Adobe Premiere Keeps Crashing During Export – What To Do

Adobe Premiere Pro is probably the most popular video editing suite out there. You pay for the privilege of using it but in return you get some of the most powerful editing tools a home user can use without a degree in video production or a supercomputer. One common complaint about Adobe Premiere Pro, aside from the price, is when it keeps crashing while exporting video files. It has happened for years in multiple versions of the program and still happens now.

Adobe Premiere Pro is a powerful video editing suite that brings Hollywood home and allows anyone with the patience and perseverance to deliver high quality videos from multiple sources. It’s a top quality product even if it is expensive.

Stop Adobe Premiere Pro crashing during export

Spending hours creating your video takes long enough but exporting can take a while too. Even when it doesn’t crash, a reasonably powerful computer can take a few hours to export a 90 minute video. If it does crash partway through, it will take even longer. There are ways to stop it crashing though. Here are a few common fixes.

Update Adobe Premiere Pro

Ideally, any program updates should be done before you begin a project as an update mid-project could render all your work unusable. This is especially true for larger updates. Make sure you always keep Adobe Premiere Pro and/or Creative Cloud up to date and any fixes Adobe provides should be included within them.

It is unlikely to fix the crashing though as it has been around for years and in various versions of Adobe Premiere and the company still hasn’t been able to fix it.

Clear the Media Cache

Adobe Premiere Pro runs a database that keeps all your clips, effects and more that you create when editing your movie. If you’re using lots of effects or have spent a long time producing your video, this cache could be slowing things down so much that it crashes out.

1. Open Adobe Premiere Pro and select Preferences.
2. Select Media and Media Cache Database.
3. Select Clean and let the app clean the database.

This is often the first thing Adobe will tell you to do when reporting the issue to them as a fault.

Check disk space

It sounds obvious but that doesn’t mean it isn’t causing your problem. Make sure you have enough disk space on the drive you’re exporting from and to if they are different drives. Videos and the files Adobe Premiere Pro uses can take up an inordinate amount of space to make sure you have plenty of available disk space before exporting.

Use a software renderer

Adobe Premiere Pro can use your GPU to render your video but this isn’t always the best idea. If you have an older or underpowered graphics card, this can cause instabilities and crashes. This seems more a fault with Adobe Premiere Pro than with your computer but it is what it is.

1. Select Project Settings within Adobe Premiere Pro.
2. Select Genera and Renderer.
3. Select Software Only.

Using the software renderer will slow down your export but it may also be able to complete it.

Check the timeline

If your export always crashes at the same point, find out what that point relates to in terms of your timeline and take a close look there. If you have added an effect that that time, remove it and retry. If you have spliced together different formats into a single video at that point, convert both into a single format and retry.

If you added images or text at that point, check image size and remove any special text characters. Look at that point on the timeline and try to identify anything there that might impact export. Remove it and export as an experiment. You can always add the effect again later.

Split the file

Dividing your movie into multiple parts isn’t ideal but it is a way to be more confident Adobe Premiere Pro won’t crash during export. You can produce your video, split, export it and recombine it once exported so you won’t notice the difference.

Check your plugins

Plugins seem to crash Adobe Premiere Pro at random times but rarely during export. There may be a plugin issue crashing your program so it’s worth checking. Disable all plugins, select your movie, select Remove Attributes and try an export. You can always add them again once export has completed or try a different plugin if one is available.

Those are the ways I know of to stop Adobe Premiere Pro crashing during export. Know of any other ways? Tell us below if you do!