Timeline and Playback Preview Freeze in Premiere Pro – Tried Multiple Fixes, Still No Resolution

[Saad3472587994bv]

Hello everyone,

I’ve encountered a frustrating issue with Adobe Premiere Pro that I’m hoping someone here can help with. While working on a recent project, the timeline suddenly froze, along with the playback preview. This happened out of nowhere, and I haven’t been able to find a specific solution online that addresses this problem.

I’ve come across various discussions where users faced similar timeline freeze issues, and I’ve tried several of the suggested fixes, such as:

- Changing the audio hardware options
- Clearing media caches
- Resetting preferences

Unfortunately, none of these solutions have worked for me. Additionally, I’ve taken the following steps:

- Converted my footage from .mov to .mp4 (no change)
- Downgraded to a previous version of Premiere Pro (issue persisted)
- Upgraded to the latest version (still no improvement)
- Reinstalled the entire Adobe Premier Pro package (didn’t resolve the issue)

I’m not able to identify any specific cause for this issue, and it’s severely impacting my ability to work on my project. Has anyone else experienced something similar or have any suggestions on what else I can try? Any help or insights would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[jamieclarke]

Hi @Saad3472587994bv - Can you provide more details.  What are your PC specs?  What version of Premiere do you experience this in, and which version do you not?  What type of media are you working with?  Do you have any plugins installed?

[Saad3472587994bv]

I have a Macbook Pro with 

RAM 32 GB 2400 MHz DDR4,

Graphics Radeon Pro 555X 4 GB, Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB,

500GB SSD.

I am currently using 24.6.1 version of Premiere pro. When i started facing this issue I downgraded it to 24.6 to see if it was a bug in the new version. But faced the same issue in both versions.

I am working with .mov files, I was keying out the green screen for the project and premiere went haywire.

For plugins, I have Duik Angela installed.

[Peru Bob]

Try creating a new project and import the old one into it.

[Saad3472587994bv]

I tried to create a new project and imported the old one into it. But it didn’t work.

I also tried to change the location of the project file but still faced the same issue.

At some point I thought that my footage format may be creating an issue so I changed it from .mov to .mp4. (sadly no fix)

[jamieclarke]

Can you try holding down "SHIFT" while opening Premiere and check the boxes 

"Reset Plugin Cache" 

"Disable third-party plugins (one time only)" 

"Clear media cache files" 

I'm wondering if your plugin is causing issues so it would be good to test either disabling it or uninstalling it to see if that helps.

Can you also check in your settings under Audio Hardware that your Default Input is set to "No Input". Please let us know if this helps your issue

[Saad3472587994bv]

I tried all the suggestions I found on the internet including the one above, but none seems to work.
I found a solution on my own. When such a thing happens, there might be an issue with your raw audio or video files. I rendered the raw footage through Media Encoder keeping the same preset for all audio and video files simultaneously. Imported the new encoded data into the premiere and it starts working just fine.

(Although there was no issue with my audio or video files but apparently it seems to solve my problem so putting it put hhere)

[Jessdesign]

are you on Mac and what OS are you on?

I suspect it's a combo of Sonoma 14.6.1 & Premiere Pro, I updated my OS and now the playback has constant issues and all I changed was the OS. I even downgraded PP but the issue remains. I opened a project with Davinci Resolve and the playback issue was also there so I don't think it's the software anymore in this case, super annoying because even rendering the video export causes issues

[Jessdesign]

having tons of issues with 24.6.1 as well with the preview glitching and the audio and timeline keeps going as usual but the visual is all glitchy or the preview shows all black. 

[Jessdesign]

spent an hour with customer service with the remote take over, I had already downgraded to 24.6.0 and it was better and I was able to edit a little longer without issues, I think it's just the 24.6.# versions overall. If I recall the 22.#.# versions had text video editing issues, it's getting rather tiresome with all the glitches and patches fixes causing additional issues with each new version

[chadw59613595]

I'm having a very similar problem with Premier 24.6.1. on Mac Studio M2 Max running Sonoma 14.6.1.  Just trying to play the timeline (1 video clip) may work or may not.  Then the problem goes away then comes back.  Actually, I'm scrubbing through video and dropping markers for later editing, nothing complicated.  What happens is that the video just stops.  The timeline marker also stops.  Nothing responds for a few seconds.

[Saad3472587994bv · Accepted solution]

I found a solution on my own. When such a thing happens, there might be an issue with your raw audio or video files. I rendered the raw footage through Media Encoder keeping the same preset for all audio and video files simultaneously. Imported the newly rendered data into the premiere and it started working just fine. So the issue might be with the encoding of your data.

(Although there was no issue with my audio or video files but apparently it seems to solve my problem so putting it put here)

[chadw59613595]

Indeed, my footage is raw camera (Lumix S1H - 4k mpeg4).  This is the normal workflow and adding in another step with Encoder would be impractical.  I jumped back to Premiere version 24.4.1 and it seems much more stable.  The delay I was experiencing in version 24.6.1 was about 30 seconds to recover each time the video stopped.  That kind of performance would make Premiere completely useless.    I'm not beyond placing blame on Apple and Adobe.  I've also had a display playback issue with Maxon C4D, which is somehow related to a dual monitor scenerio.  Not that this is the issue with Adobe, but it does raise red flags with Somoma 14.6.1.  Since the Mac Studio M2 Max is new and everything was a new install (not migrated), there is zero possiblity of garbage/settings from previously versions.

[Jessdesign]

interesting. I'm working with the same .mp4 file and the only change I did was update PP and update the software OS. This is a brand new laptop and I previously had the exact same macbook m2 pro 16gb and didn't have these playback issues so I'm thinking it's one of the two or both the culprit. MacOS did one of those force updates after I ignored it a few times, I have gone back to 25.0.# for PP so we'll see if that fixes things

[Saad3472587994bv · Accepted solution]

The main issue that we face is the glitching of playback in realtime. That's because PP has some bug on reading any.m4a file. If your timeline or project has a .m4a file, it'll do such stuff. So, convert your audio files to .mp3 before importing to the PP. It worked just fine for me. Hope it works for you guys as well.

[NICOLAS ALBER36227069ees2]

Disable composite preview during trim.

[anderzonz23]

wow this worked immediately!

[anderzonz23]

I noticed a difference I should say, didn't completely remove all freezing/laggy playback

[CiscoTheFish]

This made such a stark improvement it's not even funny.  

WHY does this resolve (so far) the issue Adobe?!?!  Regular playback hangs with this option enabled should have ZERO bearing on this option.  This needs to be bugfixed ASAP.

[Prince Aroma]

I can't believe I am paying Adobe for this stress. It seems to me that their softwares has lots and lots of bugs in their every release and they are relying on us as beta testers.