Quicktime not able to sync audio when playing h.264 exported from adobe

This is very annoying. I thought the problem was with my with my videos somehow. I also experienced the same issues and Quicktime version 10.5 seems to be the problem. Apple please fix this issue and send an update.

I spoke to Apple via Chat and they suggested a system update - So my M1 Mac Mini is now running 11.6 and hoped it was fixed but nope.

Short files seem to work okay, playing the file down seems to fix the issue, but the longer the file the more likely you'll have sync issues when playing back especially as you move further into the clip.

C'mon apple, please restore Quicktime to its former glory (QT 7 Pro).

@maxcel thank you for this- my setup is similar. Once I dragged the exported file onto my desktop it played fine. Absolutely ridiculous that I would have to take that extra step in order to review my work, but at least it works now. Thanks for the tip!

Playback is fine whether it’s on a local drive, ssd or hard drive. Where it is a problem is when you start skipping around within the file. Regardless of being a 1 minute video or 2 hour video. If you skip to 25% or 50% etc, all my videos then become Un-synced. Once it’s scrubbed, it is then off and you must restart the video.

I am not running off of M1 either.

I’m having the same issue as everyone else here. Premier exported H.264 loses sync in QuickTime if I do any scrubbing or even just jump to a different point in the video.

I wanted to add though that I also have the same problem if I try to play the files on my Apple TV device. If I do anything other than press play audio falls apart.

Apple, QuickTime needs help. Please fix this!

I am still having this same issue.

I work at a production company and we export all of our dailies as H264 files. Whenever I export them to our server or external devices it has the sync issue but not when I export to the desktop. Another thing I have noticed is that my older h264 exports still play fine in QuickTime it just seems to be anything exported after April time.

Any news on whether they are going to fix this anytime soon or should I just become a full time VLC viewer?

Nobody from apple has even chimed in on this issue so I can’t imagine anything has been done to correct it.

I noticed this happening with Catalina I believe.

I haven’t updated to Monterey yet, maybe it’s fixed with that.

I have not seen this issue with Apple's Final Cut Pro H.264/265 exports but I am curious to see the bug.

Do you have a sample file on some cloud service (Dropbox, OneDrive, iCloud etc) that could illustrate the problem? ...for some reason this forum seems to delete straight links to Dropbox etc but putting a Youtube link with a comment to the actual movie might work...

Ok I've been researching this for 2 days and I think I finally discovered what the real issue and solution is. I don't believe it's any of the reasons listed in the replies to thread. Here's the solution that worked for me:

If you change your video exports in Adobe Premiere from VBR to CBR (AKA Constant Bit Rate) it should work as expected with all audio in sync in Quicktime and Safari. The reason people think Handbrake works, which it does, is because Handbrake exports with a Constant Bit Rate and that's the setting you need your Adobe Premiere to also do on your video exports.

I hope this helps!

I've been experiencing the same issue. Video exported from Premiere Pro will go out of sync after the 20min mark or 2h mark depending on the bitrate of the video file. It's as if QuickTime cache is having a hard time processing the information.

However I think the problem lies with Premiere Pro having compatibilities issues with Mac codecs. I exported the video on Windows using Premiere and I had no compatibility issues. Also as pointed out by someone, video will play fine if exported in Davinci Resolve, which also use H.264 codecs and AAC audio codecs.

For me, I always export in cbr at 15mb/s. I usually only experience the out of sync when I try to scrub through the video, not when it just plays. I don’t experience drift at all. If it’s a 2 minute video or a 2 hour video it doesn’t matter. As soon as I click anywhere in the scrubber bar it becomes out of sync.

I do notice though if I play the video to the end (even by scrubbing to a couple seconds till the end), going back to any point in the video is no longer out of sync.

vlc player has 0 issues.

I think it has something to do with apple’s h.264 .mp4 codec.

I contacted Adobe support, but couldn't fix the issue. So I'm now exporting ProRes with Premiere Pro and MP4 from the ProRes in Davinci Resolve. This solved the issue for me.

Since Davinci Resolve 17.0 has a free version, you can find a lot of information about it on YouTube.

This video is quite good and short https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbPbG89WuYo

Having the same video/audio syncing issue when scrubbing through video. I'm using the very latest Adobe Media Encoder to date. Would really appreciate a fix from Apple. All my videos over the last year are doing this on my Apple Podcast video feed. Only looks good when played through a web browser on my Podcast feed website.

I keep going back to this thread every few months and nothing changes. I don't have QT 10.4 My clients don't. It's embarrassing to send jobs and have the client say "THE WHOLE THING IS OUT OF SYNC!" Why does it take so long to fix? I can't tell clients to use the Finder or VLC. It just confuses them. QuickTime is the default for video. This is the simplest thing that is ruining my business. They won't fix Image Capture either. Apple. PLEASE PLEASE FIX ASAP. I'm absolutely stuck.

I tried outputting with Constant Bit Rate as suggested. It worked once, but not since. It's got to be Quicktime no? They just don't have the love. Everything plays fine in VLC. If VLC was the default player in Mac's, it would be fine. But it's not. I just want to know what it will take to fix this. Is it QT 11??? Or a Mac OS update?? Or do I have to export in Pro Res and triple my file size?? WHO will fix it. WHAT will it take. WHEN will it happen. WHY is it not solved. It continues to hurt me and my business. I'm a sad editor.