Adobe Media Encoder Stuck Rendering "Reading XMP" - With Fix

 Adobe Media Encoder is broken again (v 24.1.1)

When Exporting from Premiere, Send to Adobe Media Encoder, nothing happens, AME gets stuck "Reading XMP", or not even showing anything. One of the many complains.

Yet another bug 🐛 that's been plaguing AME for the longest time. Can't you guys FIX THIS SHIT once and for all Adobe?

Note that this bug is not systematic. Sometimes everything works as it should, other times it gets stuck. Usually when you're in a rush to export something.

I tried a possible fix: open AME Preferences, Uncheck "Import sequences natively". Quit AME. Remove XMP altogether, no go.

Uncheck "Import sequences natively"

Unfortunately it only worked for one export. The next day, same thing happened again: AME stuck "reading XMP."

Quitting Premiere, restarting Premiere does not work either. AME gets stuck Establishing Dynamic Link, then stuck reading XMP.

What works for me:

(1) In AME Settings, General, turn off "Enable Parallel Encoding". Why is it turned on by default Adobe?

Uncheck "Enable Parallel Encoding"

 (2) Create a Custom Preset, or Edit your Preset, then click on the "Metadata" Button.

Click on Metadata, bottom left

"Create Sidecar File" is the default export option. NO GOOD. Why is it the default Adobe? I understand it might have something to do with Markers that's broken, although many users report that they are not using Markers at all. Whatever, in any case it doesn't work. So, turn Export Options to "Minimum required" or "None".

Export Options - Select "Minimum required" or "None"

Click OK, then SAVE and use this new Preset to encode.

(3) Sometimes even steps (1) and (2) are not enough to get AME to start encoding. If it still gets stuck, delete every single job from the queue. Leave AME open, go back to the Premiere  sequence, re-Export via send to AME. Re-apply the saved presets and hit render.

After these 3 steps, (AGGRAVATION x 3!) AME eventually does its job properly without getting stuck.

What a convoluted unnecessary process Adobe, shame on you.