How to Fix Adobe Premiere Pro Crashing on Windows

Is Adobe Premiere Pro crashing on Windows?

Adobe Premiere Pro is the leading video editing software in the world. It has been on top of the food chain for ages and will continue to do so in the coming years. Despite its status, this doesn’t mean the Premiere Pro doesn’t come with its own issues. 

Like any software or application, Adobe Premiere Pro suffers from occasional errors and unexpected downtimes. 

One of the most common issues on Premiere Pro is that it randomly crashes on Windows. 

This is a serious issue since you can lose your progress when the software crashes unexpectedly. 

Based on what we know, this issue is usually caused by corrupted installation packages or when your system runs out of resources. As you work on your project, Premiere Pro will consume more memory, which can cause it to crash if you put in more load. 

On the other hand, random crashes on Premiere Pro can also be due to third-party apps and improper system configurations. 

In this guide, we’ll show you how to fix Adobe Premiere Pro if it keeps crashing on Windows. 

Let’s get right into it!

1. Restart Your Computer. 

Before changing your configurations, the first thing you should do if Adobe Premiere Pro is crashing is to restart your computer. This should reload your system resources and fix any temporary errors that may have occurred during runtime. 

Here’s how you can restart your Windows PC: 

1. First, press the Windows key on your keyboard to open the Start Menu.
2. After that, open the Power Options tab. 
3. Lastly, click on Restart. 

After restarting your computer, go back to Adobe Premiere Pro to check if the problem is solved. 

2. Reset Your Preferences. 

One of the main reasons for random crashes on Adobe Premiere Pro is wrong or improper configurations. To ensure that your settings are properly configured, reset your preferences to roll back any changes. 

See the steps below to reset Premiere Pro’s preferences: 

1. On your desktop, locate Adobe Premiere Pro. 
2. Next, press and hold the ALT key while opening Premiere Pro. 
3. Finally, click on OK when prompted to reset your preferences. 

Restart your computer afterward and check if the problem is solved. 

3. Disable GPU Acceleration.

For most users, Adobe Premiere Pro stopped crashing after they turned off GPU acceleration. This feature works well on high-end GPUs but can cause problems on entry-level gaming video cards. 

Follow the guide below to turn off GPU acceleration: 

1. First, open  Adobe Premiere Pro on your computer. 
2. Now, go to File > Project Settings > General. 
3. Lastly, change the Renderer to Mercury Playback Engine Software Only. Hit OK afterward to save the changes. 

Go back to your project and observe if Adobe Premiere Pro will still crash. 

4. Clear Your Media Cache. 

As we’ve mentioned earlier, Adobe Premiere Pro can crash if your system runs out of resources. To reduce the load on your system, we suggest clearing your media cache on Premiere Pro. 

Here’s how you can clear your media cache:

1. On Adobe Premiere Pro, click on File and choose Preferences. 
2. Now, go to the Media Cache tab. 
3. Finally, click on Delete under the Media Cache Files tab. 

Continue working on your project and see if Adobe Premiere Pro still crashes. 

5. Stop Other Applications. 

Another way to free up resources on your system is to close unused background applications. This should leave more space for Adobe Premiere Pro, which should prevent it from crashing on your computer. 

See the steps below to stop background apps from running: 

1. Access the Task Manager by pressing the CTRL + SHIFT + ESC keys on your keyboard. 
2. Next, go to the Processes tab and click on Memory. 
3. Finally, identify the apps you’re not using and close them. 

Go back to Adobe Premiere Pro afterward and check if the problem is solved. 

6. Update Your Graphics Card Drivers. 

Corrupted or broken graphics drivers could also be the reason Adobe Premiere Pro is crashing on Windows. When it comes to heavy rendering, Premiere Pro uses your video card to improve its performance. 

However, if your display drivers are not working, Premiere Pro can encounter issues when it tries to use your video card. 

To fix this, see the steps below to update your display drivers:

1. First, press the Windows + X keys to open the Quick Menu. 
2. After that, click on Device Manager to launch it. 
3. Now, expand the Display Adapters tab. 
4. Lastly, right-click on your video card and choose Update Driver. 

Restart your computer after updating your display driver and go back to Adobe Premiere Pro to check if the problem is solved. 

7. Reinstall Premiere Pro. 

If none of the solutions above worked for you, we suggest reinstalling Adobe Premiere Pro on your computer. This will ensure that you have the latest working version of the software and there are no broken or missing installation files on your system. 

Check out the steps below to delete Adobe Premiere Pro: 

1. Launch the Control Panel on your computer and click on Uninstall a Program. 
2. Next, locate Adobe Premiere Pro from the list. 
3. Finally, right-click on the software and choose Uninstall. 

Go to Adobe’s website afterward and download the latest version of Creative Cloud from there. 

That ends our guide for fixing Adobe Premiere Pro if it keeps crashing on Windows. If you have other questions, please leave a comment below, and we’ll do our best to answer them. 

If this guide helped you, please share it. 🙂