iMac powers off unexpectedly while editing with Premiere Pro 2019

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Thanks in advance for any help you can offer. I have been troubleshooting this problem since October and have spent countless hours trying to figure out what is wrong. When I edit with Adobe Premiere, which is 90% of what I use my computer for as a full-time video editor, my computer shuts off unexpectedly with no error message either before or after powering back up. Everything worked great for 9 1/2 months, then the power-offs began. I didn't make any software changes prior to the start of the power-offs because I was editing a feature and the team was all working on the same OS and same version of Premiere.

I am editing on an iMac: Retina 5K, 27 inch, 2017, 4.2 GHz Intel Core i7, 32 GB RAM, Radeon Pro 580 8 GB VRAM, Mac OS Mojave, 10.14.2

I am running Adobe Premiere Pro CC2019, doing pretty simple offline editing on multiple projects. Editing 1080 HD, nothing taxing.

The power offs happen during basic editing functions, play, stop, overwrite, navigating through the sequence with the arrow keys, copy and paste.  It's not happening during render or any specific editing function.

I have worked with Apple Support, three techs on the phone so far, plus the local Apple store took my iMac for a week and ran tests in November. All diagnostics that I have run and that Apple has run show that there are no problems with the iMac. I worked with two Adobe support people. I wish I could say that they were helpful. One had me change some permissions and told me that my computer wouldn't crash anymore. As soon as we got off the phone, it powered off. I called back and the next Adobe tech had me launch Premiere in Safe Mode, which disabled my audio monitoring and made it so I could only see about 25% of the picture in the monitor. She had me make edits (where I couldn't hear or see what I was doing) and said that Adobe was working in Safe Mode, therefore it must be the iMac. That was a pretty disappointing phone call.

The power offs began on OS High Sierra and Premiere Pro 2018. I upgraded both to the newest version in hopes that would solve the problem. It did not.

I've done all the basic troubleshooting for kernel panics: reset the SMC, reset the PRAM, unplugged peripherals, ran Disk Utility, ran Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. No malware was found, Disk is ok.

I've tried different power sources. I am usually plugged into a UPS, but I also tried plugging directly into a wall outlet, a different surge protector, a different room. It powers off when I'm editing, no matter what.

I erased my iMac, did a clean install of OS Mojave and a clean install of Premiere Pro 2019. I have no other software or files on this iMac. I removed all peripherals and put all the media on the internal drive so I could test it with no peripherals. It still powers off when I edit. Sometimes it will power off within minutes. Sometimes I can edit for an hour or two before it powers off.

I turned off iCloud sync and Adobe Creative Cloud sync to see if syncing was causing the power offs. Creative cloud sync doesn't seem to make a difference. It still powers off whether sync is on or off. I tried editing on the iMac on Thursday so I could Capture Data for the Apple engineers and it crashed 6 times in 90 minutes. I got about 4 edits done in that time.

I have tried a new project with new, never before used media. I've opened older projects that worked before the crashes began. It doesn't seem to matter what media or what project, the power offs persist.

I tried erasing my computer and restoring it with Time Machine to a backup before the crashes began. Still powers off.

My laptop is still working (knock on wood) and that's how I am getting work done right now. The laptop edits the same projects with the same media, no problem.

I am officially out of ideas, but I am definitely open to ideas from any of you good people. Thanks for reading my tale of woe.

Aloha,

Shirley

[em_studio]

Hello - I know I'm late to the party but I have been having the same exact issues for the past month and no help insight either! 

I did uninstall my adobe creative suite, removed all - and reinstalled and that seems to buy me a little time before it happens again! 

I will bring my 27" iMac / macOS majove 10.14.6 in to the Apple store and see if they can also help me! 

[bk.karthe]

Hi, I have a same issue, may I know the outcome?

[em_studio]

Hello and Happy New Year!

i brought my iMac to apple with the original print out - the Apple rep was nice but just listened to my thoughts and also said is sounded like the graphics card. I was able to replicate the shutdown  at the Genius Bar when launching an illustrator file.

Apple preformed stress testing and found nothing wrong with my computer - they wiped it cleaned and reinstalled the system software Mojave - I brought it home and reinstalled all my software - I didn't not resintall is from my time machine - new software installations - and she is running fine - there is some

sort of glitch happening, I am not sure what - but the problem is resolved right now.

with that said prior to cleaning off my HD I did get a few notifications about my "adobe initializer" ???

Wishing all peace, happiness and prosperity for 2020! 

[bk.karthe]

Thanks for update, are you using metel or Open CL ? and any eGpu?

[bl_storylicio.us]

I'd like to chime in that I experience the sudden shutdown while on Premiere with my iMac (Late 2015 iMac, 4Ghz Intel Core i7, AMD Radeon R9 M395x 2096 MB). Everything was working without issue up until a few weeks ago when I updated to Premiere v 14.0 from 13.1.something.

After an online session with Adobe tech support, they recommended turning on software-only rendering. I had been using Metal rendering. That did the trick for a while - working for weeks without a shutdown. And today, I got another shutdown while scrubbing 4k in the preview window. Upon restart, I noticed the rendering was changed to Open CL (Deprecated). I may have done that without remembering.

So, back on software only until I can do more testing. Cheers.

[adamf66969950]

I have had the same issue since I updated to Premiere 2020. I set the renderer back to software, see what happens. 

I have had this issue with 2 other macs iat the office too (including a brand new iMac Pro whose GPU could probably eat me alive) and I seriosly doubt that all of them had faulty GPUs. 

This render setting fix seems fine. But think about it: we spend thousands of pounds/dollars on powerful machines, we work with 4K, 6K footage at high bit rates (we have to, not that I think these are necessary at this stage, but the market is silly), and then we are told to use software rendering only. It's like driving a Ferrari at the mighty speed of 40mph. 

Since I have used Premiere 2020, all I have had was headaches. I reverted to 2019 several times, at some stage I was back to Pr 2018 for good old stability but the rest of the team likes wasting time investigating crashes so they have stuck to Pr 2020. I wish Adobe gave a us a break and stopped shipping major releases every year. Fix all the bugs instead and make a piece of software that is reliable across machines and projects. 

[bk.karthe]

Hi, I managed to solved the problem, Apple replaced few spares from my
iMac, think they are changed everything except caseing and memory.

[Moville]

Hi Shirley,

I am facing exact the same problems as you and sent you a PM for some tips and advice. Could you please contact me?

Many thanks,

Roy

[Jonathan Wills]

I've had the same problem for over a year, at least. I edit a photo in Photoshop, or get an especially troublesome video in Safari (not predictable), and the GPU gets to over 225 degrees F and the computer shuts down. Sometimes even simple edits in Photoshop will cause the problem. I have not taken my iMac in to Apple because I need to work every day using this computer! So very frustrating. Wish Apple would own up to the problem.

[bk.karthe]

May I know the outcome? I have a same problem from October, not solved yet, Thanks

[Mr.Ngoway]

Hello there,

I'm having the same problem. Has anyone successfully solved? Please share it with me. Thank you,

[bk.karthe]

Hi, it is a hardware problem, Apple agree to repair after third attempt
only.

[Mr.Ngoway]

Thank you. 

[dougngkb]

Hi, I'm having the exact same problem while using Premiere Pro 2019 to 2020. My iMac is 2019 Intel i9, 64GB RAM, Radeon Pro Vega 48. The problem appears about 6 months ago, After contacted apple for a few times, they agree to replace the logic board and the graphic card. But unfortunately, the problem still exist. The only thing I didn't replace are the OWC 64 GB RAM and my external harddrive (G-Raid Thunderbolt 3 20TB). Is there any chance that causing the problem? The strange things is the iMac only shut down while using PrPro, when the iMac is idle and PrPro app was opened, it didn't unexpectedly shut down. Thanks.

[Jeff Bellune]

Please don't double-post. It confuses the helpers and the readers.

I responded in the topic you started.

[Brandi0D44]

I'm having the same issue. I don't use high level graphics all the time, so the issue has been intermittent. I've been trying to export a video for over 24 hours and no matter what I've tried, the whole computer has shut down. It is a 2017 iMac retina 5k 27 inch with a 3.8 ghz quad core inetel i5, 8 gb 2400 mhz ddr4 ram, Radeon pro 580 8 fbi computer. I am trying to export the video using the software only option now. The random shut downs seem to be pretty common with the iMacs that were built around the same timespan. I've read a few threads this morning and other people were hypothetisizing that it was related to multiple monitors or external hard drives. I've unplugged everything and it was still happening. So I kept looking. I will update if the software option works. If so, it seems that Apple may be having a mass failure of a certain graphics card from a particular time period. 

[kit.kohler]

While I don't want to insinuate that everyone is experiencing the identical issue, I want to outline that my specific iteration of this issue is most definitely not limited to Premiere Pro. Apple literally told me to uninstalled PP. I did so, switched over and started editing in Davinci Resolve. Edit went ok, but as I started fussing with color correction--boom--sudden power down.

My 2017 iMac is now with Apple. I'm going to sell it, but I want Apple to diagnose and at least quote me a fix before I try to sell this machine because it's the right thing to do.

[Brandi0D44]

I have issues with some of my stats sftware too. Definetly not jsut PP. EVerytime I start to export a video though, the computer powers off, UNLESS I switch it to software only. I think my issue is definetly the Graphics card. I need to call Apple today when I get a break and see what they can do. 

[ericb87454040]

I'm having the exact same hard crashes here when editing and not just limited to premiere pro though it seems it crashes more when using premiere and lightroom. I have a 2019 Imac and have taken it into Apple 5 times and they find no problems. I'm exhausted, I've tried every trouble shooting method mentioned above to no avail. I called a 3rd party Imac repair specialist and right away he mentioned GPU (Graphics Processor), I suspect this is the problem, can anyone confirm or update me on your solutions? Cheers -Eric