Synchronize is Greyed out in Premiere CC, why?

Report · Oct 16, 2015

The Goal: To sync an interview that involved 2 Nikon DLSrs, with external audio from a sound guy. There are about 8 clips from each camera, and 8 audio files.

I tried to drop them all in a timeline and just select all and sync. Sync was greyed out. I then tired just 1 set of cam a cam b and audio file, sync was greyed out.

I then tried just selecting the audio waveforms form independently of the video clips, without the external audio...greyed out.

Not sure what I need to do. Meanwhile I am in manual sync mode. Good thing the team that shot this stuff is on it with slate and keeping the clips tight.

Any help would be awesome.

Thanks

Rex

Report · Jan 30, 2020

You're a lifesaver. I've used synchronize before for multiple clips and could NOT figure out why it wasn't working this time. I had all of the tracks' targetting off. Once I targetted the tracks, everything worked.

Report · May 24, 2020

Reading this 3 years later and you totally just saved me from insanity! Thanks for explaining this!

Report · Jul 21, 2021

AWESOME!

Report · Jan 19, 2023

2023 and still this is the answer that helped me while editing!

Report · Dec 14, 2023

Thank you. How stupid - Adobe should really fix this issue as this is not an obvious solution!

Report · Feb 13, 2018

For me, the targeting made no difference, but toggling the "Linked Selection" tool did. Once I turned OFF the

Linked Selection (middle icon in attached picture), Synchronize was no longer greyed out.

Hope this helps.

Report · Oct 15, 2020

That works for me. Interresting that Adobe doesn't even have an answer and that users have to find out how to use their software. wtf

Report · Oct 22, 2021

This is a user to user forum. The entire point of it is that users help other users.

Report · Jun 09, 2021

Thanks, that solved the issue for me as well. Strange, never have had this before.

Report · Oct 22, 2021

In general you don't want to turn off Linked selection. That would make it really easy to unsync your AV clips.

Report · Dec 21, 2021

Same here! My tracks were already targeted, but this simple toggling off of 'linked selection' worked. THANKS 🙂

Report · Oct 15, 2020

Had the same issue. Honestly this is totally unintuitive. If I pay that much for a software I expect basic features to be easy to use, and not have to seach 15m for the right forum post. Shame...

Report · Dec 09, 2020

There is a reason it is like this. Professional softwware doesn't have to be intuitive and easy to use. It does have to work consistently for the professionals who use it, and it is shaped by these people.

Report · Mar 04, 2021

Okay great opportunity for me to learn. Please share with me why the synchronizing is greyed out by default?

Report · Oct 22, 2021

It isn't.

If synchronise is greyed out when you select multiple clips it means some feature that synchronize needs isn't enabled. Two common errors when trying to sync:

1 - All clips that you want to sync need to be on separate tracks.

2 - At least one of the tracks needs to be targeted. (track targeting is enabled by default for the V1 and all audio tracks in new sequences when they are created)

Report · Aug 14, 2022

I'm with you, this feature is broken and I don't understand why it hasn't been addressed in all these years

Report · Oct 06, 2021

THIS solution will work when the others fail.

Re-render the clip into a non-camera codec.

I used Cineform.

Syncronization available then.

For referrence, my camera codec was from EOS R5, using 4K IBP-I.

I surmise that maybe because of the I-framing interpretation, Premiere unable to interpret correctly.

Carpe diem!

Report · Mar 03, 2022

I finished editing a testimonial video when I realized I forgot to sync the higher quality audio files before making all my cuts. The synchronize option was grayed out until I found this solution: Place every individual vieo and audio clip on seprate tracks (see pictures below of before and after syncing), making sure the main audio file is on track one, then highlight only the clips you're trying to sync, and the synchronize button should be clickable. Then you'll just have to go in and delete the gaps by going to: Clip>Close Gap. Major time saver.

Report · Mar 30, 2022

Can confirm targetting the tracks is the key solution in 2022 version of Premiere Pro

Report · Aug 18, 2023

This is August 2023 Update, I am going thru the same situation where the "synchronize" option is greyed out and unavailable. I have tried ALL of the options mentioned in this thread but regrettably none have worked.

My situation: I Have three Cameras with audio (6tracks) plus three external audios (Lavaliers) for an interview that I'm trying to sync up to do a multi-Camera edit. but the sync option is greyed out despite tryting all the options I saw in this clip. Does anybody have an alternate solution they can share??? I tried:

1. The targeting tracks option did not work

2. the Turning of Linked selection did not work.

3. The render timeline option also did not work

Here's ma screenshot of the timeline. Thank you all in advance.

Report · Aug 18, 2023

Apologies in advance for the typos!!! was more concerned with my deadline.

Report · Aug 18, 2023

Yes. You won't be able to select multiple clips with different audio on the same track and synch them to clips on other tracks. Each segment will need to be synchronized individually and then pulled back together.

My suggestion, and this is going to sound tedious but it's not too bad.

1.Separate your clips horizontally (on their tracks) by at least one clip length, large empty gaps. This leaves room for PP to move tracks into synch.

2. Think about each short clips like a scene and cut the longer clips up so that you can synch one recorded section at a time.

ie. isolate all of the audio for clip 1 and sych those, for clip 2 and then synch those.

As you're cutting up your longer recordings to match the shorter clips,, you can drag the ends out so there's over lap.

Once each clip's audio is synched up, you can drag the ends back in to remove overlap and then close the gaps to pull your sequence back together.

Report · Aug 18, 2023

Hi Michael,

I was hoping that adobe would be able to sync the batch together but I also understand this (6 audioTracks) was a heavy ask, I did as you recommended and did the syncing basically two clips at a time, very tedious but it worked out perfect. Thank you for your suggestion!!! Got me back on track, Thank you!!!

Report · Aug 14, 2024

Ok I dont wanna be that guy but its still not working for me and I swear it was before! August 2024 here.

I just have two cams and two audio tracks to deal with and sync is greyed out. Ive tried the targeting but I couldnt for some reason get the V1 and A1 to be showing on the left of the padlock?? Ive just looked now and the blue boxes have suddenly appeared there for the first time today. No idea what I did but again; sync is still greyed out. Tried separating everything onto sepearate tracks also, no luck.

Report · Mar 25, 2024

Track targetting is not the answer for me 😞 What is happenning with the grayed out synchronize option?