File won't import, generic error, Elements 12 handled it, file available

[bruced34794878]

I know there are a lot of complaints on here about "Add Media Failure" with the useless error code "The importer reported a generic error." But, I'm going to try to add a few things to the discussion:

1) I have a file that imported fine with Premiere Elements 12, but will not import with Premiere Elements 15. Oops.

2) The file will load into Lightroom, so clearly (since Lightroom and Premiere Elements and Windows can all read it) the file is fine.

3) I have shared the file so that Adobe can analyze it and fix the bug.

This is a video from my cell phone, a Nexus 5X, FWIW. The file can be found here:

WillNotImport.mp4 - Google Drive

I hope that Adobe will look at this. If not I'll have to figure out how to formally file a bug report.

[bruced34794878]

Google Drive also plays the video just fine. So that's four separate programs that can read the video, and one that can't.

[Steve Grisetti]

You're not "reading" the file with Premiere Elements. You're editing it, a very different process -- so you're not comparing apples to apples.

That said, the file loaded with no problems into my Premiere Elements 15 on Windows 10. (What OS are you using?) So there's nothing wrong with Premiere Elements.

However, this video file uses variable frame rate, which can make it difficult to edit.

If you convert the file to Constant Frame Rate using the free download Handbrake, you'll have no problems editing it.

What camera app are you using to record your video? If you can find an app that shoots video in constant frame rate rather than variable, you will no longer need to convert the video. It will load right into Premiere Elements.

[bruced34794878]

That's interesting that the file loaded into Premiere 15 on your machine. I don't think that lets Premiere off the hook however.. That just means that their import pipeline is flaky, especially given that the file went from working to not when all I did was upgrade Premiere. I am also on Windows 10.

> this video file uses variable frame rate

You mean variable bit rate?

I'm using the default camera app on the Nexus 5X. I know that I can convert the files whenever I hit this problem but that's a hassle and it necessarily reduces video quality. It's also worth noting that Premiere is fine with most of the videos from this camera - just a few of them fail to import. Again, this suggests a flaky import pipeline. As does the huge range of "generic error" import complaints in the forums.

FWIW, I'm a software developer, so I know that making software run reliably on all computers is hard. And, the fact that this file doesn't reliably fail is going to complicate any investigation that Adobe might do. On the other hand, if they printed a more precise error message then at least they'd have a clue about what the problem was. I'd be happy to attach a debugger or enable logging in order to help investigate if such options are available.

[Bill Sprague]

bruced34794878  wrote

I know there are a lot of complaints on here about "Add Media Failure" with the useless error code "The importer reported a generic error." But, I'm going to try to add a few things to the discussion:

1) I have a file that imported fine with Premiere Elements 12, but will not import with Premiere Elements 15. Oops.

2) The file will load into Lightroom, so clearly (since Lightroom and Premiere Elements and Windows can all read it) the file is fine.

3) I have shared the file so that Adobe can analyze it and fix the bug.

This is a video from my cell phone, a Nexus 5X, FWIW. The file can be found here:

WillNotImport.mp4 - Google Drive

I hope that Adobe will look at this. If not I'll have to figure out how to formally file a bug report.

It imports fine on mine too.

Regarding " a lot of complaints on here" I wonder what the perspective might be.  Are there thousand, hundreds of thousands or millions of copies in use?  I would love to know.  Adobe won't say.  Adobe does say in their financial reporting that they have 9 million subscribers to their various CC plans.   Could there be a million buyers of Premiere Elements? 

If you counted the posts with complaints about Media Failures over six months, would it be 10, 50 or 100?  I don't recall any that were posted with footage from consumer cameras and camcorders.   All that I can think of have come from people editing footage from alternate sources, especially screen capture devices and bootleg copies of DVDs.  Usually, it is a issue with variable frame rates that Premiere Elements does not like.  There have been a few using GoPros and a very few from cell phone users.  

My personal experience with every other version since 9 has been that I've never had a single Add Media issue from my Sony or Panasonic "consumer" cameras or camcorder.  My Android phone clips work too.  I've never tried Nikon or Canon footage.  I've never used video game screen capture techniques.

That does not lessen your issue.  Would you mind sharing more of the clips causing you trouble.  Maybe there is an answer somewhere.

[bruced34794878]

I have no idea how many people it affects. There are certainly "a lot" of frustrated customers, but only Adobe knows for sure, and only if they have added appropriate instrumentation.

It is interesting that my test file imports on some machines and not others, and yet used to import on my machine. I'm sure there is a clue there. I'll share more files but I suspect they will have the same result.

I'm curious as to how one identifies a variable-frame-rate clip. Any hints on that?

I'm getting a new laptop soon so the issue may go away. Maybe it's as much Microsoft's fault as Adobe's.

[bruced34794878]

Another video that doesn't import - same camera:
VID_20170406_094117 running.mp4 - Google Drive

Another one, from either the same camera or at least the same model:

VID_20170407_205744.mp4 - Google Drive

Obviously it's frustrating when you're trying to quickly edit a video and you have to switch to Lightroom to re-export the video in order to get Premiere to import it. I'm sure that this hits some people frequently and some people never because Premiere works poorly with some cameras. And, apparently it also depends on your computer, in some way that I'm not qualified to comment on.

[Bill Sprague]

bruced34794878  wrote

Another video that doesn't import - same camera:
VID_20170406_094117 running.mp4 - Google Drive

Another one, from either the same camera or at least the same model:

VID_20170407_205744.mp4 - Google Drive

Obviously it's frustrating when you're trying to quickly edit a video and you have to switch to Lightroom to re-export the video in order to get Premiere to import it. I'm sure that this hits some people frequently and some people never because Premiere works poorly with some cameras. And, apparently it also depends on your computer, in some way that I'm not qualified to comment on.

Both clips worked fine in the Add Media routine on my computer. 

[Bill Sprague]

bruced34794878  wrote

I'm curious as to how one identifies a variable-frame-rate clip. Any hints on that?

There is a freeware program called MediaInfo.  It will give you the details of a video clip.  For the first video you shared, this is a portion of the report:

[Steve Grisetti]

And, no. I meant variable frame rate, not variable bit rate. They are very different things -- and the variable frame rate is the fly in the ointment here.

[bruced34794878]

I've never heard of variable frame rate videos. Fascinating.

Well, I guess I wish that Adobe would support them better. Ideally they should import them properly. Failing that, a usable error message would be helpful.

[Steve Grisetti]

Mine too.

But you can never be sure when you're working with variable frame rate video.

I wonder what results the original poster would get if he tried the conversion suggested earlier.

Variable frame rate video can save file size. That's why it's usually only used in delivery (finished) video. Video that is to be edited should always use (and usually does use) constant frame rate.

[bruced34794878]

Unfortunately I can't find a way to configure my phone to not record variable frame rate video.

I can convert the file, using Adobe Lightroom, to a format that Premiere can handle.

However, I want what you have: I want the video to load into Premiere directly. I used to have that (Premiere 12), you have that now, so clearly Premiere is capable of using this video in editing. If they had better diagnostics or recommendations then I could probably fix the problem, or give Adobe enough information so that they could fix the problem.

Maybe my new laptop will resolve this issue, but I shouldn't have to buy new hardware so that my copy of Premiere can have the same capabilities of other people's.

Thanks for your help and information.

[hansd42515878]

I use an IPhone 6 plus to record 2 4 min videos. The one imported fine but the other has generic error..........

[Bill Sprague]

Without seeing the file, it is probably a variable frame rate issue.

[lisa_shea]

I am running Premier Elements 11 and it also chokes on variable frame videos just by giving a generic error. It would be nice if the error was more specific. I tried using HandBrake, the free software, to turn the files into constant rate videos. That did allow the files to be imported, so it seems that is the problem. That being said, HandBrake reduced the file size to about 1/8th of the original size in all cases and it made the video much more flashy / jerky so it's unusable.

I'm going to look for a better software package to convert variable frame to constant frame. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Lisa

[Steve Grisetti]

You should not see any reduction in quality of the video file if you convert it to constant frame rate using the settings in my tutorial.

Converting videos with Handbrake - YouTube