Premiere Pro · Projects and workflow
How to fix laggy playback in Premiere Pro
Short answer
Set the Program Monitor's playback resolution to 1/2 or 1/4, make proxies for heavy footage, and render the work area with Enter (Return on Mac). Check that the renderer uses the GPU in Project Settings.
In Premiere Pro
01
Lower playback resolution
Set the Select Playback Resolution menu under the Program Monitor to 1/2 or 1/4.
02
Use proxies
Right-click heavy clips (4K, RAW, H.265) and choose Proxy > Create Proxies, then turn on Toggle Proxies.
03
Render previews
Press Enter (Return on Mac) to render effects between the in and out points. Red lines over the timeline turn green.
04
Use the GPU
In File > Project Settings > General, set the Renderer to GPU Acceleration (Metal or CUDA).
05
Clear the cache
In Settings > Media Cache, delete unused cache files, and keep the cache on a fast SSD.
Eddie AI
Do it in Eddie
Eddie makes proxies automatically, and your Premiere export still points at the originals.
Eddie builds proxies when it reads clips, so the editing stays quick on pro codecs. When the footage came in through the desktop app, the Premiere timeline points back at your original camera files.
Back to Premiere
Open the edit, click Export and choose Premiere. You get a Premiere project (.prproj) or the older Premiere XML. In the desktop app, Send to Premiere Pro builds the edit inside Premiere through Eddie's panel, which the app installs for you.
If you imported the footage through the desktop app, the timeline points at your original camera files, so Premiere relinks to them. If you uploaded on the web or pulled from cloud storage, it points at Eddie's proxy media; relink to those, not to the camera originals.
From the help center
Questions
- What does the red line over the timeline mean?
- That section needs rendering for real-time playback.
- Does playback resolution affect the export?
- No. Exports use full resolution.