Timeline won't play in Premiere Pro

[oddly1657]

About 2 weeks ago I started having an intermittent issue where the space bar nor the play-stop-toggle button will play the timeline or source/preview windows in Premiere Pro. Space bar works in my browser. I'm working on a Production in Premiere 24.2.1 (Build 2) Mac Book Pro 2.6 GHz 6-core Intel Core i7. 32GB ram

I've tried fixes such as making a new sequence, changing audio hardware, reinstalling Premiere, trashing prefs, deleting cache files.

Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Today they don't (so far).

Please help. I am on a deadline for a feature doc edit.

[Bruce Bullis]

Hello Oddly, 

Sorry you're having troubles. 

>About 2 weeks ago...

What about your system configuration might have changed, about 2 weeks ago? 

Also...of those things you tried, which would you say had the best effect, regarding "sometimes they work"?

[oddly1657]

Nothing has changed. I work on my laptop and on my iMac and they both have the same random issue.

Trashing prefs sometimes works, but today it will only let the space bar play once, and then after stopping it won't play again.

I've switched between airpods, mac speaker, and wired headphones as well, to see if that will work. This bug is costing me money!

[Bruce Bullis]

If it started happening a couple weeks ago, and if it happens on multiple systems, it's not random. 🙂

Are you using any Transmit devices? [PPro prefs --> Playback] If so...any change, if you disable them?

[oddly1657]

I meant it's random in that it doesn't happen every day.

I have enabled and disabled mercury transmit. Nothing.

[Bruce Bullis]

Helpful, thanks! 

The key to identifying the issue (which we're not seeing broadly) will be determining what's different, between those good days and bad days. 

Confirming: Today is a bad day (won't play), you did have a transmit device active,  but turning it off doesn't help?

[oddly1657]

Correct.

[oddly1657]

Since it's been 6 hours, I'm guessing there's no solution? I've lost a whole day of production.

[Bruce Bullis]

There is no immediately obvious solution; we are not seeing the behavior you've described. 


I've asked that Support reach out to you, for further troubleshooting. 

[Bruce Bullis]

What will be critical = identifying what about the system configuration is changing for the worse, on the bad days.

[oddly1657]

I got the backup drive from the director, exported an xml of the project. I created a new project and I could play the timeline but only for a few hours.

[Bruce Bullis]

Glad you made some progress! 

Interesting; so, what has recently happened in your editing session, at the end of 'a few hours'?

Is RAM filling up?

Have plenty of disk space for preview files?
Recently exported something?
Worked with [some particular feature or component]?
Started working in [some other demanding app] on that system?

[oddly1657]

I was reconnecting files in the project because they didn't automatically link when I opened the project with the backup drive. I only had Premiere open and I didn't have any other apps open except my browser and messaging. I had room for preview files. I was able to play the timeline for 4 or 5 hours.

The error is very intermittent.

[Bruce Bullis]

The onset / return of the bad behavior looks like "one moment the playback works, the next time I try it doesn't", right?

[oddly1657]

Yes. It's not a sustainable situation.

[oddly1657]

I am still unable to play the timeline in Premiere and I haven't been contacted by support. Please help. 

[oddly1657]

Update - a tech friend of mine (former Genius Bar tech) suggested I install an older version of Premiere, and it's working fine for now.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi @oddly1657,

I read about your issue. If it is working on an earlier version, it could be a few different problems.

Media: What kind of media are you editing with, and which camera shot it? What are the media's specs? Can you run it through MediaInfo in Tree View and give us a screenshot? Often troubleshooting starts with the media you are editing with.

Hardware: What is the duration of your sequence? Do you have many Lumetri Color and other GPU-accelerated effects applied? Is there much scaling going on?

Workflow: Can you think of any workflow details impacting performance that might be hindering performance? While working, do you edit with the Chrome Browser, Spotify, or other GPU-stealing apps? Is your computer standing in a cool, moisture-free area?

I have a feeling that there may be some details we are unaware of. I hope we can help. I apologize for the frustration.

Thanks,

Kevin

[oddly1657]

I'm working on an all acrhival b/w feature doc, using 1080p versions of 4K scans for the edit. Duration of the sequence is 01:58:25:00.

I do have some temp color grade on some clips to lighten them up.

I generally only work with the browser open so I can access notes and interview transcripts.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Thanks for the notes. As a former features and docs editor, it almost sounds like you are running up against some system issue, namely RAM.

You say you are working with "archival" footage. Which codec are you using to edit with? ProRes (or another editing codec) or H.264? The latter can chew up system resources more quickly with hardware decoding, etc.

Longer sequences are subject to RAM issues. The workaround for that is to break up your long sequence into sections. Keep the other sequences in a different project and keep that project closed inside your production as you work. Keep the browser closed and take notes to transfer to the web later. You can also try rebooting the computer when taking breaks from cutting. See if any of those ideas work for smoothing out your workflow.

May we please have the info on that media drive? What kind? How full?

I am looking forward to hearing back from you.

Thanks,
Kevin

[oddly1657]

Codec - ,mp4 and some .mov

Working off a 20TB Glyph drive - partitioned. The partition I'm editing in has 1.71TB free space out of 4TB

I am back to working on my imac. which has a 2TB SSD and 64GB of RAM