Premiere Pro creating impossibly huge project files

[TurboTigerJaws]

I am confused as to why Premiere Pro CS6 is creating projects files that are so enormous they either crash my computer while saving them, or when I try to open them again after closing them, they simply will not open because they are too big. I have NEVER seen Premiere Pro CS5 create a project file that was, for example, 1.75GB in size. Now, I can't even edit a two minute video without eventually losing everything because the file size becomes unmanageable.

I thought it might be an issue with Magic Bullet Looks 2.0, as I noticed the file would grow enormously every time I added an effect to a clip. Not sure. Anyone else having this problem, with or without Looks or other otherwise 100% compatible plug-ins?

[jstrawn]

Can you please list the detailed steps that you followed, assuming that what seemed obvious to you may not seem obvious to me when trying to repro. For example:

1. Lanch PrPro

2. Create a new project (and save it to...?)

3) Create a new sequence for that prject; with the settings being... (pixel depth, aspect ration, fps, render mode... etc)

Screenshots hlep t, if possible. No need to worry about any steps involving Magic Bullet or other 3rd pary plugins. We'll tackle that if and when I am unable to repro the bug in a default state.

Thank you for your interest in the quality of our product.

-James

[SpaceCherryFilms]

I'm sorry but this is going to sound selfish...FINALLY someone else has had the same problem as me.  I use Magic bullet Colorista, Sharpen Mask, and Neat Video on my clips as well.  And my project size

is close to 1.21GB.  Saving take around 20 minutes, loading up the project takes 15 minutes and to do anything within the project is slow.

1. Here are the steps I take.

a. I launch the program normally.

b. Create a new project with these settings (see picture)

[eric tortora pato]

I too am having the exact same problem, but the only effect I've been using is cross fade (both the transition effect and jut dragging the opacity down. I think it might be the drag on effect now that I'm hearing everyone else's issues. At first I had thought it might be a nesting issue (the main thing I've been using PrPro CS6 for is cutting together animatics with ref footage, so a lot of individual images laid over eachother) but that did really make sense. The odd thing I've noticed, thoug, is that it seems to be increasing by a factor of two once it really starts getting gigantic (which I can tell because I version constantly). Isn't that a bit... I don't know, odd? I mean if this is infact the case. The size where they really start to seem unwieldly is at about 250mb. I'm trying to open that file now, remove a whole bunch of the crossfades, and see if it has an effect on the file size.

I have been nearly patient enough yet to wait for the 500m files to even re open.

Tell me, for you guys, does the load project bar always stutter at the same place, like, right below the "Pr" in "Load Project"?

[TurboTigerJaws]

I seem to have found the answer to the problem. After going back and forth with Red Giant about this, we eventually came to the conclusion that Magic Bullet 2.0 is NOT compatible with Windows Vista, and CS6 is not compatible with Windows Vista either. For me, the problem only came about when I opened files originally created in CS5 and then tried to re-save them on CS6 and with the new version of Magic Bullet.

I switched most of my editing tasks over to my MacBook Pro and I have not had any of those issues. Including the original projects I was having problems with on the PC. As soon as I was using them on a compatible, up to date OS, everything was fine. I am going to upgrade to Windows 7 or 8 on the PC pretty soon too.

Not sure if others with this problem are still on Vista, or on a PC, but that's what worked for me.

[mjscox]

Selfishly, I wish it were only a Windows problem, but alas, MacPro, 16GB Ram, 8TB of external disc space, (but no Nvidia CUDA graphics card, yet), and I have some files (from last year) which have lots of effects and the project file is in the reasonable 6.5MB size, but now they're bloating out to 580MB. Analyzing current project, the project manager is taking ages to load;

There are so many variables we're all working with different plug-ins and computers and projects, so getting one or two answers that will solve it for each of us is probably impossible. I use Colorista II but I dumped Looks because it was giving me major freezes and other weird behaviour; sure, I have effects, some wipes, some fades, the usual, it doesn't have more than a couple of  AE clips, and five minutes after I began writing this the "analyzing project...." window still doesn't even have the beginnings of a progress bar.

[Jeff Bellune]

Warp Stabilizer is culprit in your case.  Even a few instances of it can increase project size dramatically.  The only useful workflow for Warp Stabilizer in its current state is to apply it to a clip or two and force Pr to render those clips.  If you don't want to take a chance on Pr losing its links to the render files, then you should export the rendered clips as lossless intermediate files and replace the clip instances with the rendered clips.

Jeff

[mjscox]

Jeff, that's very helpful, but I'm not exactly sure of what is a lossless intermediate file.

Also, do you mean that I'd remove the clips in the timeline, import and replace them with those lossless intermediates?

Finally, do you know if the Lock 'n Load stabilizer from Core Melt has the same gigantism effect on project size?

[Jeff Bellune]

Set the work area bar over a clip that has Warp Stabilizer applied to it.  Export it out as a Quicktime MOV file using the Photo-JPEG codec set to 75% quality, ensuring that the video frame size, frame rate and PAR exactly match the source clip.  That will produce a visually lossless video file.  When the export is done, import the exported clip back into your project and then replace the video portion of the original clip in the timeline with the new MOV file.

NB: Photo-JPEG at 75% uses 4:2:2 color sampling, 100% uses 4:4:4.

Jeff

[eric tortora pato]

Just Checked on mine. It was ABSOLUTELY using the dropin crossfade effects. After I cut them Out, the files size descended from 250+mb to 5.7mb

[eric tortora pato]

my bet is that the problem can emerge from numerous different effects.

EDIT: Additionally, I've been running in to these problems editing on my new imac (don't have the specs hand but we're talking 16gb ram and 3.1 ghz intel core i5), running osx 10.7.5, So I'm not sure if it's OS specific.

[JERRIGAMI]

@

I am having exact same problem, its really strange how the original Issue was raised back in 2012 and come 2019 , we ae having the same problem with Adobe Premiere - CC ver. ??? This amazes me to the core and above all now that its paid version. why does this problem persist 2. Why don't Adobe respond 3. Why don't Adobe  address this issue, 4 years old ??? SO many of these issues raised haven't seen any response from Adobe Staff.

Would it fine if I raised the same query???  and will I get some kind of legit response for this kind of crisis ???  And what would be the response time ???

As I'm encountering the same problem but much more enormous. The Adobe project size shoots up to 108 GB and anything over 75gb, it begins to slack and eventually wants me to FORCE QUIT.

yes I have used warp staniliser

Yes I have made multiple projects to lighten the project file, every time it quits and start from the last saved Project and in less than 45 minutes it starts to increase the size from a 17 MB file to a 108 gb Project File size.

Yes I have a powerful MAC with a 32 gb RAM.

yes iam working on a Full HD project - 2K.

Yes. iam frustrated as I have lost over a week in trying to find the fix.

Yes iam I have lost serious time and energy and data over time.

Yes I have lost my client and lost serious repute.

Yes iam terribly grieved.

yes this project needs some expert Help.

Despite the fact that it is a 32 GB RAM I operating with yet nothing helps, for all the obvious reasons.

Please SOS. as I can't seem  to find any help online. Tried all permutations and combinations,

let's get to the crux of the matter. and help resolve on an urgent Basis.

Kind Thanks

John

@

[R Neil Haugen]

Notice you're posting on a thread for which the last post is five (5) YEARS ago?

This is not a highly common behavior. It isn't something that has been ignored. Most users never have anything like this.

So ... you spent some time and space ranting on that post which is fine ... I certainly have my share of them! ... but let's start sorting out *your* situation.

Give complete specifics as to computer and connected parts, the media used, how created, stored, and your normal import process, typical effects used, along with specific versions of Premiere in number dot number form.

And I'm presuming this is happening with projects created and still used in the same version they were created with.

Neil

[JERRIGAMI]

Hey Neil,

I was fully aware of the post and the timeline before I posted it, but Google gave me this page as the first pop-up and I tried to look for the most recent one of the Adobe forum but couldn't find any Adobe page. so I had lil rather no choice.

With that being put out of the way. these are some facts that I see remain unanswered , so I am only safe and within my boundaries to ask Those legit questions, sheerly with utmost concern, cause most of them have no reply from Adobe, hence the worry as to what are my chances of getting a reply from Adobe, anyways am glad this response came through. Yet nothing from Adobe (Officially)

Now back to Business -

Computer - Apple - Imac (5k) - Retina display

RAM - 32 gb

Memory - 1.5 TB.

PaART cONNECTED - nONE EXCEPT 3 EXTERNAL - HDD- OF 60%  USED.

Media used - Its actually  is all 2 K  - .mov and a few 4k Aerial Footage.

Created - like always  project and project setting Chose the Setting  - DSLR -

General Setting - Mercury Playback Engine - GPU.

RAM - 32 GB RAM.

dATA sTORED ON THE eXTERNAL dRIVES - (Well mostly)

Import Process - gO TO FILE iMPORT AND THEN CHOOSE THE hdd AND PICK THE REMOVAL  Shoes. and do the needful.

Effects - Thats correct, all Pre-loaded/Inbuilt  pre-sets. (including -(WARP STABILISER) eTC.

The version - Adobe Pro  Adobe creative.  -  Ver. - 13.0.03 : -  Eraldicumn - version

With this being said,  may I take your Leave , Awaiting your reponse. on a Sunday.

Kind Thanks

#John

[R Neil Haugen]

Of course your questions are legitimate, as is even just posting a rant now and then! This is both complex and puzzling software, and also ... ain't never gonna be perfect. Ask away, rant away ... I certainly do!

I could go for a very, very long post for my current rants, but then ... the engineers and staffers got that in full at NAB ... so ... ha!

Didn't see your CPU/GPU listed ... which is just useful for a data-point, really. Shouldn't be "a part" of the answer, but could figure in troubleshooting. I don't know, so I won't rule them out. Better to have the data included.

So, you have a recent build of Premiere, and the projects that are problematic are still in the Pr version they were created in. It involves using three external drives (connection unknown), and using good inside-Pr methods for importing assets.

You work with probably 1080 and UHD media from DSLR's/drones, do some Warp stabilizing, and all other effects are 'native' ones from Premiere itself.

Time to start the guessing ... Warp can add immense complexity to project files, so ... if you create a project, and ​don't​ use Warp, does it stay a normal project file size?

Next ... sometimes Pr gets confused with external drives/media.

If there's any way, can you test on internal drives with the same media, and see if this happens?

And a general workflow idea. As Warp always wants to be reanalyzed if you've done the slightest thing to the clip, most people that use it much do their Warp work, when it's looking "right", do a full Render & Replace of the clip. Set the "preview" format/codec to a high-quality "digital intermediate" codec such as Cineform, ProRes, or DNxHD/R. Thus ... Warp is no longer trying to rethink itself. And the computer normally plays the sequence much easier.

You can at anytime click on that replaced clip in a sequence, and select "restore unrendered", to have your Warp stuff back.

Neil

[tclark513]

TurboTigerJaws wrote:

I am confused as to why Premiere Pro CS6 is creating projects files that are so enormous they either crash my computer while saving them, or when I try to open them again after closing them, they simply will not open because they are too big. I have NEVER seen Premiere Pro CS5 create a project file that was, for example, 1.75GB in size. Now, I can't even edit a two minute video without eventually losing everything because the file size becomes unmanageable.

I thought it might be an issue with Magic Bullet Looks 2.0, as I noticed the file would grow enormously every time I added an effect to a clip. Not sure. Anyone else having this problem, with or without Looks or other otherwise 100% compatible plug-ins?

Are you using Warp Stabilizer by any chance?  I've read it can cause this same issue.

[AlarconSwaby]

Had that same issue, the solution is to delete your preview files every time the file starts getting bigger, (you can usually tell when this is happening when the save starts to take long)

[Jim_Simon]

The preview file issue was solved in an update, I believe.

[Guest]

I had the same problem and it seems that it was due to a corrupted project file. Even when I was simply saving the project as a new one without changing anything, the file size was shifting from 20Mb to 700Mb, with no effects or nothing complicated (5 minutes video). I created a new project and imported the old project (or you can only import the sequence that you need) and that solved the issue. Massive relief - I hope it helps.

[Mark Mapes]

Welcome to the forum, Yulisees. Exactly what version PPro do you have?

[Guest]

Hi Mark. This happened to a machine running CS6.

[Cine_en_su_pino]

Hi.

This didn't work for me. I'm working with CS6 and my project size is about 1,41GB. I tried to import it to a blank project and  the progression bar just gets stuck.

The day before, when working in the same project, the size was a bout 600 mb. The project sure has many, many sequences (like 40) and several hours of raw media, Colorista II effects in 4 or 5 shots in just one sequence, lots of audio fades to make a 52 minutes program.

If eventually i get the project open, i will have to delete varous sequences and effects.

Definitely going back to FCP 7, with pain in my heart.

[chaseditor]

I am having the same issue and can not, for the life of me, figure out why my project file size will go from 190MB to 5.61GB... it also doesn't really want to save when I hit save or when auto save goes off. It also seems to try to auto save more often than it should, yet it just freezes half the time. I have no way of opening the project now that its gone up to 5.61 GB... thankfully I saved a backup, but how do I prevent this from happening again??