Premiere pro fail to cache MP4 files

[FlashTheMighty]

Dear support,

My name is Daniel, and I'm working at a TV station with daily news. We usually work with a huge amount of footage during the day and sometimes PP CC 18 (12.1.2) fail to cache the source clips and half of them appear as audio in the bin. There are no error message or anything, it just happens. It usually works fine, but at the most critical moments this error happens and ruins the edit. Even if I delete the cache and reimport the files, the same thing happens. Funny thing, the media encoder can see them just fine, as video formats sony xdcam HD (mp4) . Is there any solution?

(system: Mac OS High sierra (10.13.6) )

[R Neil Haugen]

How are you ingesting into PrPro? And ... how uploading files from camera to computer?

Neil

[FlashTheMighty]

Hey Neil,

I use cmd + i for import, sometimes i just select all files in the finder and pull them into my bin. I tryed both method, even made the clips offline in the bin and relinked them but got the same result. The roundtrip is to import all the files into the encoder and convert them to MOV or any other formats. It's just time consuming method .

Our crew use SxS cards in the cameras and we have a server machine to store all the captured footages. Our workstations have high speed connection to the server and we usually edit from it. I tried to copy all the footage from the server to my hard drive, cleaned the media cache and got the same result...

Updated the OS, all the drivers/codecs... nothing changed.

Since the last PP update it is a headache for our editing crew .

[R Neil Haugen]

Yea, that's a royal pain. Yeesh.

I'd asked because at times PrPro can be finicky on import methods, so ingesting via the Media Browser then plomping them into sequences via the Project panel tends to have fewer issues.

As you're clearly aware, having the files on a local drive tends to have fewer issues than a network server. But in many shops, like yours, a network server is an absolute must for workflow for the company.

Copying the clips to the server ... getting everything uploaded properly ... is another potential bugaboo. But I'd guess your staff are drilled on that too.

Jarle Leirpoll​ or SAFEHARBOR11​ ... either of you got a suggestion?

Neil

[FlashTheMighty]

Well indeed, we try to do everything the proper way to avoid data loss.

Other funny thing: The clips I fail to import are working just fine on an another Mac... but all the other macs get the same bug with different clips. Same config, same or older OS (El Capitan) .

I saved the media cache on my local HDD, but what if I try to save it to my SSD ? Can it do a difference? It was never an issue.

Daniel

[R Neil Haugen]

Media cache should be ok ... I save mine on a specially-targeted drive that currently happens to be an SSD as most of my 8 internals are SSD's. But I can't imagine the location of a cache on a local drive should be an issue.

A bit of a puzzler here.

Neil

[juanmario]

With respect to open the MP4 only with audio.

You can try the following:

Go to Edit> Preferences> Media and remove the checkbox before the element: enable Intel h.264 decoding (requires reboot), or (12.1.2) Enable hardware accelerated decoding.

Restart premiere.

If you still have problems with some files, close Premiere and proceed to delete the cache folders; Note the link for instructions:

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2152942

Consider the location of the cache folders in the preferences of the program:

Edit> Preferences> Media cache

[FlashTheMighty]

Hey Juanmario,

There is a problem with your suggestion.

I'm using a Mac pro with Geforce 980 Ti .

I already cleared my cache folders manually, my OS is a fresh clean instal. Any other suggestion?

[Jarle Leirpoll]

I don't think the processor in the Mac pro is supported for hardware decoding of H.264. It's not the GPU that will do this, it's a chip on the CPU.

Have you tried trashing your media cache, and the media cache database, manually ? Even if you have a separate folder for this, there may still be some files in the default folder.

I'm not sure where it is on macOS, but on Windows its located here: ~\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Common

[Ann Bens · Accepted solution]

Delete all clips from project,

Make sure the entire card is copied to hdd,

Clean out media cache: FAQ: How to clean media cache files |Adobe Community

Rename folder footage is in.

Make new project,

Import via Media Browser.

See how that goes.

[juanmario]

If there is no Intel processor, there is no h264 decoding.

Do problematic files have the same origin?

[juanmario]

I just realize that they are xdcam files, it must have the mpeg video format, then it is coding by software, weird.

[FlashTheMighty]

I cleaned the cache and got the same result then copied the source files to my local drive, renamed them and imported them via Cmd + i to a new project. It somehow solved the problem.

I can live with this as long as every 10th times I get this trouble. Usually when we have resource heavy workhours... Copying many GB of data is also time consuming. Guess I have to wait for the next PPro update and fingers crossed it will solve it.

Ps.: We have Intel Xeon CPUs and we never work from a plugged in card.

Ps2.: Thank you for everyone for the brainstorming !

Daniel