Audiofiles (mp3) crackling after importing to Cubase

After importing a purchased m4a file (converted to wav) or mp3 file into Cubase, strange artefacts appear when playing it back. It worked fine in Logic.

Is this possibly the drag and drop problem that some people have reported?

Cubase 14 Pro on MacBook Pro M3 Pro Sonoma 14.7.1
Update: When reloading the project, everything was fine!

Addendum:

this happens to me again and again: after importing an audio files (mp3), there are noticeable audible distortions that make the file unlistenable.

After restarting Cubase, however the problem has disappeared.

Cubase 14 Pro on MacBook Pro M3 Pro Sonoma 14.7.2