Premiere Pro 2024 trouble loading AVI files

I recently had to start using Premiere for some training I have been doing and using the latest version (v24). I was having major problems loading AVI files – I was mainly using standard DV AVI files. They take ages to load and even when they have finished if you restart Premiere and you will find they are off line again.
It turns out, according to the Adobe forums this is a bug which should be fixed in a future version. You can either use the current beta version or go back to Premiere 23.

It took me ages to find this as searching for “AVI problem with Premiere” brings up lots of possible problems, so I thought I would post it here in case it helps someone else.