Premiere Pro Interface Lag (2018 and 2019)

[NickelplateSpiro]

So far this issue only appears to be happening when working with existing project files made by two of my nine in-house Mac edit suites, editors Ben (Edit 8) and Andrew (Edit 1), I'm naming them just so you can keep track of which stations I'm referring to. Both culprit stations are top spec iMac Pros with ATTO thunderlinks

connecting to the same SAN storage as all other stations. Premiere Pro, both 2018 and 2019, is having lag issues when interacting with all areas of the interface. Any area I click or attempt a keystroke is problematic. Almost every attempt at clicking or typing induces a delay and or pin-wheel. Initially, the issue occurs every couple of seconds with a pinwheel length of 1-3 seconds. Over an hour or two, the delay/pinwheel length grows and grows up to about 6 seconds, while still happening on almost every interactive or every other interaction. The only temporary fix is to import the most important aspect of a project, the main edit timeline, into a freshly made project file, losing all of my media and bins not already used in that timeline. Any other attempt at importing more than one timeline or unused media doesn't make the temporary fix. This fix is only temporary because the interface lag creeps back, requiring another fresh project import of the timeline. Many times when I close any of the problem projects, a small popup window with a title of 'Run Script Error' is shown with body text of 'Uncaught exception' and an okay button. The lag issue is happening on a second workstation, user Jacy in Edit 7 (iMac Pro, top spec, with the exact same configuration as the iMac Pros that originally created the project files that lag) but the original workstation that created the project files do not experience the lag. Deleting everything (media, generated items, and timelines) from all open projects fixes the issue so the software no longer lags.

The timelines play fine for me in Edit 4 (Nick), they just take a few seconds the start and after hitting the spacebar can take up to 6 seconds to stop. After Effects, Finder, and all other software are having no issues so I don't believe the issue to be our storage I/O or throughput.

COMPUTER INFO

• OS: MacOS Sierra 10.12.6
• Processor: Intel Xeon E5 12-Core at 2.7 GHz
• Installed memory: 128 GB
• System type: MacPro 6,1
• Graphics Card: AMD FirePro D700 6GB

HARD DRIVE INFO

• 1 TB Factory Flash
• ATTO Thunderlink fiber channel to 300TB Quantum xSAN, StorNext 6.x.x

PROJECT INFO

• Premiere Version: Premiere Pro CC (2018) 12.1.2 and (2019) 13.0.3
• Footage: Sony MXF OP1 (4k), REDcode 8:1 (4k - 8k), MP4s from stock sites, MOV (photo-jpeg) (HD-UHD), ProRes LT through 4444, WAVs at 44.1 and 48kHz
• TRT of the timelines: Various lengths from 1 min to 26 min
• All media is on the SAN
• Current project file size: Various projects  from under 1MB up to 40MB

FAILED FIX ATTEMPTS

• Switched from GPU playback to CPU
• Exporting 'selection as project' (selected the main edit timeline)
• Deactivating Mercury Transmit all together
• Switched RAM from Performance to Memory
• Held Option and Shift to clear cache and preferences
• Cleared the media cache folders using the Clean button in Media Preferences. Also went to the cache folders and deleted them manually.
• Cleared Sync data from Adobe website and re-sync'd settings
• Deleted all adobe ID sync settings and recreated from scratch
• limited interface to a single main 4k screen (5K LG sold by Apple) while trying all default workspaces
• Created blank new project and imported entire old project (only works temporarily for a couple of minutes)
• Uninstalled Premiere and reinstalled

[excited_Genie16B8]

Nice ask!

[NickelplateSpiro]

Well, it's serious so I went all out providing as much info as possible and adhering to the requested format. I've lost 2-3 days of work and we don't have any padding in the schedule for troubleshooting. It's so bad that my department director asked me if we should just buy another machine. That would be a $10k investment just because we can't get Premiere working properly; I hope that conveys how desperate we are.

[excited_Genie16B8]

It's so bad that my department director asked me if we should just buy another machine.

If you do...

$2,000 Custom PC vs $4,000 Mac Pro - YouTube

[post.and.it]

i have the same bug with a 8k pc. so its not the os neither the hardware.

its the bad ui programming and interface.

and because of the not existing error handling nobody can solve theese bugs.

[NickelplateSpiro]

Clarifications on my original post:

• Importing the entire problem project does not work
• Only importing a single timeline reduces the lag for a couple of minutes. Obviously, I'm importing the main edit for that project file.
• Lag is greatly reduced but when importing the single timeline but is not completely removed, and it creeps back after a few minutes of use.

[NickelplateSpiro]

Here are some videos demonstrating my issue. Again, the beachball lag issue occurs with every aspect of navigating and manipulating Premiere.

[R Neil Haugen]

Awesome posting, as Jim commented. Just wish I had more information to help.

Maybe Kevin-Monahan​ or Wes Howell​ would be able to help ...

Neil

[Wes Howell]

A few questions... Thanks for providing all the details.

1 - Did this happen suddenly? If so, were there changes or events that may have occurred?

2 - How large is your main timeline (the one you used Export Selected as Project on)

3 - I understand you need centralized storage. With that said, have you done any comparisons with local SSD?

For example, maybe creating a small test project with media on the SAN and then using project manager to manage a version to the SSD.  This could help us rule out any issues with storage.

4 - Have you installed any 3rd party panels?

5 - Have you changed your memory prefs to use more RAM?

6 - What does your RAM usage look like when this slowdown occurs?

Wes

[NickelplateSpiro]

1 - Did this happen suddenly? If so, were there changes or events that may have occurred?

It's hard to say, the most obvious trigger is that it occurs with projects originating from other edit suites in the office and most of those other suites do not experience the lag. I would add that this is new, my current machine has been flying through projects for 6 months with this storage system, and before we installed the SAN, Premiere was also doing great.

2 - How large is your main timeline (the one you used Export Selected as Project on)

Let's use my current film project, a 130 MB project with the main timeline that is 9 minutes. This one came from Edit 1. Each click or keystroke results in a 1 & 1/2 minute pinwheel. If I reduce down to just the main timeline using the export selection as project feature, the resulting project becomes 16 MB and the lag is reduced to 7 seconds of pinwheel. The resulting exported project has 142 GB of source media.

3 - I understand you need centralized storage. With that said, have you done any comparisons with local SSD?

For example, maybe creating a small test project with media on the SAN and then using project manager to manage a version to the SSD.  This could help us rule out any issues with storage.

Moving the reduced 16 MB project with 142 GB to my local flash storage (Mac Pro built-in SSD) did not resolve the lag issue, it behaves exactly the same way whether project and media are on the SAN vs my local storage.

4 - Have you installed any 3rd party panels?

No 3rd party panels

5 - Have you changed your memory prefs to use more RAM?

Total of 128 GB installed. I've changed my memory to use more (6GB remaining for non Adobe apps), then less (32 GB for non-adobe apps). For each of those values I've tried "performance" and "memory."

6 - What does your RAM usage look like when this slowdown occurs?

My RAM usage looks normal, the most complex project I'm attempting to work with right now (pre-reduced) is under 28 GB.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Nickelplate Spiro,

If it were me:

First test on a local drive. What happens?

Report back with the results, please.

Thanks,
Kevin

[NickelplateSpiro]

I did test locally, isolating my project file and all media to my built-in local flash storage, it unfortunately did not resolve my lag issue.

[Wes Howell]

Thank you very much for providing the detailed response.

I am back in the office tomorrow and will follow up on this with you. Will send you a PM as well.

Wes

[adbryan7]

Was this issue resolved? I seem to be having the same issues with the interface. Just about every move or click I make with the mouse has a one second delay or the rainbow wheel pops up. It's extremely aggravating. I recently updated to Premiere v14 because the previous version was crashing constantly. I haven't crashed since updating, but still dealing with the lag.

Here are the specs on my machine:

[MarijnMM]

Same problem here. No network drives here but just a local drive.

Tested with a small project on my SSD drive and even then the problem occurs. Makes some projects totally unusable. Never had this issue before with previous Premiere versions. Two other editors in my studio experience this terrible lag too. All of us work on 2017/2018 iMac's with 32gigs of memory.

Specs:

macOS Mojave 10.14.3

4,2 Ghz Intel Core i7

32gb 2400mhz DDR4

Radeon Pro 580 8gb

Hard Drive ( used in testing )

- Internal 500gb SSD hard drive

[Jim Curtis]

First off, you deserve an award for describing your issue, gear, and steps you took to troubleshoot on your own.  If this was the norm on this forum, I'd try to help more.  But, I'm not about to waste my time dragging info from people too lazy to give the information needed to troubleshoot.

Having been on Pr since CS5, I've never encountered a problem I couldn't fix, unless it was a bug.

My first Columbo surmise is that you've got either corrupted footage, or a corrupted effect or transition, or a corrupted Project or Sequence.  Any of those can cause bizarre bad behavior. You can rule these out by starting a new project with entirely different footage.  If Pr starts working right, you need to use the "Search and Destroy" method to track down the culprit - start deleting stuff until the problem stops.

You can usually fix a corrupted Project by starting a new Project, and import the "bad" one.  And I've had success fixing corrupted Sequences by starting a new one, Select All in the "bad" one, and pasting it into the new one.

[excited_Genie16B8]

I'm not about to waste my time dragging info from people too lazy to give the information needed to troubleshoot.

That's why I made the following:

How To Ask For Help

[blackhat154]

Has nothing to do with Mac or PC, and has everything to do with Premiere and the software optimization since late 2017.  You MUST create proxies for your files to play smoothly now in your TL.  Prior to 2018 and 2019 Premiere I had smooth playback on my 2 grand PC, but now it's a joke.

[Sabour]

My machine is exhibiting the EXACT same problem! I have lost 3 days of editing on a deadline that is due friday. MacPro 5,1. MacOS Sierra. Premiere Pro 2018 and 2019 give me the same issue. 2019 Gives me even more issues due to the fact that it requires a newer NVIDIA driver (which I can't update unless I update OS which is a WHOLE OTHER set of issues) I'm frozen in time, can't get work done, have software that's broken, have deadlines piling up, and i'm running out of options. NickelplateSpiro did an INCREDIBLE job outline the issue as well as taking as many steps to trouble shoot as possible. I have done the same so this is another issue all together. Someone please help at Adobe. Please!

[NickelplateSpiro · Accepted solution]

Warning: If you've ever used Insta360 software, uninstall the extensions from Premiere. There is a known issue with the Insta360 VR video stitching panel extension that makes Premiere go crazy, causing catastrophic interface lag. This is not an issue with Adobe's Premiere Pro.

[futuretimepictures]

Thank you. Truly - I was losing my mind.

[samuelt68522791]

I can't Explain how much I love you! Here's the Path of the plugin

Windows: C:/Program Files/Adobe/Common/Plug-ins/7.0/MediaCore

Mac: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/Plug-ins/7.0/MediaCore

[Pratyush311]

Do I delete all the plugins here?

[galinm97802843]

Same issue here.  Installed the 2nd version of CC 2019 maybe 2 weeks ago onto a 3 week old computer.  Working straight off the M.2 drive, 32GB RAM, GTX 1070.  When I hit the space bar to play, nothing happens.  If I hit it 2 more times, it will play.  But then when I hit it to stop, it plays another ~5 seconds.  The thing about editing video is it is super precise and requires a flow.  Adding an extra 5 seconds after a cut doesn't look very good.

BTW, on my old computer from a month ago, I was running the exact same project file on CS6 with 12GB of RAM and a 570M GPU with my footage on a standard hard drive.  I never had a single issue.  This is 100% a CC issue.

When can we expect this bug to be fixed? 

[dcmetz]

Adding to the thread.  Updated PP a week or so ago and my interface has become all but unusable with stutters, unresponsive space bar, buffering, etc.  First time ever with my VERY robust computer that I've ever had to resort to proxy files just to get through a project.  I am getting more and more motivated to move to Resolve!