Fixed: Blank Space at End of Premiere Pro Edit When There’s No Extra Footage

I am trying to export a video from Premiere Pro 2023 where there is no extra, floating footage at the end. I’m on a Mac, so at the end I simply press the downward arrow key (or Control + Downward Arrow key) several times and it’s not moving from the intended end of my video. Great! Except… when I send it to Media Encoder, the result is an extra 6 minutes of blank screen! Why? I don’t know. But I’ve found a workaround. Read my instructions (below) or watch this video.

Here’s the end of my video:

I tried copying and pasting the edit into a new timeline but that didn’t fix my problem. Additionally, when I select the codec in Media Encoder, I was getting the Blue line under the video extending out into the right side of the panel beyond the bottom of the video.

Once I quit Media Encoder and instead selected File > Export > Media and exported directly from Premiere Pro, not only did it export the video without the extra blank screen, when I needed to make corrections and re-export the video, I could now send it to Media Encoder and it exported it correctly.

The only other tip I can suggest before you try my fix, is to shut down Premiere Pro and relaunch in case the system is caching the extra footage at the end because you opened Media Encoder before exporting directly from Premiere Pro. I was having this issue with the video I edited for my fix, shut down Premiere, then relaunched and exported it through Premiere and no extra blank screen!