Thanks in advance for any help you can offer. I have been troubleshooting this problem since October and have spent countless hours trying to figure out what is wrong. When I edit with Adobe Premiere, which is 90% of what I use my computer for as a full-time video editor, my computer shuts off unexpectedly with no error message either before or after powering back up. Everything worked great for 9 1/2 months, then the power-offs began. I didn't make any software changes prior to the start of the power-offs because I was editing a feature and the team was all working on the same OS and same version of Premiere.
I am editing on an iMac: Retina 5K, 27 inch, 2017, 4.2 GHz Intel Core i7, 32 GB RAM, Radeon Pro 580 8 GB VRAM, Mac OS Mojave, 10.14.2
I am running Adobe Premiere Pro CC2019, doing pretty simple offline editing on multiple projects. Editing 1080 HD, nothing taxing.
The power offs happen during basic editing functions, play, stop, overwrite, navigating through the sequence with the arrow keys, copy and paste. It's not happening during render or any specific editing function.
I have worked with Apple Support, three techs on the phone so far, plus the local Apple store took my iMac for a week and ran tests in November. All diagnostics that I have run and that Apple has run show that there are no problems with the iMac. I worked with two Adobe support people. I wish I could say that they were helpful. One had me change some permissions and told me that my computer wouldn't crash anymore. As soon as we got off the phone, it powered off. I called back and the next Adobe tech had me launch Premiere in Safe Mode, which disabled my audio monitoring and made it so I could only see about 25% of the picture in the monitor. She had me make edits (where I couldn't hear or see what I was doing) and said that Adobe was working in Safe Mode, therefore it must be the iMac. That was a pretty disappointing phone call.
The power offs began on OS High Sierra and Premiere Pro 2018. I upgraded both to the newest version in hopes that would solve the problem. It did not.
I've done all the basic troubleshooting for kernel panics: reset the SMC, reset the PRAM, unplugged peripherals, ran Disk Utility, ran Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. No malware was found, Disk is ok.
I've tried different power sources. I am usually plugged into a UPS, but I also tried plugging directly into a wall outlet, a different surge protector, a different room. It powers off when I'm editing, no matter what.
I erased my iMac, did a clean install of OS Mojave and a clean install of Premiere Pro 2019. I have no other software or files on this iMac. I removed all peripherals and put all the media on the internal drive so I could test it with no peripherals. It still powers off when I edit. Sometimes it will power off within minutes. Sometimes I can edit for an hour or two before it powers off.
I turned off iCloud sync and Adobe Creative Cloud sync to see if syncing was causing the power offs. Creative cloud sync doesn't seem to make a difference. It still powers off whether sync is on or off. I tried editing on the iMac on Thursday so I could Capture Data for the Apple engineers and it crashed 6 times in 90 minutes. I got about 4 edits done in that time.
I have tried a new project with new, never before used media. I've opened older projects that worked before the crashes began. It doesn't seem to matter what media or what project, the power offs persist.
I tried erasing my computer and restoring it with Time Machine to a backup before the crashes began. Still powers off.
My laptop is still working (knock on wood) and that's how I am getting work done right now. The laptop edits the same projects with the same media, no problem.
I am officially out of ideas, but I am definitely open to ideas from any of you good people. Thanks for reading my tale of woe.
Aloha,
Shirley
