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linking project media files (changing computers)
My assistant editor has been syncing audio and video files using her machine.
When I open the Premiere Project file she sent me, Premiere of course wants to know where each file is.
PLEASE tell me I don’t have to manually link each file with its new location. Our file structure is exactly the same, the only difference is the drive path of where the structure originates.
Our data files are set up in a standard RED work flow format. At the top of the folder structure are days (each shoot day), then a folder with the MAG number, then a folder with the RED file number, then the RED .RDM folder, then the .RDC folder, then finally the actual media file.
Basically there are five folders to drill down through for each file.
Because of the file structure, Premiere doesn’t find the files automatically (it seems to only drill down once to “autofind”). Can you not tell Premiere which superstructure to search in?
If I have to manually sync thousands of files, I’m going to go nuts.
If this is the case, this is yet another MAJOR shortcoming with Premiere. Every day, I seem to run into another reason to switch back to Final Cut.
other keywords for this issue: find, search, link media, autofind, autosearch
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3 Replies
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Hello
I have had the same kind of trouble with P2 footage, as it has files in many different folders also.
The solution that worked for me was to use some kind of text editor (in my case it was NotePad++, available for free at https://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm ) and do search/replace in premiere .prproj file, as it is a simple text/script file it works quite well.
Depending how much file path changes from original the tags I changed were < FilePath > and also < RelativePath > if needed. (an example of one of that tag from project – < FilePath >D:\premiere projektid\Coca Cola Soundwave\COCACOLA2406\COCA_materjal\coca_cola\MXF_COCA\230609p2rnu\02_32\CONTENTS\VIDEO\0021WO.MXF< /FilePath > )
(I added spaces before > and after < characters so that forum wouldnt strip them) Usually with RED/P2 material you only have to change the first part of the path as the end folder structure is the same. Of course the easiest way is if you can keep the directory structure same as the project had originally, but when there are external/different drives then one has to change at least the drive letter. It may be a little technical at first and may require some trial-error experimenting but it can work very easily if understood properly. As it is quite easy to change it with 3rd party tool like that it also makes me wonder why some more intuitive and easier method isnt already built in program. Tanel PS. sorry if its a bit confusing as I am not the best in explaining stuff and not native english speaker
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To further clarify…
The .pproj file is actually just an XML file.
Even better than opening it up in a text editor is opening it with something like Dreamweaver (which formats for and has tools for XML files).
Simply replace the “incorrect” file paths with the file paths on your computer (if it’s just a simple matter of different drives, this will be pretty easy) and you’re good to go! The method I use is to copy the “incorrect” file path in the XML file, then do a search/replace with your new file path… just replace the first part with the new part.
In other words, if the wrong file path is F:\WRONGDRIVENAME 02 COPY\LL_060409_09\MAG_049\A064_0604E5.RDM, you’ll just need to replace the “F:\WRONGDRIVENAME 02 COPY” to “H:\RIGHTDRIVENAME\” (or whatever yours is) and everything should be good. So even if a super-folder has a different name (not just a drive letter issue), it should be pretty quick and easy to update the whole project.
You will need to change the path for every file at the top of your structures, but if it’s just at the “F:\WRONGDRIVENAME 02 COPY\” level, then it’s a simple matter of the find/replace function to quickly make all the changes.
Why Adobe doesn’t address this simple matter of search/find and re-association from within Premiere (it would be like 20 lines of code) is beyond me.
Hope this helps!
ps I HIGHLY recommend making changes to a COPY of your .pproj file, not the original. If you screw up your original, you could create all kinds of problems for yourself.
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@Tanel Toomsalu i’ve registered on this site just to tell you:
THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH! 🙂 You saved me at least 4 hours of searching files manually. (well, i knew that there’s a faster way so i never started to do this manually) 🙂
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