Premiere stuttering - not just with playback

[steveignite]

I am having issues with Premiere 2019. Projects are stuttering between running fine, and all the environment panels (bins, audio meters etc.) freezing. How far apart the freezes are is directly proportional to the number of items in the project bin. For a large project (100s of footage clips), it's around 5 seconds. For small projects (10s of footage clips), it's a second or so.

I have come across the "Audio input: none" solution for similar problems (under hardware settings). I have no mic, and so this solution doesn't work. I did strangely, however, manage to temporarily fix the issue by plugging a pair of headphones in the mic input, and setting the audio input. Each time I think I've worked around the issue, however, it comes back.

I have had Adobe staff remote control my computer, and managed to create a test project by importing another project in. Their conclusion was that it was a corrupted workspace. However, I have reset and deleted old workspaces, and this solution does not seem to work for all projects every time.

This is not a playback issue. I have a project with 100s of rushes in bins, ready to edit, but literally no sequences yet, and just clicking around the project bin on the different folders is an issue. For a few seconds it works, then for a few seconds it's unresponsive. Repeat.

One Adobe support staff told me that it was a performance issue. I don't believe this. I have two versions of the same project, one that runs perfectly, and one that stutters. I have 32GB of memory, and a Quadro M6000 graphics card on PC.

I've tried trashing preferences, I've done a complete reinstall. Adobe Customer Care haven't managed to fix the issue. I'm hoping someone else can help.

[Jim_Simon]

Take a look through the following.  Maybe something will help.

Unofficial Premiere Pro Troubleshooting Guide

[steveignite · Accepted solution]

Hi Jim,

Thanks. I'd already tried most of what you've suggested. In the spirit of giving as much info as possible, I'd just started to write out a more detailed information list in the format suggested in your link. But.... I've finally got there.

The problem was that I'd installed the Insta360 Pro extension for importing 360 footage. This is what was causing the massive & constant hangs. After searching a bit, it seems this has been an issue for a number of users.

So, my strong advice for anyone who purchases an Insta360 Pro / Pro 2 is DON'T INSTALL the Insta360 Pro extension for Premiere, as it will totally kill performance. Just use the separate stitcher software.

I was able to uninstall the extension by just deleting it from the C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\CEP\extensions folder.

Nevertheless, thanks for your sound advice.

[Jim_Simon]

Yep, that is why Step 2j is on the list.  Glad you got things sorted.