Premiere Pro could not find any capable video play modules. Please update your video display drivers

[Russell Pond]

Yesterday, I was editing fine in Adobe 2020 without any issues. Now, when I try to launch the program, it says, "Premiere Pro could not find any capable video play modules. Please update your video display drivers and start again." If I restart my computer, sometimes, the program will launch fine and I can edit. But most of the time, I get this error. And, it all started this morning without any recent updates that I'm aware of. And, when it closes out, my Mac OS says, "Adobe Premiere Pro" has crashed. Not sure what's happening. There was no change to my hardware.

[arkalmed]

I have the same problem here on my MacPro (Trashcan frm 2013.
It shows the splash screen and goes through some loading stuff (very, very, very slowly).
Finally an error message pops up saying „Premiere Pro could not find any capable video play modules…..“ and crashes.

I already tried resetting caches and preferences, reset the NVRAM and PRAM, removed every single plugin I had, uninstalled and reinstalled PR but that did not solve anything.

I have PR Pro 2019 installed alongside and it is working just fine (lucky for me I found a tool to downgrade some of my PR projects here on the forum so I could continue working and hold the deadlines).

THIS IS A NIGHTMARE! PLEASE FIX THIS!! (sorry for going all Trump-style-CAPS).

My machine specs:
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.14.6
RAM: 65536MB
Machine: x86_64
Model: MacPro6,1
CPU * Core count: 12
CPU Frequency: 3500MHz
Bus Frequency: 100MHz
Open GL Renderer: AMD Radeon HD - FirePro D500 OpenGL Engine

And here the first few entries of the crash log:
Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

0 com.adobe.EAClient.framework 0x000000010c1d1b4f EACL::EAFilteredMRUList::Initialize(std::__1::list<std::__1::basic_string<unsigned short, std::__1::char_traits<unsigned short>, dvacore::allocator::SBAAllocator<unsigned short> >, std::__1::allocator<std::__1::basic_string<unsigned short, std::__1::char_traits<unsigned short>, dvacore::allocator::SBAAllocator<unsigned short> > > > const&) + 31
1 com.adobe.Frontend.framework 0x0000000102d6fc46 FE::DocumentManager::LoadMRULists() + 2374

[Russell Pond]

Interesting about the 2013 Mac Pro (Late 2013). 3GHz 8 core, AMD FirePro D500 grahpcis card.

I suspect it has something to do with the video card driver and some incompatibility with the AMD video drivers.

I can power cycle my MacPro, and get Premiere running, but if I quit and try to luanch Premiere again, it crashes.

So yes, this needs to be looked at.

[arkalmed]

Huh.

I also noticed that After Effects 2020 has issues too (and I was working in AE mostly this week before I had to open PR and encountered the issue in PR, starting January 15 2020 I think – just like you).
More often than not it won't give me the option to pick the Metal Compute thingy under "Video Rendering and Effects". It only shows "Mercury Software Only" in the menu...

Same with you?
Also – did you send your crash reports? I have no idea in which trash bin they land but I figured it might be worth a shot 😉

[arkalmed]

I created a bug report here (please vote):
https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911233-premiere-pro/suggestions/39465136-bug-report-crash-p...

[Russell Pond]

Shoot! It's gone from bad to worse now. I just uninstalled Premiere, After Effects and Media Encoder, and then re-isntalled them. Before, when I got the error, I could restart my computer and at least get Premiere to launch once (to get my editing work done). But now, it crashes all the time. I can't get Premiere to launch at all. Frustrating! 

[Russell Pond]

Yesterday, I spent about 20 minute on a call with Adobe support. They took control of my computer, adjusted some permissions and user stuff, but it didn't fix the issue. Then, we tried plugging in a different monitor (from DP to HDMI), and still no luck. The guy then said he'll get back to me because they've had a few calls regarding this. So, at least they're looking into. He said he would call me back once they have a solution.

[arkalmed]

Thanks Russel for letting me know! I still haven't heard back after sending several crash reports.

[Russell Pond]

Adobe support got it working for me. It was pretty exhaustive, though.

First, they ran this program to clean all the creative cloud programs: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html

Then, they went through and literally deleted everything setting, preference, cache, file -- anytihng with the word "adobe". Then, reinstalled Creative Cloud and then Premire, and then it worked. I'd be curiosu if this solution works for everyone else.

Now, back to reinstalling all my CC apps and plug ins.

[Russell Pond]

Well, forget that -- the problem is back. As of this morning, the same crash is happening again. Crap! I need this software to be working, and it's not.

[arkalmed]

Sorry to hear that Russel. I was holding back on all the steps you mentioned because I simply couldn't afford to jump through all these loops. This needs a fix ASAP.
Have you noticed the missing Metal GPU acceleration in AE too? See here: No Metal GPU acceleration available 

[arkalmed]

User voice link: https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects/suggestions/39530500-ae-v17-0-2-no-met...

[Russell Pond]

I can't even get Premiere to launch, so I don't know if it's loading the Metal GPU acceleration.

[arkalmed]

Oh I was talking about After Effects here 😉

[djepsilon5]

I've been having this same issue on my brand new 2019 Mac Pro as well. Super frustrating. I have found that if I reboot my machine and then open Premiere right away, it'll work. If I close up Premiere though and try to open, she'll stop working. Basically I have to reboot like 3 times a day. Another issue I've noticed is that occasionally Encoder will stop using the GPU to render (it greys out) and will use Software encoding instead...again, until you reboot.  %^#$^!

Really hoping Adobe gets this sorted out for all of us.

[Russell Pond]

Yes, that was also happening to me. I could reboot and immediatley launch Premiere. Then, when I would forget and quit, it wouldn't launch any more. Today, however, it will not start up at all any more. Just crashes on launch.

[Stevie L]

No problem.  Just to add: on restart after PU removed completely (unsurprisingly) I can confirm that PP2020 and AE2020 and Prelude 2020 all launch fine (and very quickly too, I might add).

So to my mind, it's definitely the Promise Utility that is the issue.

[Mitch W]

Try creating a Root User account and then logging into your system as Root - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204012
If you're able to work without errors in Root User mode, then the problem has something to do with user permissions. If you're getting the same error when logged in as Root, then it's not a permissions issue. Don't forget to disable Root User account after trying this test.

[Russell Pond]

I enabled Root User and tried to launch the program, and it still gives me the display error. So, it's not a permissions issue.

[johnpooley3]

Hey Mitch, could you get with the dev who found the workaround on Facebook (MC) and figure out if it's something that we can roll out here on the forums? 

[Mitch W]

Hi John,

Way ahead of you, but it's not a user friendly workaround. It involves some complicated fidgeting that requires someone that knows what they're doing to administer. We're working with Apple on a patch. 

[johnpooley3]

Great, thanks. Will this be added to https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/kb/known-issues.html? 

[arkalmed]

Hi Mitch,

would it possible to get the infos on that workaround? I love complicated!! 🙂
P.M. maybe?
Cheers!

[arkalmed]

Hi Mitch,

any news on this topic? Is there an ETA for a fix?
Will there be a fix for Mojave too? As stated I'm on OS X 10.14.6 an the problem exists there too.

Media Encoder and After Effects are also affected.
Again: I'm willing to try to apply the workaround myself. I know my way around the terminal, launchctl, lldb (if need be) .... 😉

Thanks!

[Russell Pond]

Same here. I'm in a bind with my production company. I've got a client project that was created in 14.0.1 and now I can't open it. Could really use that temp fix as well.