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Delete media file from disk from within Premiere Pro?
Hi,
As a recent switcher from Avid, there’s one feature I can’t figure out how to do, which is to physically delete a media file from within PP.
In Avid, all media is ingested when imported, and that allows you to physically delete a media file when you want. In Premiere, I end up with lots of media files that I’ll never need again, e.g. old voiceover takes, old versions of animations, bad conversions, bad captures etc., and I want to delete them completely, both in Premiere, and also from the disk.
All I can find in Premiere is the very invasive Project Manager, which is basically like dropping a nuclear bomb on a mosquito. I want to delete a single specific clip, or a handful of clips selected based on “Video Usage” or “Audio Usage”. I don’t want to *generally* delete anything, I don’t want to make new projects with some aggressive auto-pruning. Auto-pruning doesn’t work, because it also deletes all your logged media that isn’t included in a timeline, which is insane.
I can’t leave it alone either, because my disks (and backups) fill up with media that will never be used again, media that I felt fine about deleting completely.
The only workarounds I can find so far are:
(1) Do them one at a time using Reveal In Explorer (on PC). Then you delete the file and go back into Premiere and delete the master clip. This is highly manual, but works for 1-2 clips.
(2) You delete them from Premiere, and then a few days later, look for files that haven’t been accessed for a few days, meaning that they’re not part of the project.
I don’t like either of these solutions because they’re manual or dangerous.
Does anyone have a way to do this that doesn’t involve letting an algorithm make mission-critical decisions over your footage, which is a non-starter?
Thanks,
Per
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3 Replies
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[Per Holmes] “As a recent switcher from Avid, there’s one feature I can’t figure out how to do, which is to physically delete a media file from within PP.”
Right-click the clip you’d like to remove in the project panel. Select “Make offline” from the context menu. (Alternately, select the clip and choose Clip > Make offline via the menu bar.)
A dialog box will open with two options: “Media Files Remain on Disk” (the default), and “Media Files Are Deleted.” Choose the latter and click Ok. You will have to confirm this operation before the clip is deleted from the project and the file is deleted from the disk.
If you do this a lot, you can assign your keyboard shortcut to “Make offline” via the keyboard shortcut editor.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
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Hi,
You, my good sir, are a genius!
I don’t know how I missed that. Searches came up empty, and I assumed that this particular feature only unlinked it.
Beautiful! Thanks!
Per
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Hi,
unfortunately this workflow does not work with 4K XAVC – does anybody know why?
I can delete all my files but not the one from my Sony F55.
Rights are there, this seems to be a Bug in Premiere Pro CC 2015.
Any idea?
Best, Reinhard
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