How to Fix Adobe Premiere Pro Error Code 39?

Adobe Premiere Pro may display Error Code 39 during editing, exporting, or rendering a project. When this occurs, the export may stop halfway, or the error may appear just before the render finishes.

A very common cause is that the destination drive is out of free space, preventing Premiere Pro from finishing the writing of the output file. Clearing space on that drive usually resolves the problem. If freeing up space doesn’t help, try the additional solutions below—we’ll go through all three methods next.

1. Make Sure Your Drive Isn’t Full

First, confirm that the drive you’re saving to has plenty of free space. A good rule of thumb is to have at least twice the size of the final file—preferably more.

Example: If the export is 120 GB, aim for at least 240 GB free—300–400 GB is safer. During rendering, Premiere (or any NLE) generates temporary video and audio files, so the working drive must accommodate those extra files until the export finishes.

If your internal drive is crowded, consider exporting to an external hard drive or SSD.

1. Open File Explorer (Windows key + E) and navigate to This PC.
2. Right-click on the drive you want to check (e.g., C: drive) and select Properties from the context menu.
3. In the Properties window:
   • View the storage breakdown under the General tab.
   • Check both Used space and free space allocations.
   • The pie chart visually represents your storage usage.

Also, clear or move the Media Cache folder (Edit > Preferences > Media Cache)—the cache can balloon in size and contribute to disk-full errors.

2. Update Your Studio Drivers

Premiere Pro shows Error 39 when its H.264/H.265 exporter calls NVENC functions that an outdated NVIDIA Studio driver does not provide. Adobe’s System Compatibility Report flags an obsolete GPU driver as a critical issue and instructs you to update before exporting. The new driver refreshes the NVENC DLLs, restores the missing API hooks, and removes the bottleneck that triggers Error 39. After a reboot with the updated driver in place, users report the error disappears on the first retry.

1. Visit NVIDIA’s official Drivers page and search for your specific graphics card model.
2. Check if a newer driver version is available than what you currently have installed.
3. If an update exists:
   • Download and install the latest driver.
   • Follow the installation wizard prompts.
4. Restart your computer to complete the driver installation process.
5. After rebooting, open your Adobe Premiere Pro project and attempt to export again—the error should now be resolved.

3. Switch to Software Encoding

By default, hardware rendering uses your GPU to render your files, while software rendering relies on your CPU. If you’re encountering Error Code 39 while using hardware rendering, switching to software rendering may resolve the issue.

This problem often occurs when the GPU is overheating, underpowered, or incompatible with the rendering workload, causing it to fail during the process.

1. In Adobe Premiere Pro, open Export Settings (File > Export > Media or Ctrl+M/Cmd+M).
2. Navigate to the Video tab and scroll down to find the Encoding Settings section.
3. Locate the Performance option and change the drop-down selection from “Hardware Encoding” to Software Rendering.
   
4. Click the Export button to begin rendering with the new settings—this should resolve the error.

If none of these methods work, contact Adobe support and let them know about the issue. They will get back to you with a solution specific to your case.