Why does Adobe Premiere Pro keep crashing?

Whether you’re a professional creative or just getting started with video editing, it’s always frustrating when Premiere Pro crashes – especially when you lose your work. 

In this article, we’ll run through common reasons why Adobe Premiere Pro crashes, and help you address them.

Before doing anything else, make sure you have Autosave settings enabled. That way you lower the risk of losing hours of work.

Select “Edit” (“Premiere Pro” on Mac) > "Preferences" > "General" > "Autosave" 

Now you can turn autosave on or change your settings – such as how often it autosaves and the maximum number of saved projects. Next, we'll investigate why Premiere Pro may be crashing.

Next, we'll investigate why Premiere Pro may be crashing.

Premiere Pro can be a resource-heavy program, especially when you're working with 4K videos or multitasking in the background. 

Below are Adobe’s minimum system requirements for Premiere Pro.

Check your computer specifications to find out if these are causing any issues. If you need a RAM or SSD upgrade, try the Crucial System Scanner or Crucial System Selector.

If you use one of these tools to purchase an upgrade from Crucial, we guarantee compatibility, or your money back.

Having the latest version installed will limit the chances of crashing. The most effective way to do this is to uninstall and reinstall the application for a hard reset to load the latest version and automatically delete any corrupted files.

Premiere Pro uses GPU acceleration to distribute processing for faster encoding and rendering, which can cause the program to crash. 

Try temporarily disabling this setting in either Windows or Mac to see if this fixes your bug:

• Select “File” > “Project Settings” > “General” > under “Video Rendering and Playback” and use the drop-down to select the alternative option
  

Resetting to the default configuration may prevent your application from crashing:

• Open the “Creative Cloud app” > hold Alt (option for Mac) while hovering over the Premiere Pro “Open” button, and a pop-up will appear
  

Corrupted files in the media cache can cause problems with performance, so clear your media cache:

• Select “Edit” (“Premiere Pro” on Mac) > "Preferences" > “Media Cache” > Remove Media Cache Files
  

Fonts downloaded from a third-party source may have compatibility issues with Adobe. Using a similar but supported caption font might fix your crashing issues.

Unsupported file formats and incompatible codecs may cause Premiere Pro to crash. 

If your imported files aren’t listed here, it may be worth looking to convert your files:

If you’re having issues with Premiere Pro crashing during the import process, it may be because you're importing too many clips at the same time. Try importing a few clips at a time to give your computer time to finish processing. 

Dragging and dropping the files can have better results for some users. You can also try importing by right-clicking in the project panel, selecting “Import,” and importing the files this way.

One thing to check is that you have enough free space on your drive for your export file. If your internal SSD is at maximum capacity, invest in an external SSD. 

Adobe Media Encoder  can also be used to transcode media files, which may help prevent crashing during the export process.

As mentioned, Premiere Pro makes extensive use of multiple hardware components, meaning that overheating is a risk that may lead to the program crashing. Here's how to keep your computer cool:

• Position your computer away from heat sources.
• Make sure it has ventilation space on all sides.
• Keep your system case closed.
• Maintain your fans and keep them free of dust and debris.
• Install a program or app to monitor your system's temperatures.
• Optimize your computer's power settings.
• Keep your system software updated.
• Regularly shut down your computer.
• Upgrade your computer cooling equipment.

So, next time Adobe Premiere Pro keeps crashing, be sure to run your system through the above checklist and make sure you meet the minimum requirements, have the latest version of Premiere Pro, disable GPU acceleration, clear settings and cache files, change fonts or convert file formats, try new methods for importing and exporting, and ensure your system isn’t overheating.   

Consider reviewing the Crucial resource hub or reading more solutions articles to answer your future tech questions to support your next project and beyond.