Wondering if you should upgrade to 2017?

[Danielassault]

Hey everyone,

It's no news that last year has been problematic for upgrading Adobe software. Many problems, glitches, bugs and slowdowns plagued the newest versions of these amazing products. Personally, I've been burnt every time I upgraded to a new version this past year as I know many others have been too.

I want to start a discussion right here, if people that previously had trouble with Adobe's products this past year, think it's a good idea to upgrade to the latest version - CC 2017. I'd like to take into account if you think it's still becoming slower and less responsive, if it's still glitchy, if more highly used features are removed and if it's still just impossible to work with.

I want to upgrade to 2017, but I'm going to stay away before I read more about it.

Let's try to help each other with this and see what would be best to do.

Cheers

[FoxHouet]

I'm exactly in the same position, so i'm interested too

[Ann Bens]

Works for me on W10.

There is only one way to find out.

Make sure you keep previous version in the install setup.

[Shane_P]

I don't feel anyone can recommend to another user to upgrade or not. Only the user can make that decision based on his/her workflow(s).

What you CAN do is test out the new software without messing up your current workflow. If I had a nickel for every post I read about someone installing the new version of the software then complaining that the software is buggy, doesn't work, etc, and that they have a deadline I'd be very wealthy!

You can either:

Install the next software on the same OS as your current software and run it along side the existing software.

or

(What I recommend) - Use a different machine - or - create a new partition on your existing machine with a clean install of your OS.

I have learned in the past to never switch to a new version of the software during mid project. Always start a new project from within the new version. Always test on a separate machine if you have one or at least a separate partition so you don't screw up your current workflow.

For older projects I never let the new version of the software convert the old project file. I always create a new project, use the Media Browser and import the old project file into the new one. I've never experienced any issues with that project workflow.

I have wasted time in the past as well beta testing for Adobe. My main editing workstation is an iMac 5k Late 2014 so what I did yesterday is created a new partition on my main internal SSD for testing. I installed a clean copy of Sierra 10.12.1 and installed the 2017 video apps. This way, I can boot into either the new partition when time permits to be a good little beta tester for Adobe, or, I can boot into my main "Macintosh HD" partition with all of my current software (PP 2015.2) which works perfectly.

So far I have only noticed one issue which I believe is just a video driver issue with my iMac, not sure. Specifically, in random nested sequences, I will see a black screen on the program/sequence monitor but if I double click into the nest the source footage plays perfectly. That's the only issue I've notice so far on this particular iMac.

So ultimately up to you, but at the very least protect yourself and don't muck up your current workflow.

[Danielassault]

I agree with you that installing and testing for yourself is the best way to know (While keeping everything else intact), however, this discussion is in search of more than just a recommendation as to whether people should upgrade or not. If the discussion pulls in many users who share their opinions regarding the newest version, we may be able to get a clearer picture as to how people are actually feeling about the new program. That includes Adobe. If Adobe released a relatively stable build, then it will be good for both the users and Adobe to know, if the opposite is true, perhaps a proper discussion like this could help to change things.

I really want to hear what people are saying about this, specifically people that the past few versions failed on them after each upgrade. That's the boat I'm in and there are quite a few others with me in it.

I'm glad to hear that so far you're having a positive outlook on the new version and hope many more people will too.

[Shane_P]

Oh ok I see, great idea. Well in that case I will give 2017 a "thumbs up". 2015.2 is rock sold for me. 2015.3/.4 were a train wreck for me.

[Jim Curtis]

I'm a full time editor who works from home 30-60 hours a week using Adobe products.

I wish Adobe would stop adding new features before they fix what is broken. It's absolutely pointless to add features to a tool that nobody wants to use.

Pr 10.4.0 and Ae 13.8.1 was a major flop for me and many other users here.  If this new version isn't rock solid, it's going to create a major opportunity for BMD or other company to swoop in and take Adobe's Pr customers.  Enough is enough.

I'm downloading the new apps now, and I'll dip my toes in on a non-paying job.  But, we're getting dangerously close to instituting a Three Strikes Rule.

[Randy358]

The first couple of times I launched 2017 it took a long time.  Something must have been going on under the hood but it seems okay now.

First thing I noticed is that I lost all my rendering pre-sets. That is annoying.

[Randy358]

I just wanted to update my own experience with 2017.  I actually did find my pre-sets. I saw them listed in Adobe Media Encoder, but not in Premiere 2017. So I exported them from AME and imported back into Premiere and there they were.

Other than that, 2017 has been okay, but it did serve as a reminder to me to not update if everything is working and if I get the urge to update then check the forums first.

Cheers,

Randy

[Derjis]

FWIW, we usually have an 8-12 month delay for updating Adobe software; we just updated to CC2015.2 a few months back, and will most likely be skipping the dog's breakfast that is 2015.3 altogether. Adobe will probably have a couple of bugfix releases together by April or May of 2017; it'll probably be worth updating at that time. Given Adobe's history with a complete lack of QA on their releases, I wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole until they at least hit CC2017.2.

I'm pretty sure Adobe doesn't actually Beta test their releases --- they just build it, spew it out and let the community deal with bug reporting. 

That's probably why Adobe named this release CC2017 --- it won't be usable for serious production environments until at least 2017.

[yairb999]

Adobe would like to forget about PPro CC 2015.X as it's omitted from the system requirements page here:

Premiere Pro System Requirements for Mac OS and Windows

[Jeba_Joseph]

The System Requirements page mentions both versions, can you please check

Premiere Pro System Requirements for Mac OS and Windows

Thanks!

Jeba Joseph

[Derjis]

Thanks for the update, Jeba.

Adobe must have revised the page; it definitely omitted the 2015.x specs when yairb999​ posted this morning.

Cheers,

Derj

[Jeba_Joseph]

That is correct, Derj - the page has been refreshed with new updates. We want to ensure our customers that the Premiere Pro system requirements page always provides accurate and up-to-date information in terms of compatibility with different versions; please let me know if you find any other issues and we'll be happy to do the needful.

Thanks,

Jeba Joseph

[GarrettAEvans]

2015.3 fixed a bunch of problems I was having with the extremely cumbersome MacPro/FireProD700/XAVC combination cage match, so I was pleased. So, I think I'll skip 2015.4 too and wait for 2017.2, 'cause if it's working...

[vmxgroove]

I've had no issues with ANY of the updates since I switched to a PC.  Before everybody starts arguing about Mac vs PC, don't want to start the holy war up in here.  I was a FCP on Mac user for years.  Loved it, until FCPX.  Crap product.  Made the switch to Premiere on PC about 6 years ago.  Could not be happier!  Loved it way more.  Premiere works best for me on a PC.  I think the reason is that I keep all of my hardware and drivers up to date.  Also make sure that you are running Windows 10.  Do all of the updates!!!  It seems to me that it is always the guy running an old version on Win 7 with a crappy GTX 200 series card with old drivers that are doing most of the complaining.  This software will always run better if you keep your SH*% up to date.  This means an intel i7 processor if possible, at least 32 Gigs of RAM (64 preferred), GeForce GTX 900 series and up on the video card, at least 2 INTERNAL 7200 RPM hard drives.  SSD is best for OS and Apps.  Second or third drive for cache and media files.  Its not Adobe's fault that people try to run state-of-the-art software on older under-powered systems.  Or some old Mac with an AMD video card is always gonna give you trouble.  In order to have Premiere run smoothly, get yourself an Nvidia video card and unlock the CUDA cores.  This is just my opinion.  Save your attacks cause I just don't care.  I still have a few Macs around, just don't use them for video editing 4K content.  Apple is NOT a good option if you are a professional editor and rely on your gear for a living.  Spend the money to get your system up to snuff and all of the Adobe CC apps will run smoothly.  I know that Adobe's posted system requirements are much lower but DO NOT accept that.  I'm just saying that in my real world experience, hardware does matter.  OS Updates matter.  Drivers matter.  Haters don't bother, I'm not listening and will not respond.  Happy editing!

[hayzensproductions]

i'm in the same boat, to the tune of a few thousand lost in revenue over the 2015.3/4 updates. etc.

so Daniel, did you do the update? how is it?

[Danielassault]

I have updated and so far everything seems to be in order, which is great. However, this time I decided to do a clean install. I uninstalled and cleaned everything. I feel that, perhaps, this may have helped as well.

Whatever you do, you'll still need to manually fix you plugins (Move them to their new folders and such) so consider a fresh install if you have been previously plagued by bad updates.

[Jim Curtis]

I'm on a MacPro3,1 (2008) running 10.11.6, and since updating the latest CUDA driver (I use the OSX driver for my GPU; NOT the ones from Nvidia, which continue to be awful), I'm able to report no issues thus far working on a revision to a project for a big box retailer from about a year ago that was started on an earlier version of Pr.  Footage is a grab back of file types, but mostly mp4 variants and ProRes.  Video Effects are limited to color grading effects and crops.  The only Audio effect I'm using is SoundSoap, a nifty real-time BBNR.

I updated another project that was all ProRes and had a host of problems, which seems counter-intuitive, other than the fact there was a lot of UltraKey and secondary color grading with tracking masks.  I tracked one crashing issue down to unrendered use of Gaussian Blur on a mask.  When I deleted the effect, the crashing stopped.

Count me as "cautiously optimistic" that Pr CC 2017 is ready for professional use.

[vmxgroove]

I did the update. I like it. Everything seems to work fine.

Michael Kamm

805-391-1155

Sent from my iPhone, expect typos...

[hayzensproductions]

randy, where you having the same major problems as many of us with 2015.3/.4?

[mrtechnicalweb2]

I upgraded just because i saw the upgrade option, thought it would be an improvements.

In short, there is nothing improved, and plenty that is now WRONG. Its like the total opposite of an upgrade. It eats huge amounts of CPU, the colour coding is all messed up, windows appear in awkward places, like when your uploading files and it asks if you want to over-write existing files, it appears at the top left. When you select elements in design view the corresponding code element is just off screen at the bottom of code view so its pretty useless as you then have to scroll down and often it scrolls too quickly and you don't know where you are. Its adds strange code, like field names totally out of code, just sat there between tags, like <?php echo $variable; ?> variable <p>,text here</p> The word variable has just randomly been inserted ALL OVER THE PLACE. Its difficult to select files. In the older versions if I had 20 files selected because I just uploaded them and then I want to open one of them and I click it, ALL 20 files open. You have to deselect them by clicking on a blank space INSIDE THE FOLDER LIST, its actually pretty tricky. If I have search open, propertys and the other tool bar think, by code view window is 2cm tall. Wasn't like that before. So you NEED BIG SCREENS TO USE IT.

Thats just the tip of the iceberg. It borders on dysfunctional. I believe its deliberate. Adobe have us all by the sensitives, they can show us all whose boss by producing crap and watching us all still pay for it. I pray to die of old age as soon as possible to bring some relief from this nightmare, but I wake up each morning to what I now call a BAD TOOL.

Dreamweaver had not improved since the introduction of integrated CSS. I would otherwise revert back to Macromedia MX, that was designed by intelligent people for intelligent people. The current version is a corporate wet dream of control and power.

[R Neil Haugen]

I was totally puzzled by your post until I realized by the comment about Dreamwweaver, that you are referring to that program.

As an ACP, and "talking" with others both at MAX in San Diego and since, I understand there are some major problems for many within that program. However, PrPro is for many users doing fine ... and for others, perhaps not as fine.

Individual mileage always varying, of course.

However ... your comments would be of more use to pass on to the Dreamweaver development team & support staff if posted in the Dreamweaver forum ...

Dreamweaver support forum

Neil