problem with Premiere Pro CS5 project files bloating

Report · May 26, 2010

Has anyone had the same problem that we're experiencing? - we have Production Premium CS5 installed on a machine with Win 7 Pro x64. We have three separate edits all of which are experiencing bloating of the .prproj project file. Often this bloating seems to occur when no importing of assets has occured, just changes in the edits. A project which started at 5mb has bloated to 1.5GB and we can no longer save it. Another project has bloated to 200mb and continues to grow in size. We have not brought in any weird assets, although we are using hi-def footage.

We upgrade from CS3 and never had this problem using Premiere CS3.

We can't fix the problem by 'remove unused footage' as this doesn't reduce the project size, although it does remove the unused footage.

We can't fix it by importing the project into a new clean project as the problem and huge file size just comes with

We can't fix it by using the project manager to collect up the project as it requires to save before collecting and the problem files can't be saved.

A couple of points to note - these projects were originally on Premiere CS3 and were upgraded to CS5. The footage is either Sony EX3 or Canon 5D - both HD.

The machine it's running on has 8gb of RAM.

Currently the projects I'm working on are gradually grinding to a hold with no way to make the files usable again.

Any suggestions are greatfully recieved as I'm at a loss. I've reported this to Adobe, and will report back if I get anything useful.

thanks.

Report · Oct 12, 2010

Here's an update. And perhaps it's not going to make sense. I deleted all the rendered files and all the preferences. Still, it did not work. I started a new project, that worked for a little bit, but the moment I began to import assets such as videos, photoshop files or After Effect projects it began to spin it's wheels again and again. I even rebooted once. And nothing worked. Then tired of this mess I completely turned my computer off.

The next day I began by importing into the folder an earlier saved version of the project. The project opened without any problems. So I tried to open the project that I created the day before and stopped responding after importing assets. It worked. Then I went to open the big project that would not respond at all the day before. It opened and all the assets, with the exception of some Photoshop file that was then sent to After Effects for animation and then taken to Premiere, everything else loaded.

Was the answer a long re-boot? Will it do this again? Was the the number of imported assets coming from After Effects?

Report · Oct 12, 2010

sounds good Luis! I'm very glad to hear about the progress. the answer however, I'm not sure.

best,

Layne

Report · Oct 29, 2010

Hi Sheri & all interested,

Have completed entire projects now after the updates and have had no bloating problems.

Just letting you know the updates seemed to have done the trick for me.

Report · Oct 29, 2010

> Have completed entire projects now after the updates and have had no bloating problems.
Just letting you know the updates seemed to have done the trick for me.

Thanks for reporting back. It's great to know that it's working for you.

Report · Jun 08, 2010

Just an update, it looks like we have a fix for this. I can't share a schedule publicly, but it'll go into the next update.

Sheri

Report · Jun 08, 2010

Awesome news.

Thanks everyone at Adobe who's been listening to us here and who's worked to get a fix. I know I speak for others when I say it makes a real difference to have you guys on this forum, helping solve problems - you do Adobe credit and make it less of a faceless company.

I'll look forward to the next update.

thanks,

Nat

Report · Jun 08, 2010

Sheri Codiana wrote:
Just an update, it looks like we have a fix for this. I can't share a schedule publicly, but it'll go into the next update.

Sheri

Thanks Sheri,

We will be waiting...

Report · Aug 17, 2010

Ed, well said. My sentiments too. Especially the frustration level. After each save, the anticipation of knowing that all the saved-previews will need to be re-rendered as soon as the project file becomes bloated again - and can no longer be saved because the size of it is growing. It's worse when clients are sitting next to you and you just don't know what to say - and you're on the clock.

Any more information on the date for this fix?

Layne

Report · Jun 19, 2010

First of all Nat, a big thanks for directing me to this thread. I really thought I was starting to go mad when a perfectly normally functioning project became a sluggish unworkable wet fish! My work originates in CS5, I am working on 1080P material, most of which is ProRes 422 HQ, although in Premiere it's flagged as EOS_DIGITAL and defaults to an AVC-100 sequence.

Be that as it may, I have been working perfectly happily until a few days ago, when everything suddenly ground to a halt. Finally I noticed that the project had jumped from 40 to over 200Mb, for no apparant reason. This larger project file could no longer be opened without freezing/crashing. I am not using any filters or plugins on the time line, but I do have about 30 mins worth of rendered 1080 previews.

For some reason I got an error when trying to import individual sequences into a new project. However deleting the preview files (about 3Gb) has done the trick. The project file went from 130 to 12 Mb.

Two things I have noticed:

1. when things go wrong, saving the project happens with a long pause when the progress bar pops up. It sits there for ages before it moves.

2. oddly, looking in the autosave folder I now see earlier versions of the project that went from 40 to 130Mb...and then back, without me noticing any problems. Presumably because I had the project open the whole time.

I hope this is fixed soon, but at least it helps knowing a workaround! If the Adobe guys n gals are interested in another before/after project file example, let me know and I can mail you a download link for idisk.

Report · Jun 19, 2010

Interesting observations, and thanks for reporting.

Many are hoping for an upcoming fix. We know that Adobe is on the case, so we'll just have to see what they can come up with. Observations, such as yours, might prove useful to the lab techs.

Thanks,

Hunt

Report · Jun 21, 2010

Thanks for your input on this Andrew. There has been some good input from Adobe on this problem now, and as you'll see from the chain of posts, they're hopeful of releasing a fix for this shortly. In the meantime, specific input such as yours regarding the circumstances in which the problem occurs is I am sure helpful to them. cheers, N

Report · Jun 21, 2010

I'm glad to hear a fix is in the works. Add me to the list of project bloat sufferers. I was rendering with AME overnight and left my Premiere project open...the next morning I looked inside my auto-save folder and noticed a huge jump in my auto-saved project files during the night when I wasn't working on the project. My workaround was to abandon my current project file and use a "pre-bloat" auto-saved version as long as I can (and hope I didn't lose too much work) before it gets the bloats as well. I opened the task manager to see what's going on during a save of a bloated project, and the memory usage just keeps increasing until all my memory is used up and completely locks up my computer...not good!

Report · Jun 21, 2010

Welcome to the forum.

Glad that you found this thread, especially as there are comments from Adobe on the issue. We are so very fortunate to have that presence, as most of us (mere users) would have been in the dark, and scratching our heads - until it happened to us.

Now, we just need to wait, and I am certain that the situation will be corrected.

Good luck,

Hunt

Report · Jun 21, 2010

My solution to bloating (outside of dieting) is to remove render files, that's the big one. Since I organize all my clips into timelines, on the project tab, I hit "Remove Unused," and it gets rid of all clips not in timelines.

Report · Jun 30, 2010

ok so i have the same problem but after reading and using the suggestions i

am able to reduce the file size and save in seconds...

Step 1 - delete all rendered files.

Step 2 Remove Unused

Step 2 - save as.

thank god for this forum saved me from another huge reoccurring headache!

saves in seconds not hours.... and file size reduced...

KB

Report · Jun 30, 2010

Welcome to the forum and thanks for posting your workflow.

Many are anticipating an update to fix this soon, but you have probably helped others in the interim.

Appreciated, and hope that it works for all,

Hunt

Report · Jul 10, 2010

Perhaps I can make the tiny grey cell's go to work again.

I have the same problem as everyone else BUT the files are NOT getting bigger. The project was working fin until yesterday (changed opacity on a a few clips) and now anything takes forever. Saving takes 2-5 minutes. Project file is just 1.8MB. Rendering simple things takes 3-5 minutes per frame. 2 days ago the same project would render 15000 frames in 10 minutes, but now I will die of old age before it's done. Tried all the remedy in this thread but no difference.

Comp:

Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit

8GB RAM

4 Core

No RAID

Pleeeeenty of free space

So the same problem or a new thread coming?

Report · Jul 11, 2010

So now it's proven. Being sober when working can help you sometimes.

Since I had to have this project done I stayed up this weekend day and night and late last night found the bad guy in my problem. When I removed BCC from the computer the problem suddenly was gone. I reinstalled it and tried to apply BCC Uprez on a new test project and when applying it everything went to slowmotion again. So bye bye BCC (at least until a update comes around. do want to use it so the $$ wasn't used in vain).

For those who wounder why I use BCC (always someone who say why use that crappy software). At the time for purpose it was good money. Today it's bad money spent.

So my problem solved.

Report · Jul 11, 2010

I am probably the only one, who needs this, but BCC = Boris Color Correction, or some other aspect of Boris Continuum?

Sorry to be so daft,

Hunt

Report · Jul 11, 2010

Well almost solved. Once in a while everything still freezes and then a 5-7 minute wait begin. During that time there is zero CPU activity. Then suddenly everything is back to normal.

Makes no sense to me. But I get the project done and I guess there is a new installation of the whole computer coming up.

Report · Jul 12, 2010

For us who dont know every little corner of CS we need to cheat a bit. BCC helps you do that sometimes. And you where close BCC : Boris Continuum Complete 7. 🙂

Report · Jul 12, 2010

Great to see Adobe support getting involved in these forums - this is very encouraging.

I was having similar problems to others - bloating project file and slow to open and save. Thought I should post my observations in case it can help.

I had 5 sequences in my project, 3 of which were temp sequences I was using to try stuff out. I deleted the unused sequences and my project file instantly went from 100MB to 2.5MB and it's way faster to open and save now.

Looking forward to the Adobe fix!

Report · Jul 12, 2010

Thanks - I was working towards Boris Continuum, but the "Complete" was eluding me - until now!

Appreciated,

Hunt

Report · Jul 14, 2010

Misery loves company!! I am glad in a sick way to find out I'm not the only one with a project file that went from 14megs to 1.6gigs mysteriously. Fortunately it's in a project that can remain idle for a while but I will need to access it again when the client wants to update this collection of annual commercials. Guess the next time I have a couple hours left over I'll open the file and try to purge the renders and unused clips per post above.

The first time this happened to me was in an even smaller project that contained an After Effects Dynamic Link segment inside one timeline. Let me know if anyone has any other tips on this wild weight gain. Thought it was only my belly that had the "bloating" problem.

Hang in there everyone. Ain't upgrading fun?!!

rg

Report · Jul 21, 2010

I'm having this problem too now. A project ballooned up to 2.1 GB on our mac.

It looks like Sherl said that you have found a fix over a month ago.

Any idea when the update will be released?

Thanks,

-Matt