIVERS. Since graphics cards are mainly built for gaming, you need to make sure you download studio drivers. I only just realized this myself. Once installed, you can reset your project settings to the GPU.

Option 1 makes a two hour video take about 40 minutes to render. Option 2 made it take about 15 minutes. Hope this helps!!

Report · Mar 02, 2021

I am having the same issue! I tried the fixes and they do not work. I spent hours working on a video only for it to be lost. I think I am going to have to switch. I even downlowed Illustrator and Photoshop after working for over 20 years in CorelDraw. Guess I need to cancel my subscription and do something else. Pretty frustrating that they haven't fixed this problem yet. Bummer.