Media Encoder 2025 - Watch Folder Issues Breaking Post-Production Workflows

Hi Adobe community,

I’m a post supervisor currently managing a global film production where our crew uploads footage remotely to a structured QNAP server.

Each camera (GoPro, Drone, two Sony FX3s) drops files into a standardized directory that includes:

/WeekXX/SDXX/CamXX/Footage
/WeekXX/SDXX/CamXX/Transcodes

We're using Media Encoder 2025 to automate transcoding using Watch Folders - but the current implementation is making this unworkable. Here’s why:

________________

Major Problems with Watch Folders in AME 2025

1. Original files are moved into nested timestamped folders
AME creates a folder structure like:
/Source/YYYY-MM-DD_HHMMSS/
This moves every input file from the ‘Footage’ folder into a new subdirectory after rendering - which is unacceptable.

Result: Our ingest and conform workflows break because files have been relocated without consent.

2. No option to disable this behavior
There’s no toggle or preference to keep source files untouched.
Post-Render Actions used to help, but those options are no longer visible in AME 2025 Watch Folder workflows.

3. Transcodes are correctly placed when output is set, but original media is disorganized
The ProRes 422 LT files go to the right place despite a subfolder "Output" created into the footage folder - but the original footage is no longer where it was dropped by the film crew.

___________________

What We Need (Feature Requests)

- A toggle in Watch Folder settings: “Do not move source files after encoding.”
- Bring back “Post-Render Actions” in the Queue or Watch Folder preferences.
- Let users define static output folders, without AME mirroring or creating unnecessary structures.
- Disable (or give us a toggle for) automatic creation of `/Source/YYYY-MM-DD_HHMMSS/`.

- Add an option like “Scan subfolders” or “Recursive file detection” so we don’t have to flatten entire folder structures just to transcode media.

______________________

Why It Matters

Our workflow relies on folder consistency. These unexpected changes break relinking in Creative Cloud, disrupt review pipelines, and frustrate our team of editors and assistant editors.

Adobe Media Encoder is powerful - but for it to work in real production environments, we need more control and less automation of things we didn’t ask for.

Thanks,
Hilton Henstock
Post Supervisor / VFX Artist
Priest Post Production