Preferences

Learn how to get the most out of Premiere Elements by configuring preference settings for several things, from appearance to playback, audio, and more. 

The Preference Panel in Premiere Elements allows you to change the app's preferences using the Preference dialog and reset the settings using the Reset button. 

How to launch the Preference panel

• Select Premiere Elements 2025 Editor > Settings (on macOS) and Edit > Preferences (on Windows).

You can customize the app's look and behavior by determining the default setting for the user interface's Light and Dark modes. Whenever you open a project, it automatically defaults to the preferences you selected when setting up that project.

• When the app launches, you have to press hold Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS). After the app launches, you can reset it using the Reset button in the Preference Panel. The app needs to be restarted to reset.
  
• To restore default preference settings and plug-in cache simultaneously, press hold Shift-Alt (Windows) or Shift-Option (macOS) while the application starts. Release the Shift-Alt keys or Shift-Option keys until the reset dialog appears.
  

Preferences are stored in the following location:

• For macOS: /Users/username/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Premiere Elements/25.0/Adobe Premiere Elements Prefs
  

• For Windows: <drive>\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Premiere Elements\25.0\Adobe Premiere Elements Prefs
  

General preferences

In the General pane of the Preferences dialog box, you can customize the User Interface modes that is Light and Dark modes.

You can choose to Disable or Enable the Reset and display all messages that were previously dismissed with the 'Do not show again' and Show Contextual Pop-ups on Drop options.

How to switch between Light and Dark mode

You can easily switch between Light and Dark modes by two methods. One from the Preferences menu and the other by selecting the Light   icon or Moon   icon at the top-right. 

Follow these steps to switch to Light or Dark mode:

Audio preferences

Enables audio scrubbing. You can create a keyboard shortcut called “Toggle Audio During Scrubbing” to toggle audio scrubbing on or off while scrubbing. Using a keyboard shortcut is preferable to returning to the Preferences dialog box whenever you want to turn audio scrubbing on or off. 

It's a setting that controls whether the audio input monitoring is muted while you record on the timeline.

• Enabled (checked): If this option is enabled, Premiere Elements will mute the input monitoring while you are actively recording onto the timeline. This means you won’t hear the live audio from your input source while recording.
• Disabled (unchecked): If this option is disabled, input monitoring will remain active even during recording onto the timeline. This allows you to hear the audio from your input source in real-time as it’s being recorded onto the timeline

 Under the Audio Mixer Keyframe Optimization, you'll find this option to create keyframes only at intervals larger than the value you specify. Enter a value from 1 through 2000 milliseconds. If a value more than 2000 is entered, the app will automatically round it down to 2000. If a value of 0 is entered, it will be rounded up to 1.

Set Smart Mix Options by setting the given parameters: 

• Track Default Criteria: Specify the type of track. The available options are Foreground, Background, and Disabled. When you create a track, by default, it is a Background track.
• Merge Pause Of: Specify the threshold in seconds.
• Lower Background: Specify the percentage you want the volume to drop.
• Normalize Dialog: Normalize the dialogs to ensure the volume remains constant throughout the clip.

Audio Hardware preferences

In the Audio Hardware pane of the Preferences dialog box, you specify the computer audio device and settings, including the ASIO settings (Windows only), or buffer size setting (Mac OS only) that Premiere Elements uses for recording audio.

Choose a Default Input (Microphone) and Output (Speaker) from the system.

When selecting the Master Clock in MME and CoreAudio settings, choose either the input or output you want to synchronize with other digital audio hardware, ensuring precise alignment of sample accuracy.

Specifies the lowest setting possible without audio dropouts. The ideal setting depends on your system's speed, so some experimentation is necessary. (macOS only)

Specify the lowest setting possible without audio dropouts. The ideal setting depends on your system's speed, so some experimentation is necessary (Windows only).

Choose a Sample Rate for the audio hardware.

Audio Output Mapping

You can specify the target speaker in your computer sound system for each supported audio channel.

Auto Save preferences

By default, Premiere Elements automatically saves your project every 5 minutes and retains the last five project file versions on the hard disk.

You can revert to a previously saved version at any time. Archiving many project iterations consumes relatively little disk space because project files are much smaller than source video files. It’s best to save project files to the same drive as your application. Archived files are saved in the Premiere Elements Auto-Save folder.

Automatically save Projects, and type the number of minutes you would like between saves.

Enter the number of versions of a project file you want to save. For example, if you type 10, Premiere Elements saves the ten most recent versions.

Media preferences

Specifies whether Premiere Elements shows the original timecode of imported clips or assigns a new timecode to them, starting at 00:00:00.

Set this media preference to specify whether you want to Scale to frame size or Set to frame size. Premiere Elements automatically scales imported assets to the project’s default frame size if you select the scale to frame size. 

.This preference allows you to enable and disable hardware decoding.

Premiere Elements supports hardware-accelerated encoding to accelerate the encoding (export) performance and reduce the time to export the H.264 format. With hardware-accelerated decoding support for H. 264 and H. 265 formats, Premiere Elements can also improve the timeline playback performance.

To use these features, you need a GPU with hardware-accelerated encoding and decoding capabilities. Check the information to see if your GPU supports hardware-accelerated decoding and encoding.

• NVIDIA
• Intel
• AMD
• Apple Silicon

This option allows you to enable ProRes, a type of high-quality video codec. Prores Encoding is only available on MacARM. On MacIntel & Windows, we only do H264 encoding.

HEVC file import

You can import HEVC files in Premiere Elements using built-in hardware-accelerated decoding. If this option is switched off in the preferences, you must install the HEVC Video Extensions plugin from the Microsoft Store on Windows.

Use this preference to enable/disable this option (Enabled by default)

• Windows: Preferences > Media > H264/HEVC hardware accelerated decoding
• Mac: Settings > Media > Enable hardware accelerated decoding

Media Cache

The Media Cache is where Premiere Elements stores accelerator files, including peak files (.pek) and conformed audio (.cfa). Premiere Elements. Clearing old or unused media cache files can help maintain optimal performance. Deleted cache files are recreated whenever source media requires them.

Select the Delete button next to Remove Media Cache Files to remove media cache files.

A folder containing a database that retains links to each media cache file.

• Do not delete cache files automatically - Automatic deletion of media cache files applies only to .pek, .cfa, and .ims files within the subdirectory folders, Peak Files, and Media Cache Files.
• Automatically delete cache files older than 30 days. The default value is 30 days, but you can change it to a period of your preference.
  
• Automatically delete oldest cache files when cache exceeds - The default is 2 GB where the media cache is located. This setting is enabled by default in the Media Cache Preferences.
  

Set Playback Preferences

In the Preferences dialog box under Playback settings, you can choose the default player for audio or video playback and adjust Preroll and Postroll preferences.

Preroll: The number of seconds before an edit point when playing back footage for several editing functions.

Postroll: The number of seconds after an edit point when playing back footage for several editing functions.

Step forward/Back Many: Specify the number of frames to move using the keyboard shortcut Shift+Left or Right arrow. The default is set to 10 frames.

Set Timeline Preferences

Specify the default duration for audio and video transitions. Video Transitions are set in Frame and Audio in Seconds.

To display still images, specify the default duration.

Various auto-scroll options are available during playback when your sequence extends beyond the visible timeline.

• Choosing Page Scroll automatically shifts the timeline to a new view once the playhead exits the screen, ensuring uninterrupted playback.
• Smooth Scroll maintains the playhead at the screen's center while the clips and time ruler move.

You can choose vertical or horizontal scrolling. By default, mouse scrolling is horizontal for Windows and vertical for macOS. For Windows, press the Ctrl key to switch to vertical scrolling.

Set Focus On The Timeline When Performing Insert/Overwrite Edits- Choose this preference if you prefer the timeline to remain active instead of the Source Monitor after making an edit.

At the playback end, return to the beginning when restarting the playback- This option determines the behavior when reaching the end of a sequence and restarting playback. If unchecked, Premiere Elements will stop. If checked, Premiere Elements will return to the beginning of the sequence upon restarting playback.

Display Out Of Sync Indicators For Unlinked Clips- Displays out-of-sync audio and video indicators when unlinked and moved out of sync.

Play after rendering previews- If you want Premiere Elements to play the whole project from the beginning after rendering, select this preference.

Show Clip Mismatch Warning Dialog- Premiere Elements checks whether the clip's attributes match the sequence settings when you drag a clip into a sequence. The Show Clip Mismatch Warning dialog box will appear if they don't match.

Set Update Preferences

This Preference setting sets the Adobe Premiere Elements application update preferences. You can select  Automatically Download and Install updates or Notify me when an update is available.

• Automatically Download and Install Updates: Premiere Elements can automatically download and install updates and not manully.

• Notify Me When Updates Are Available: This setting notifies you whenever an update is available, allowing you to decide when to download and install it.

• Enable "Remind me Later" for updates: This option reminds you to update the application later, at your convenience. 

Country/Region Selection

Use this to select your preferred Country or Region.

Adobe Partner Services

• Turn Off Notification Pop-Ups: This setting lets you turn off pop-up notifications from Adobe Partner Services. Notifications may include updates, offers, or other messages from Adobe and its partners.

• Turn Off All Notifications: This setting disables all notifications from Adobe Partner Services, including pop-ups and other types of alerts.