Why does Premiere spend so much time "relinking media" when opening a project?

Report · Nov 28, 2024

When I open a large-ish project, the Progress Dashboard on Premiere spends minutes doing what it say is "relinking media". What is it doing? Why is this necessary? It is technically a "background" process, but nothing really works until it is finished.

After a few mins, or 5-6 mins on really big project, it finishes "relinking" and then I can edit normally. But my question is why can't Premiere just save the state it is when it's done and then just open quickly the next time? Nothing has changed in my media files, why "relink"?

NOTE: I am not talking about when Premiere cannot find the correct location and you have to point it to the right place. I'm talking about normal everyday automated stuff that happens when I open a project.

Report · Jun 30, 2025

I have figured out getting legacy versions, thanks, Elmer

Report · Jun 30, 2025

Reverting to v25.2 seems to have sped up the relinking - still does it (- why?) but much faster. Timeline playback issues seem to have resolved PHEW! Seriously relieved. Sounds like theres a proper problem with 25.3. Thankyou, Elmer

Report · Jul 11, 2025

Hello This "everytime relinking problem" has came to me exactly after I've updated to Premiere Pro 25.3))) Nice job Adobe!

Report · Jul 22, 2025

Hello!
I had the same problem. Premiere scans and relinks media every time I open a large project (90 MB) on a 20 TB external hard drive.
Premiere froze at 25% of the relinking process.
I was able to open the project correctly by deactivating the plugin at startup.
I hope this helps some of you!

Report · Jul 22, 2025

" by deactivating the plugin at startup."

??

Report · Jul 24, 2025

We can teach you how! With Premiere closed, hold ALT (Windows) or OPTION (Mac) on your keyboard. Keep holding the key down, then launch Premiere. Keep holding the key until a window appears with startup options. Select "Disable third-party plugins" and select OK.

Here's a YouTube video showing you how: https://adobe.ly/45jDU3o

Let us know if that helps,

Caroline

Report · Oct 17, 2025

@adobe has this been resolved....( pun included ) I am having same issue. costed me days of lost work

Report · Oct 17, 2025

Dear Kyle,

I found this immediately resolved (on my Mac Mini Pro 4) when I stepped back to 25.2.0. It stopped doing it and I have not gone forward in versions since then. I did notice some odd stuff happening with 'dynamiclinkmanager' with a particular 4k project, going to media encoder v 25.4, which I have yet to resolve and may be to do with the version disparity - Adobe, can you help?

Report · Oct 21, 2025

I have contacted Adobe but its taking weeks for them to get back to me. Why i "resolved" it my self lol.

Check more issues here after reverting. 25.2
Its clear as its adobe issue.

Report · Oct 17, 2025

This work for me. With Premiere closed, hold ALT (Windows) or OPTION (Mac) on your keyboard. Keep holding the key down, then launch Premiere. Keep holding the key until a window appears with startup options. Select "Disable third-party plugins" and select OK.
At least for open the project.

Report · Oct 23, 2025

I have the same issue, and it’s killing me. Every time I open a project, I need to wait around 10 minutes — depending on the project size — before I can actually start working. Each time Premiere crashes for some unexplainable reason, I have to wait again for it to reopen.

I’ve tried reverting to older versions, but at that point, I couldn’t even open Premiere anymore. I tried completely resetting it, deleting all presets, etc. Still no change.

This is so horrible and annoying. I spend way too much time fighting with Premiere Pro instead of actually editing for my clients. I’m on the verge of completely switching over to DaVinci, since I’m pretty much done with it. Adobe should spend more time creating stable software instead of trying to integrate unusable AI BS.

And please don’t ask me about my machine or hard drives. I work on a highly modern editing setup — the issue, with 100% certainty, is Adobe’s bad software.

Mod note: Please refrain from using profanity. Minors are reading here.

Report · Oct 23, 2025

Can agree more! Like i mentioned i have Resolved it ( Pun intented ) [fradulent account removed by moderator] what am i paying for? I would expect top support when its costing 50 plus a month. thats alot i can save when other software is free or ALOT cheaper, AND it works/.....

Report · Oct 23, 2025

@kyle huber , that's just so cute and adorable, your little pun, I can't wait till you post it a third time or fourth even?

Report · Oct 23, 2025

@Mathias Wittwer LAAX, have you tried with a "Production", that's Adobe's way to maximize the use of assets and keep things running quickly. In a production, you typically have a dedicated media project, or could be projects for stills, audio, music, etc, from which you add that media to a project like say a 'sequence' project, or a 'episode 3' project. You don't have to open the media project unless you need to add more media, or drop a clip in from that project to another. They work well, and are super flexible.

https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere/desktop/get-started/preferences-and-settings/best-practices.html

https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/using/production-panel.html

It's just a thought, but it may be useful for you.

Report · Oct 23, 2025

@MyerPj it does not matter if you're in a Production. If you open up a project that only has a sequence in it for your feature film, it still takes 10 minutes to load and "relink" the media. It's crippling no matter what you're doing or how you're doing it if you're on network storage. I have only been able to work around this by forcing my shared storage to become single unit iSCSI volumes (i.e. block level). It's insane. The fact that this hasn't gotten more attention and isn't at the top of Adobe's bug fixes list is beyond me. They either don't know how to fix it, don't care, or both.

Report · Oct 23, 2025

Hi there - the fact that this doesn't happen when working with block level storage is important. It points to an issue with your setup. Remember - PP's project structure is just a database with links. When posting about issues with linking it is important to go back to basics. There could be an issue with Premiere Pro as others have reported that reverting to an earlier version has helped with this issue. However the same problem can show up from multiple causes. Including system issues - like trying to access media over a network where a single bad cable or bad setup can cause multiple issues. On top of this not all NAS boxes are created equal. Some work OK for video editing, most don't. iSCSI and block level access has always been the preferred method of access over a network - it lets your editing software see the storage as if it were a local drive (including Avid and Adobe). My preferred method is a directly connected Thunderbolt 3 or above SSD. I also use a NAS box connected via Thunderbolt and although I don't often work directly off it, it does work for anything up to a couple of streams of 4K.

Report · Oct 23, 2025

The notion that is "an issue with your setup" is nonsense. There is a critcal mass of reports here from a myriad of NAS setups. I have had this issue with Premiere on QNAP devices as well as Synology using SMB share volumes over 25GbE networks -- two of the most widely used NAS devices on the market. There is nothing special about the "setups" of any of the people posting here other than Premiere clearly has issues reading media that isn't on a block level volume for reasons still unknown. It's also worth noting that some users appear to report that this problem did not exist before Premiere versions in the last couple of years. Don't know which version it was introduced on but it has not always been this way it seems.

Report · Oct 23, 2025

Up to you. I'm just another user like yourself. I've worked on Avid extensively in a teams environment and they use iSCSI or a proprietary SAN exclusively because you can't lock media on an SMB network (which is why it's never recommended in an editing environment). If you want help, I'll try to help. If you don't that's fine too. I'd start by posting your system specs and disk speed test results using Blackmagic or AJA with your target media drive and a brief overview of your network setup, number of users, whether you're using Premiere for teams or just a single user etc.

Report · Oct 24, 2025

I have also encountered this issue with SMB. I have experimented with alternative protocols and block storage, but the outcome remains the same. Last year, I engaged in discussions with LucidLink and Adobe’s senior technical representative. They also indicated that the underlying software issue was the cause. However, it appears that this issue has not been resolved.