Adobe Premiere project won’t play or export, but other Premiere projects will

[Ryan Holmes]

I’ve been through this with PP as well. There’s usually no rhyme or reason for it and it’s one of things that drives me crazy about this program. It’s like PP has so many great features but then it does flaky stuff like this and you just stare at it (or start cussing) and begin to question if this app is really ready for PrimeTime.

Here’s my $.02
(1) Repair permissions on the drive where the media exists.
(2) Update PP if necessary (5.5.2 – assuming you’re running CS5.5).
(3) Resave project file as a different name
(4) Restart machine
(5) Pray it works.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.com
vimeo.com/ryanholmes

[Rikk Wolf]

I am currently facing this problem and like with many Premiere issues, there definitely is “no rhyme or reason” to it, and it makes me glad I’ve moved to mostly using Final Cut (though, it too has its issues – they’re just less threatening to your work).

I honestly wonder what Adobe is smoking over there. Every release of Premiere just seems more broken to me. They should toss their quality control department, if they even have one, out on the street.

I’m currently trying Ryan’s suggestions, but no luck yet.

I tried exporting an XML file of the misbehaving sequence to see if Final Cut would let me get back to work, but Final Cut sticks its nose up at it and won’t import.

Ugh. Premiere.

[Rikk Wolf]

Hey Matthew. I found a possible workaround for you. I got around the problem this way.

Since all my other sequences in the same project were playing fine, I started to systematically delete clips in the offending sequence. Sure enough, two of them (god effing knows why) were keeping Premiere from allowing the timeline to play. Clips from the same video file are all the sequence was made up of, too.

Just deleting them, and putting them back in manually (don’t cut and paste them back in) fixed the issue.

My greatest piece of advice would be to stick with Final Cut. This kind of unexplained, random nonsense is all too commonplace in the world of Premiere. I wish Adobe would stop trying to market it as a professional editor. It’s simply not. It’s a same too, because it’s so easy to use, but it’s not worth your work being destroyed by an easily overloaded and flaky application.

[Tom Daigon]

Sorry Rikk, but Ive worked with Avid MC, DS and FCP. And at one time or another I have had to contend with corrupted media. Stuff happens in all NLEs 😉

If your having lots of problems with PrP 5.5 it might be due to your computer or familiarity with the software.

Tom Daigon
Avid DS / PrP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com
Mac Pro 3,1
8 core
10.6.8
Nvidia Quadro 4000
24 gigs ram
Maxx Digital / Areca 8tb. raid
Kona 3

[Rikk Wolf]

Hey Tom.

Of course, all video production software has shortcomings, and I’ve used most of them out there at one time or another. However, I got my start using Premiere 2.0 back in ’93, starting on a sorely ill-equipped PC, all the way to a brand new Mac Pro with more than enough system resources. I guess shame on me for still using for so long it if I don’t really like it, ha ha.

It’s run miserably more often than it’s functioned as it should, across all versions and platforms I’ve used it on (especially when it comes time for that dreaded final render/encode). Unexplainable crashes, encode failures, just outright wonkiness, I could write a book based on how many times it’s almost ruined a project for me, and all the media cache files it generates earns it the title of “system hog” in my opinion. Don’t get me started on how flaky Adobe Media Encoder’s made the whole process, either.

Just my opinion – Premiere’s a terrific app for people wanting to edit medium or low level stuff and I love the super-easy and user-friendly interface and I do love when it does work properly, but I would never trust something lengthy and complicated I care about to it again – but that’s just me. To each their own. If it doesn’t burn ya, more power to you. I just can’t afford to risk my paycheck on something so unreliable any longer.

That said, Final Cut’s let me down too, just nowhere near as hard, often or inexplicably as Premiere has.

[Tom Daigon]

Maybe its time you tried Avid.

Tom Daigon
Avid DS / PrP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com
Mac Pro 3,1
8 core
10.6.8
Nvidia Quadro 4000
24 gigs ram
Maxx Digital / Areca 8tb. raid
Kona 3

[Joshua Van]

I took the exact same approach you did with exporting xml and then initially experiencing a sound issue, then it froze completely. I was able to fix this issue with playback and export. I created a new sequence, and copied all my assets out of my corrupt sequence into my new sequence. Then I was able to get it to play back fine.

-Joshua VP