Video Clips Disappeared From Sequence, but Audio Remains

Report · Jan 26, 2019

I am editing a long form documentary (2 hours).

This morning I opened the program as usual to begin work. In my sequence I find that the video portion of some clips are missing. The audio is there and plays fine, but the video is missing, as if I made an audio only edit.

Other clips in the timeline are fine before and after some of the clips where the video has just disappeared and the audio remains. It seems random. Has anyone else encountered this problem?

I have tried:

deleting media cache

changing rendering/playback settings under project settings

disconnecting my second monitor

rendering the clip

As you can see in the screenshot where there is audio, the video is gone, but appears before and after. Where the playhead is was a thumbnail of an interview, now only the audio is there and plays. This is happening as several points in my sequence and appears random. Has anyone else encountered this problem? I am on a deadline to complete a PBS program and it is unfortunate to lose half a days work trying to sort this out.

I am working on a mac laptop, but this doesn't seem to be a hardware problem as I use Premiere to edit other long-form programs as well.

With thanks,

Charles

www.charlesnuckolls.com

Report · Jan 26, 2019

At the points in the timeline where you don't see the clip video you expect, do you still see the video in the Program Monitor, just not on the timeline - or are both the timeline video track empty and there is black in the Program Monitor?

Can you post a screen shot of the timeline that includes the track headers, like this example below:

MtD

Report · Jan 26, 2019

Thank you Meg for your response. The screen shot is attached.

The video of the clip is neither in the timeline nor appears in the program monitor, only audio, which plays fine, but the original edit was both audio and video.

Report · Jan 26, 2019

OK, I have never experienced this behavior as you describe, maybe someone else has and can give input.

You say this occurs randomly throughout your timeline, is there nothing in common about the missing video clips?

If you open an autosave from a date/time where you were not having this problem, do the clips appear as expected?

If you place the playhead over an audio clip with missing video and press the "f" key, does the video appear in the source monitor?

MtD

Report · Jan 26, 2019

This isn't a common occurrence. Most likely it was operator error. Sometimes clips off screen are unintentionally selected for an operation.

Report · Jan 26, 2019

Thank you Jim,

I can't image what I may have done to effect only the video of 10 non-contiguous interview clips of 5 different people in my timeline that occur over the span of 18 timeline minutes with all sorts of edits in-between.

They are all on the same track, but other clips (again, non-contiguous) have not been effected. I never selected those 10 clips together for anything (to apply the same attribute to a series of clips for example).

Report · Nov 23, 2020

Hi cbn3,

I'm having the exact same problem as you have desrcibed. Did you find a solution?

Report · Nov 23, 2020

did you check autosave versions?

Report · Nov 23, 2020

Yes. I also cleared media cache, rendered the clips, tried re-importing the same clip again, installed updates, un-installed and re-installed Premiere completely and nothing worked. The work-around I had to go with in the end was to rename the clip in the folder it was housed on my hard drive and re-import it into Premiere. It meant that I need to colour grade it again.

Report · Nov 23, 2020

nobody afaik has reported this issue in almost 2 years... Please tell us your system specs: OS version, Premiere version, amount of RAM, Hardware specs including graphics card and your source properties and sequence settings. Are you saying that the clips have actually disappeared in the timeline, not just lost the connection with the actual file? The fact that the clips have disappeared in autosave versions is really mystifying. If you'd like to send me the project file, I'll see if the problem is somehow just on your computer. If you identify the shots and I'm able to access them, I should be able to save the color corrections as presets and send them to you...

Report · May 28, 2021

Well, exactly the same thing happened to me today. I don't understand what has happened. I was working in my project, went to another studio, opened my project and half of the clips had dissapeared. Audio is still there. Luckily I've made backups but still... what to do?

Report · May 28, 2021

look at my post immediately above from last November and answer the questions..

Report · Jul 28, 2021

I'm running into something very similar... I have one clip that still has video and audio --- all the rest - the video had disappeared and I only have video left. I've cleared all the caches - renamed folders - uninstalled / reinstalled - etc. and I still have no video. I can reinstall the app - open a brand new project - go all the way back to the SDCard original of the video clips... the first clip I import will have audio and video --- ALL OTHER clips I import are audio only?!??

MacOS Catalina version 10.15.7

MacBook Pro 15-inch 2019

Processor 2.3GHz 8-core Intel Core i9

Memory 16GB 2400 MHz DDR4

Startup Disk Macintosh HD

Graphics Radeon Pro 560X 4GB

Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB

I dont know what you mean by the source properties and sequence settings?? I completely reinstalled - telling it to wipe out all my preferences - so presumably these are all default values now.

Report · Jul 29, 2021

Through little more than dumb luck -- I took a known MP4 and changed the extension to MOV..... Then took a known MOV and changed the extension to MP4.... imported them both into Premiere Pro --- and now everything seems to be working again?!?!?!

I have not yet had a chance to see if I have to intentionally mislabel all future clips to keep it working or not? But perhaps this is an electronic equivalent of duct-tape to someone else like me losing their mind on a late night deadline crunch.

Report · Aug 28, 2021

I'm the same problem as above. I keep randomly losing video with audio remaining. Also if you return to auto-saves has the same problem is those files.

I would like to stop it from happening as really interrupting my workflows

Report · Dec 24, 2021

This problem is back again for me (same hardware / same software).... If I try to import a series of M4V clips.... the first clip is fine -- ALL other clips dragged in the sequence only show up as audio only??? I also tried clips of other formats - same result.

Premier Pro 22.1.2 (build 1)