I found the solution. It took years, but I suppose after that long, I was bound to stumble across it.
The problem I had may be unique to me. I’ve certainly never seen it outside my own home. Then again, it has plagued me across multiple computers, and multiple versions of Avid Media Composer.
What happens is, a sequence that’s been working perfectly fine starts crashing when I Go to Previous Event, or Go to Next Event.
I love these commands. They’re my primary way of navigating through the timeline. My playhead stops at any edit point or marker. It works for me, and has done for over twenty years. Avid was my first NLE, but I do the same in Final Cut Pro, Resolve and Premiere.
I think they used to be assigned to the A and S keys as standard, although I may have just inherited that setup from my first boss. That was back when they were called Fast Forward and Rewind. They were then replaced on the standard configuration with the Previous Edit and Next Edit buttons, but this is no good for me, because while that seems to describe what I want to do, it automatically puts Avid in Trim Mode, which is definitely not what I want. So when I’m introducing myself to a new machine, this is the first change I make.
Here is my problem: some sequences start mysteriously crashing Avid whenever I use either of these commands. Apart from that, Avid seems happy, but the moment I try to move through the timeline using my preferred method… crash.
At first, in a panic, with looming deadlines, I thought I’ll just have to learn to not touch those commands. But the muscle memory is too deep: I do it without thinking.
I found the answer, eventually, by accident.
The sequence itself is to blame. I wrestled with the project, the bins, my User Settings, all to no avail. The sequence. Make a new one. Load the corrupted one into he source monitor, select all tracks and Overwrite all the clips into the new sequence. (Beware that Real Time Audio Suite effects won’t travel—you’ll have to do them again.)
The new sequence will work fine. You can get on with the job.
I still don’t know why this happens, but if it ever happens to you, you know now what to do.