Troubleshoot video playback issues in Premiere Elements

Last updated on Jan. 24, 2023

When using Premiere Elements, you may encounter issues relating to playback and performance. Issues that commonly occur include:

Drop in frames (choppy or jerky playback)
Audio drop out
No Video during playback
Playback getting stuck when you hit the play button or spacebar

The following tasks can help you resolve the most common installation problems. If the problem recurs after you complete these tasks, proceed to the next section in this document.

Check if your system meets the minimum system requirements

Videos may not play smoothly on a system that doesn't meet the requirements mentioned here: System requirements | Adobe Premiere Elements.

Note: To check basic system information, such as processor speed and the installed RAM.

On Windows, choose Start > Control Panel > System.
On macOS, click the Apple icon in the upper left, and select About This Mac.

Try these solutions first

Ensure that the file you are using plays back fine on software other than Adobe software. For example, you may try playing the file in other media players available on your machine.
Update the video card driver: Updated or flawed video display card drivers can incorrectly display motion video and textures. Or, they can incorrectly report their ability to display motion video or textures to Adobe Premiere Elements. Contact the video card manufacturer for an updated driver, or download one from the manufacturer's website. (To determine the manufacturer of a video card, view the card's properties in Device Manager.)
Temporarily switch to a single display configuration. That is, switch to single monitor setup.
Use a third-party converter to convert file to a format that the OS running on your computer supports.

Render all effects, transitions, and titles in the Timeline.

It is sometimes necessary to render media files to ensure smooth playback. Adobe Premiere Elements attempts to play all effects, transitions, titles, and other unrendered elements in real time without first rendering them. The real-time playback capabilities of your system depend upon the CPU and other available system resources. By rendering the unrendered media elements of the Timeline, you reduce the dependence on the available system resources. As you keep on editing, you can render only a small portion of the timeline around which you are working and check the playback quality of that section. This can be done by adjusting the work area bar in the timeline.

Troubleshooting playback issues related to audio hardware

To check the computer audio device and settings, including the ASIO and MME settings (for Windows OS), or CoreAudio settings (for macOS) that is used by Premiere Elements for audio playback and recording, select Edit > Preferences > Audio Hardware.
Check for external MIC or audio devices and try to disable them. For example, you can disable Webcam, third-party audio playback devices such as AJA or BlackMagic, USB MICs, monitor speakers or any third-party VST Plug-ins.
For macOS, try to create an aggregate device by selecting built-in input/output devices.

For Windows, try to disable all devices except Realtek listed under Sounds. You may also want to see Windows 10: How to fix sound issues after upgrade.

Disconnect all peripheral devices except the digital video device.

Peripheral devices that connect to the computer via USB, serial, SCSI, parallel, or FireWire ports can disrupt video playback when the device driver requests system resources. (Peripheral devices include printers, network cables, scanners, and modems). To reduce system requests when playing videos, turn off or disconnect all peripheral devices . Also, Adobe Premiere Elements doesn't support multiple devices on either a FireWire chain or a FireWire card.

Note:

After you disconnect network cables, network protocols remain active until you restart the computer.

Optimize the project settings.

Verify that all clip properties, such as frame rate, data rate, and compressor, match the project settings. If there is multiple media, select the appropriate project settings that match with maximum number of clips in your project.

In addition, make sure that clips and previews are on the same hard disk (preferably the fastest disk) as the project file.

To change the scratch disk setting in Adobe Premiere Elements, choose Edit > Preferences > Scratch Disks. See the Adobe Premiere Elements User Guide for more information.

Turn on/off Intel Hardware Acceleration

Playback issues in Premiere Elements can sometimes be resolved by changing the Intel Hardware settings.

To change the Intel Hardware Acceleration settings:

On Windows platform:

Choose > Edit > Preferences > General.
Deselect the Use Hardware Acceleration (Intel HD Graphics 2000 and newer) option.
Restart the application.

On macOS:

Choose Preferences > General.
Deselect the Use Hardware Acceleration (Intel HD Graphics 2000 and newer) option.
Restart the application.

If changing the Intel Hardware Settings resolve the issue, then we recommend updating the display drivers.

Change playback quality for better quality/performance

To change the playback quality, right click and select Playback Quality.

To improve the playback quality as per the requirement, choose among the following options :

1. Automatic

2. Highest

3. Medium

4. Lowest

Working with 4k portrait videos

While working with 4k portrait videos, make sure you are using the right project settings as per the clip properties and the playback quality is set to Automatic. Follow the below mentioned steps:

1. Create a new project in Premiere Elements (Ctrl/command + N).

2. On the New Project dialog box, select Change Settings.

3. Select the appropriate project settings as per the clip properties like Frame Rate, data rate etc.

4. Click OK on the Change Settings dialog.

5. Enable Force selected Project Setting on this project check box.

6. Import the 4k portrait media.

7. Drag-and-drop the media on the timeline.

8. Right click and select Playback Quality.

9. Select Automatic.

Check for device driver problems

Device drivers are files that enable Windows to communicate with devices such as video display adapters, SCSI and IDE controller cards, and mainboard BIOS and chipsets. Contact the computer or device manufacturer for the latest device drivers.

Disable non-essential startup items and services

Antivirus software, firewall software, anticrash software, or other applications and services loaded with Windows can cause conflicts with Adobe Premiere Elements or compete for system resources. You can temporarily disable nonessential startup items and services from loading by using the Windows System Configuration Utility.

To start Windows in a simplified mode, do the following:

Quit all applications.
On Windows, choose Start > Run, and type msconfig in the Open text box. Click OK.
Write down all deselected items under the Startup and Services tabs.
Click the General tab, and choose Selective Startup.
Click the Startup tab and select Disable All.
Click the Services tab and select Hide All Microsoft Services.
Select Disable All then reselect FLEXnet Licensing Service. If you are unsure whether an item is essential, leave it deselected (disabled).
Click Apply, and restart Windows for the changes to take effect.

Note: Upon restart, you are notified that the System Configuration utility has changed the way that Windows starts up. Click OK. When the System Configuration utility appears, click Cancel.
Right-click icons in the Notification Area and close or disable any startup items that are still active.
Double-click the setup.exe file in the Adobe Premiere Elements folder you copied to your desktop.

Then, try to re-create the problem:

If the problem no longer occurs, one of the startup items conflicts with Adobe Premiere Elements. Re-enable startup items one at a time, testing each time until you determine which item conflicts with Adobe Premiere Elements. Contact that item's developer to see if an update is available.
If the problem recurs, startup items are not the cause of the problem and you can re-enable them.

To re-enable startup items, do the following:

On Windows, choose Start > Run, and type msconfig in the Open text box. Click OK.
Click the General tab, and choose Normal Startup.
Deselect any items that you wrote down in Step 3 of the previous section.
Click Apply, and restart Windows for the changes to take effect.

Test playback on an external device

Test the hard disk with a third-party hard disk utility, such as TCD Labs HDTach or Canopus EZDVtest, to determine how the disk performs. Adobe recommends that hard disks meet the following specifications.

For playback of HDV media:

Two or more 7200-RPM UDMA 133 IDE 80-GB SATA drives in Zero Raid configuration (recommended) or
A dedicated large capacity 7200-RPM UDMA 133 IDE/SATA or SCSI hard disk capable of sustained rates of at least 20 MB/s

For playback of 4K or Full HD media:

A dedicated large capacity 7200-RPM SATA hard disk capable of sustained rates of at least 150 MB/second
SSDs (Solid State Drives) are recommended for 4K or Full HD editing. Using an SDD means that you can quickly process, open and render files. Data transfer rate lies between 300 MB/second – 40 GB/second.

Optimize hard disks

Optimize hard disks by defragmenting them, updating their drivers, and configuring the disk drives to improve playback speed and performance in Adobe Premiere Elements. For further assistance with these tasks, contact the hardware manufacturer or an authorized repair service facility.

Defragment hard disks by running the Disk Defragmenter utility included with Windows or a third-party disk utility, such as Symantec Norton Utilities. If you use external (non-system) disks for video, you can reformat them instead. Formatting erases all information on the disk. For instructions, see Windows Help or the documentation for the utility.
Update disk drivers to ensure that they aren't damaged or incompatible with the system. If a disk was formatted with a third-party disk utility, use the third-party disk utility for this procedure. For instructions, see the documentation that came with the utility.
Enable write-caching for the hard disk:

1. Search Device Manager in the search bar.

2. Click the plus sign (+) beside Disk Drives.

3. Double-click the hard-disk drive.

4. In the Disk Device Properties dialog box, click the Policies tab.

5. Select Enable Write Caching on the Disk.

If you use multiple IDE (or EIDE) disks for video-editing, connect them to the secondary controller. Because it's necessary that the system is connected to the primary controller, connect all devices other than the IDE disks to the primary controller. If only IDE disks are connected to the secondary controller, data is transferred at a single, optimum rate. When other, slower devices are connected to the same controller, data rates conform to the maximum rates allowed by the slower devices. They are typically slower than the data rates for video-editing hard disks. For instructions to connect disks to a controller, see the documentation included with the computer.

Troubleshoot GPU related issues

For information about issues related to GPU and their solutions, see Troubleshoot GPU related issues.

Visit the Adobe User to User Forums

You can see if other Adobe customers have a similar problem by visiting the User to User Forums at www.adobeforums.com. If other users have experienced the same problem, then Adobe Technical Support may be able to duplicate and research the problem.

Contact Adobe Technical Support

If none of the above steps have resolved the installation problem that you are experiencing with Adobe Premiere Elements, then contact Adobe Technical Support. You can find the support options at the Adobe Support Center.

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