Premiere Pro CC 2023 stuck on 'Media pending'

[nowstanding]

I have recently updated to the 2023 version of Adobe Premiere Pro. My project is quite large but I have been patient. It is stuck on the media pending screen for all my footage and I can't edit my project. 

This used to work before I updated. I am working on a high-spec PC and would appreciate your support on this recent issue.

Many thanks,

Theo

[Ann Bens]

If it's quite large, split it in two separate projects

I had to do that with a project that was between 250 and 300 Mb.

Became unmanageable.

[R Neil Haugen]

Project files are simply massive metadata tables. And especially on migration, can get messed up.

One thing to try, is close that and any other project in Premiere. Dump the cache files, then try reloading the project.

Past that, I hope you have a duplicate, naturally ... and have you tried simply working in 2022 for now?

[nowstanding]

Hi there, thank you for your time.

I have re-installed the 2022 version and it seems I am having the same issue, the cache has been cleared and it continues to be stuck. A copy has been made, thank you for the advice. Perhaps a brief look at a video I have recorded, (excuse my timeline, I am still learning myself) https://youtu.be/CprQdqty_Vw

Many thanks,

Theo

[nowstanding]

I have tested footage source previews without the timeline and the issue consists even with project footage with no timeline running, I am unsure what this means.

Theo 

[R Neil Haugen]

It looks like you've got a TON of audio on that sequence, and the audio tracks are where you have the angled

"hazard warning" lines.

So have you checked the bins to see if those are linked correctly? If you have question marks on those audio clips in the bin, then that's where your issue lies.

Neil

[nowstanding]

Hi there, I have not seen any error with my footage in the bins so far as I have had them organised since the start of this project. In my previous message, I mentioned that I imported new footage and that doesn't play either on a blank sequence with others closed.

I tried resetting the cache in a separate copy, I have tried removing the render files but that didn't work either. The entire project is frozen and does not save. Most of the audio is attached to each multi-cam clip. This issue only consists in this project only.

Thanks,

Theo

[R Neil Haugen]

Next thing is to create a new project file, then from the MediaBrowser panel navigate to the previous project file, and right-click/import-ingest a sequence from the old project. See if it works. Sometimes you can get past a corrupt project file that way.

Neil

[nowstanding]

Hi there, thanks for getting back to me.

I found this quite successful thank you, but only one sequence out of two is shown in my folders when I am importing. I could only import my first section which was called 'Intro Only' which played fine in the new project. Problem is that the footage I need is in the sequence that is not appearing in my import destination called 'Versus Last Half'.

I need to work on that sequence.

Thanks,

Theo

[nowstanding · Accepted solution]

Update:

The issue is caused by a certain file in my timeline or the amount of footage in my sequence. I have been able to select all footage (Ctrl-A) (Cmnd A) and disable the footage. The lag then stopped and I was able to save. When I enable the footage back again it goes back to being frozen so I am selecting the footage bit by bit until I find the source of the issue or until it lags to which I will then create a new sequence to separate the project to reduce issues. All seems to be okay for now. Thanks.

[fawad36061892kunc]

I have recently updated to the 2024 version of Adobe Premiere Pro. My project is small like 100mb but I have been patient. It is stuck on the media pending screen for all my footage and I can't edit my project. 

This used to work before I updated. I am working on a high-spec PC and would appreciate your support on this recent issue.

[R Neil Haugen]

First, did you properly dump your cache files before opening Premiere, after updating? You don't want old cache files still "active".

Hold down Shift or Alt while launching, then choose to dump all cache files.

[Inbar247894165e47]

same just happened to me with the 2024 version! My project was 149 MB. I had to open a new project and import my latest sequence from the old project to be able to continue editing.. Very frastrating. 

[will1138]

Same here. I'm on a brand new Mac Studio and have dumped my cache files, but the After Effects comps in my Premiere timeline won't link even when pointed to the correct files. Dynamic Link seems to be broken. 

[a_leven]

I know this is a widely reported issue with numerous temporary fixes in the forums as well as online, but we are experincing this issue across multiple systems on a feature length film within an Adobe Production.  Our shared storage is LucidLink

Re: LucidLink - All users have fast and stable internet, our Lucid caches (not Premiere) are very high, 4TB, which is ample size for a Lucid cache.  I do not believe this is a Lucid issue.

Multiple users experience "Media Pending" when opening any project file within the Production. We have a project with a 2 hr sequence that will stay in Media Pending, regardless of which user opens the project.  The only true fix we have found is to copy the sequence and put it into a different project, when we do this the copy fully comes online without issue. However, this is not an ideal fix. We have tried all the other fixes posted onine; enable/disable clips, add edits, extend clips, etc. and see very little success.  Regardless, having to go through this process every time we open a project takes up a huge chunk of our time.  One of our users recently had their entire system replaced, which means that their Premiere cache was totally reset while we were in the middle of working, that did not help at all.  I personally cleared all unused media from my cache, did not help.

Again, I realize that this has been widely posted and there are "fixes" but ideally I would like to know why this is happening and what we can do to permantly fix the issue or at the very least fix it for an extended period of time and employ a long term fix when it happens again.

Steps to reproduce:
    1. Open Project with any sequence (long, short, doesn't matter)

    2. Entire sequence is "Media Pending"
 
Result: Media is Pending and cannot work until it pops back online
Expected: All media to be online and be able to work immediately.
 
System info
    Application: Premiere Pro (Beta) v24.5.0.48
    OS: macOS v14.6.0, RAM: 64.00 GB GB, CPUs (logical): 24

[R Neil Haugen]

This happens nearly always in stand-alone work where there are either media issues with certain files, or the main project file is so big the computer just struggles with the massive amount of project data in the operating cache.

It is far less common in Productions mode, but then, from what I've seen, it's still normally either a network issue or certain files again.

A LucidLink issue with this is in my understanding very rare. So that two-hour sequence seems to be an issue. What media is used in that?

Would it be possible to split that into two or three sections, working a section at a time?

@mattchristensen is normally pretty good at sorting these things.

[a_leven]

The 2 hour sequence is by far the worst offender, but we will see Media Pending with shorter sequences too. Sometimes they resolve quicker than the 2 hours sequnce, but we are still seeing it across the board.  Today I broke the 2 hour sequence into 6 reels, about 20 min, each in their own Project within the Production, we are still seeing Media Pending on those individual sequences, but it will resolve faster than the full feature.

All picture media is ProRes Proxy with sync'd audio at 24 bit/48khz.  Audio files are 24bit/48khz WAV files.  Sometimes other audio formats will make their way into the sequence (mp3), but we will replace those files with converted 24/48 WAV files fairly quickly.  Media is very uniform, we've made it a point to keep it clean to avoid any larger issues.

[R Neil Haugen]

Well, in general, that shouldn't be happening. I've got around a 300Mbps connection, and the projects my partner and I have done haven't had any slowups hardly ever. But then, our longest sequences have been around 25 minutes tops. With only 2/3 video tracks,  typically UDH, though often 5-ten audio tracks to get all sound fx, music, dialog & such in.

I'm hoping that Matt will kick in with questions/advice.

[a_leven]

I am on a 1 Gbps up/down connected via Ethernet, I hit close to those speeds when running a speed test.  Additionally, our media is all HD ProRes Proxy, it's extremely lightweight. The only things that I can think of that be might be heavy about our sequences is that every clip is a multicam clip (obviously only a single camera is viewable) and we have about 25-30 audio tracks.  Other than that, our setup is very straight forward.

[R Neil Haugen]

Ok, a multicam ... how many cameras?

And 25-30 audio tracks. So maybe somewhere around 30 or more tracks of media? 

[a_leven]

At most 4 cameras, but that is only on a handful of setups.  A majority of the multicam clips are 2 cameras.  For organization/tracking purposes, all dailies in the timeline are multicam clips, even single camera clips.

28-30 Media tracks total.

Could the multicams really cause this issue?  Again, if we copy/paste the sequence into a different project (new or already created) all the media pops online instantly. 

[R Neil Haugen]

I'm looking at the audio load, there. That can be more of a processing issue than most of us think it is.

That said, I've seen on some systems where somehow, multicam clips stressed things.

I'm still totally puzzled here. Have you gone to the LucidLink Slack channel and asked for help? They might have ideas.

[a_leven]

I can reach out to Lucid support, but to me this really feels like an Adobe issue, not sure how or why Lucid would be introducing this. I can report back when I've reached out to them.

In the meantime if there is any insight that @mattchristensen or anyone at Adobe can provide as to ways to resolve this issue it would be much appreciated. Happy to troubleshoot any ideas outside of what we can find online and have been doing on a daily basis.

In my mind the key to this issue is that when we copy/paste the sequence into another project, Media Pending goes away immediately.  Not sure what Premiere is doing under the hood during that copy/paste process, but it seems to change something with how it loads the media/renders and causes it to pop on instantly.

[R Neil Haugen]

I suggested LucidLink because there are at times things that can crop up to interfere with performance. As noted day after day on their Slack.

Plus, you get specific comments by other users who are working with LucidLink/Premiere workflows on a daily basis. And have wisdom and experience you really want to tap into.

At which point, whether it's "an Adobe issue" or not is irrelevant. You have received help.

[a_leven]

I reported this in the Lucid Slack and submitted a ticket, they are pointing back to Adobe.  They said:

Since you can import/copy the sequence from one project to another, and everything shows connected, this as well as the logs indicates this is not a LucidLink Issue..
 
I know that when using different versions of Adobe with different Project versions can cause issues on its own from my own experience.
 
Things I would recommend would be to update any project files and run the same version of Premiere across the board.  Sometimes the Beta versions cause problems with the official releases. So this could potentially be an Adobe issue or a version mismatch problem between the official release and the beta, and the Project/Productions versions.

Our team is 4 people.  3 are on 24.5 (Beta) 1 is on 24.5 Public.  I find it hard to believe that the version mismatch would cause this issue, but happy to hear more thoughts from the Adobe side.