Premiere Pro freezing my mac - totally

[Svendeweb]

I have been having problems with Premiere Pro for a long time. It freezes my mac totally and a restart is need each time. 

I'm running macOS Big Sur version 11.6
iMac Retina 5K, late 2020
3,6 GHz 10-core Intel Core i9
128 GB 2667 MHz DDR4
AMD Radeon Pro 5700XT 16GB

I have been running updates to make sure to have the lastest versions and my macOS is up to date.

I have reinstalled my mac from scratch and 20 min. in - the computer freezes and needs a reboot after starting Premiere pro again. 

[Arginsky]

I've also been having this probelm for the last month or so. I've had at least 4 calls with Adobe tech support, including a "Senior Technician" and they all tried the same standard fixes. No luck.

I'm dismayed with how Adobe is handling the v15 release and all of it's problems. I've seen hundreds of people posting in the community about how awful v15 is and I agree. It's terribly unstable and I believe was rushed out without proper testing. There are too many people having problems to say it's someone's system (which they always do). Too many people who can't export, or play their timeline without stutter or glitches- BASIC EDIT NEEDS.

My feeling is Adobe should halt collecting subscription payments of subscribers using v15 and not collect montly payments again until the issues are fixed, tested, and verified across the community.

I'm sorry you're having this issue. I wish there was a solution.

[JOHN MONDO]

So what are your system specs?

[Kartika Rawat]

Hi Svendeweb!

Sorry to hear that. Does it happen with a specific project? Have you already tried deleting cache files?

Let us know.

Happy to help.

Thanks,

Kartika

[Svendeweb]

I have tried to delete cache files and I tried to format my Mac as well.

/Svende

[nishu_kush]

Hi Svende,

What's the version of the macOS that you installed. Please be sure that you install all the updates available for your current version of macOS. Also, could you try switching the rederer to Software Only and see if that brings any change. Here's how: https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro-discussions/faq-how-to-change-the-video-renderer-in-prem...

Let us know how it goes.

Thanks,

Nishu

[Svendeweb]

Right now I'm using macOS Big Sur 11.6 (20G165) but I have been having the problem for a long time.

I'll try to switch to Software only, but what is the point of buying a strong graphics card and use software only?
Does it slow the process or is this the way to do it 🙂

[JOHN MONDO]

Similar system here with zero problems (mine's only an i7) and you've got a bit more RAM installed. Do you have plenty of internal SSD space? Have you set your cache to an external Thunderbolt drive rather than the internal drive? (Big Sur can cause permission problems when saving to the internal drive). Also check how much memory is actually allocated to Premiere Pro. Make sure all your scratch disks are set to an external drive as well - one that's quick enough and has enough space. The fact that it works after a re-install points to this being the problem.

[JOHN MONDO]

Oh and don't forget to clear the cache and the scratch disk folders after you change their location. I always leave min same as project and work exclusively of external drives.

[Svendeweb]

As have just formattet the mac and have plenty of space. My mac is still freezing with a clean install on a 2 TB SSD harddrive.

[JOHN MONDO]

The problem can be Mac permissions on Big Sur - it sets the permissions on the internal drive differently to previous versions of the OS as a security measure. You can get around this if you know enough about the way it works and make sure you send files to the right place (not the protected area of the hard drive) .  

If it's not that you'll need to watch your activity monitor to see exactly what is causing Premiere to crash. But I think the easiest thing to try is to just grab an external drive, set all your scratch disks and cache to the external drive and see if that helps. 

My system specs are quite similar and I have no problems so the good news is there is light at the end of the tunnel. BTW what kind of media are you trying to use inside of Premiere? H265 4K 10bit is an issue for Premiere and you'll need to transcode it first to get decent performance.

[Svendeweb]

I dont know how to change permissions with terminal. 
I'll set my media cache to and external drive to see if that helps. 

I'm using .MP4 4K files from a sony ZV-10 camera or videofiles from and iPhone 12 mini

[JOHN MONDO]

I would also have a look at using a proxy workflow for any 4K files. While they work well enough for me, as soon as you start to have two or three effects going it can bog down the system. I'm pretty sure the ZV10 is ony 8bit 420 so not a difficult 4K codec to handle. The iPhone might be using variable frame rate which PP doesn't handle well. 

[Christian.Z]

When you formatted, have you installed any software besides premiere? 

It seems that an app or software is causing this. Try to instal PP by itself

[Svendeweb]

I have installed Photoshop and Lightroom too.

/Svende