Synology servers and Premiere pro crashing

[Philipmcgouran]

Hello

I'm having an ongoing issue with my Synology server and PP working off a new PC.  PP keeps crashing every time I link media to the Synology server.

I have asked about this issue on the forum before and thought the April update off PP sorted but unfortunately, it hasn't.

My PC is having the issue, I also have a Mac that works perfectly with the Server. I cant be the only person using Synology servers with a PC and PP.

My question is whether or not others are having the same issue and how it has been resolved. Adobe wants me to work off my local drive on the PC which isn't an option. Transcoding has also been suggested but that has opened another can of worms. I don't understand why I seem to be the only one with this issue.

Surely this can be resolved.

R

Philip

[Kevin-Monahan · Accepted solution]

Hi Philip,

This server was not really designed for editing, you need to configure it to do just that (as I understand it).

The advice I've read is to use a wired connection and to connect to your Synology NAS over NFS protocol. It is also recommended to set the Cache to an internal SSD.

Otherwise, you can try another high speed drive to connect your media to.

Hope that info helps.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Philipmcgouran]

Hi Kevin

Thanks for taking the time to answer this. I'm connected to the server via a 10gb cable.

What has me confused is After Effects has no issue PP just keeps crashing. I found a guy who is going to remote into my system and troubleshoot hopefully he will sort it.

In the meantime, I will try setting the cache to the local SSD.

Thanks again.

Regards Philip

[Philipmcgouran]

Just a quick update.

I updated the graphics card and set the cache to a separate folder on the server as you suggested.

Fingers crossed but it seems to be working. I also ingested footage via the media browser.

Thanks for the help

R

Philip

[Kevin-Monahan]

Good news, Philip!

[FPS_Fish]

Not sure why this is the case, but relinking my media every time I open a project just seems to be taking so long.

MacPro 2019, 3.2ghz, 96gigs of RAM
Running media and shared projects off a Synology NAS.

My most recent project which involves a dozen short 2mins videos can take up to 21mins to fully relink my media every time I open the project. Why does it need to relink this stuff at all? It knows where it is, doesn't it?. What exactly is it doing and why does it take so long?

Is there some kind of setting I have set wrong that forces the app to relink everything again and again?
Am I doing something wrong?

[Bruce Bullis]

How is the Synology storage mounted on the OS? 
How often does the IP address of your Synology change? 
We'd be curious to take a look at your .prproj (don't need media).

[FPS_Fish]

I recently has my Synology system reviewed by a NAS expert to amke sure my settings were all good. He tweaked a few things, but nothing affected (better or worse) the speed of the relinking. It's connected via SMB. The IP address does not change ever. How can I get you a copy of a project?

[Bruce Bullis]

The "we'd be interested" link in my post will email me. 🙂

[FPS_Fish]

Ok...
I think I figured out a few things:

My proxies were a bit of a mess, organizationally. So I did a major cleanup of those. After which I detached and reattached the proxies so Premiere knew where to find them.
my folder structure for some cameras was a bit convoluted. I was wary of removing MXF media directly from my Sony's preferred camera subfolder arrangement. But some people advised that too many deep subfolders for PP to find something can slow it down.
Couple of people suggested that I remove odd characters in my file/folder naming. While I really only had the occasional ampersand, I still replaced them so Linux on the Synology NAS wouldn't have a hissy fit.
Speaking of Linux, Synology and hissy fits, while on a Zoom chat with Will from SpaceRex he noticed I was using custom icons in my folder sets. He casually mentioned that Linux didn't really like them - but didn't go as far as saying "get rid of them". Now, I love custom icons. Mac finder operations are a lot easier to sort out with visual cues. So I have a standard set of folders with custom icons that I copy over for every new project. I've been doing this for decades. But I was noticing (and frequently disregarding) how much longer the Premiere "tree" would take to list folders with my custom icons when I was impprting, relinking or searching within Premiere's Finder operations. So I experimented and stripped them off.

All these things made an impact in terms of performance.
But none more than stripping the icons.
While Relinking was still happening after the project was open - it was able to relink files a whole lot faster. It still said it would take 21mins, but rather than actually taking 7 or 8, it took a manageable 2mins! I'm not at all sure I know why this would be the case because the relinking background operation wasn't needing to display the icon. But apparently Linux on the Synology NAS just did not like them at all - I guess. Maybe.

It's still very early and I don't want to claim victory quite yet. But this is very encouraging.

[FPS_Fish]

I adjusted a couple of other things this morning since my email.

In the Mac's Finder view options I turned off "Calculate All Sizes" and "Show Icon Previews".
Don't think my NAS likes that very much.
Probably wouldn't be so bad if it didn't have to redo the preview each time we opened a folder up.

Plus I found a Synology post that says I should use a Terminal command to force the Mac OS to ignore any hidden DS_Finder files.

To speed up SMB file browsing, you can prevent macOS from reading .DS_Store files on SMB shares.
This makes the Finder use only basic information to immediately display each folder's contents in alphanumeric order.
Use this Terminal command:
defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores -bool TRUE
Then log out of your macOS account and log back in.

Not sure if it has made an effect ...yet.

[Adam Sköld]

Got exatcly same issues here. But it seems to relink media faster when i use the beta version of premiere. But it is not fast, says it would take up to 2 hours sometimes...  Got bigger projects than you tho but still, never been a problem in the past...

I've got a Mac Studio M1 Ultra, and been having soo many issues and poor performance last 6 monts with it and all the new versions of premiere and AE.