Why do Timelines Close and Reorder when Switching Workspaces?

[John Stanowski]

More often than not, when I switch to a new workspace, the timelines that I had open change order. 
Even worse, some of them close. 
And when I go back to my Editing Workspace, it happens again.

For me, switching between Workspaces contantly shifts and changes which timelines I have open. 

I want to use Workspaces, but when I do, they very often mess-up my flow.

Does anyone know why this happens? And possibly how to fix it?

[Ali Jaber]

Yes, I struggle with that problem for years. Try that: save a workspace with specific sequences opened, change the workspace, and then reload the saved one: Premiere will restore those perfectly. So, It looks like Premiere Pro is saving opened sequences with saved workspace, and whenever you load the workspace in another project it searches for the specified sequences in it, and if it didn't found those it will replace them with sequences from the project panel, and then everything will look messy.

[Ali Jaber]

That's why if you want to switch between two workspaces while working on a project, just save the workspace before switching, this way you will restore it perfectly

[BarkmanConcrete]

Hi John, I've been experiencing the exact same issue I believe. I tried Ali_Jaber's solution which did not fix it for me. Have you found a solution or workaround?

[John Stanowski]

Sorry, no, I haven't. I just learned to live with it.
I guess Adobe doesn't think that some editors will have more than one sequence open at a time.

And I guess they're right. Still, I don't get why this reordering takes place.

"Something" in the code is "deciding" what to show after one changes workspaces so I would think it would be an easy fix, but there's probably not that much demand for it.

[jholt88]

This is one of my biggest pet peeves about Premiere. I am constantly working on 4-5 sequences at a time. Usually they are variations of the same video. I need to easily move between all sequences in different workspaces to copy and paste elements and colorgrading. Adobe...please give us a solution to this slow torture of a workflow.

[John Stanowski]

Exactly the same for me. I do local TV commercials and I almost always have 5 different lengths open at the same time. I just wound up changing workspaces as little as possible.

[Mick2770]

Yes this happens to me all the time too. There doesn't appear to be a solution yet, even though it's been happening for years. It's really annoying and completely counter-intuitive.

[Jon.M.]

Couldn't agree more. This issue is still disrupting my workflow and is one of the many things that experienced users identify as a Premiere Peeve. Just venting since that is all one may do.

[PaulMurphy]

When you save a Workspace, it also saves the number of timeline panels that are displayed. All of the default workspaces that come with Premiere are designed to display one timeline panel.

If you don't want your Workspace to change the number of displayed timelines, the first thing you should do is open the maximum number of sequences you might need and then choose Window > Workspaces > Save Changes to this Workspace. (Just a tip: don’t overdo it—opening 100 sequences and saving your Workspace will slow down switching workspaces.)

If you create a workspace with 20 timelines and have 20 timelines open, it won’t close any timelines. If you have less than 20 timelines open, it won’t add any extra timelines.

However, workspaces in Premiere are always being updated, even if they're not being saved. So, if you created a workspace with 20 timelines but then closed one, the next time you switch to that workspace, it will only display 19 timelines.

The good news is that switching workspaces doesn't technically "close" that timeline - it just doesn't display it. If you go to Window > Workspaces > Reset to Saved Layout (shortcut Option/Alt + Shift + 0), it will ensure there are enough timeline panels to display all your open sequences.

TLDR:

• Switch to a workspace
• Open 10-30 sequences in the Timeline
• Go to Window > Workspaces > Save Changes to this Workspace
• If you close a timeline, this will reduce the number of timelines the Workspace will display. However, Window > Workspaces > Reset to Saved Layout (shortcut Option/Alt + Shift + 0) will restore all open sequences.