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Tommy323410793egs
Known Participant
April 23, 2025

P: Duplicate Clips when reimporting footages (Syncaila)

  • April 23, 2025
  • 28 replies
  • 5176 views

Hey everyone,

I'm having this issue where I will export my sequence as XML, sync with Syncaila, open the synced project, and copy the sequence into the original one.

Premiere duplicates the footage so I have the exact same file two times. is there a way to fix this issue?

I have tried the Consolidate Duplicate function without luck.

Thanks

(title updated by mod)

    28 replies

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    T
    Tommy323410793egsAuthor
    Known Participant
    April 25, 2025

    @TyleratTheCrossing 

     

    I just noticed the popup in Syncaila. if you ever find a workaround, let me know in the comments. It sucks because Sycaila is so great at syncing the footages.

    T
    Tommy323410793egsAuthor
    Known Participant
    April 25, 2025

    @R Neil Haugen 

    Yeah I've seen the workaround with making the files offline and relinking them on an old post, it seems to work with the audio but not the footage, well not anymore.

      IanB_360
      Community Manager
      IanB_360Community Manager
      Community Manager
      April 25, 2025

      Hi @Tommy323410793egs 

      I would also send @Bruce Bullis the Premiere Pro project so we can just take a look at the sequence and project settings.

      Thank you
      Ian

      T
      Tommy323410793egsAuthor
      Known Participant
      April 25, 2025

      Okay, thanks. It didn't work. I've spoken with the Syncaila team, and it seems to come from Premiere, as the problem's still occurring with other syncing software.

      bbb_999
      Adobe Employee
      bbb_999
      Adobe Employee
      April 25, 2025

      Thanks, that all makes sense. We'd be interested in seeing the PPro-generated .xml you send to Syncaila, and the sync'd one they create. [I'll DM you my adobe address]

      >...is there anything that can be fixed with this workflow?

      Only thing that might work that wouldn't require changes to PPro, is disabling "Allow Duplicate Media During Project Import". Worth a try, anyway. 

      T
      Tommy323410793egsAuthor
      Known Participant
      April 25, 2025

      Here's the current workflow I'm working with

      1. Export 'SequenceName' from project.prproj, as a new FCP .xml file. 

      2 Perform magic using Syncaila, which produces a modified FCP .xml file, 
      3. Export the XML file with Syncaila

      4. Open the XML synced file into Premiere
      5. Copy/Paste the sequence from the XML Synced project into my current Premiere project.

      Now Premiere would have duplicate the footages with the exact same file.

      Hope it makes more sense now, is there anything that can be fixed with this workflow?

       

      bbb_999
      Adobe Employee
      bbb_999
      Adobe Employee
      April 25, 2025

      I want to make sure we understand the steps you're following:
      1. Export 'SequenceName' from project.prproj, as a new FCP .xml file. 

      2 Perform magic using Syncaila, which produces a modified FCP .xml file, then...

      3 "Open the synced project" : Do you mean "import the modified .xml into project.prproj"?
      4 Also sounds like "import the modified .xml into project.prproj", which is what made me think I'm missing something about the distinction between 3 and 4. 🙂

      Also: Does disabling this option help?



      T
      TyleratTheCrossing
      Known Participant
      April 23, 2025

      I imagine most users do not use the XML function, in general, but it is tweaking something and breaking something on the import (OR export) where it is duplicating all files.

       

      Version: Premiere 25.2.1
      OS: MacOS Sequioa 15.4.1 (24E263)
      Hardware: Mac Studio


      Steps to Reproduce:
      1. Take an existing sequence that has clips already in it. Use the File -> Export -> Final Cut Pro XML
      2. Take the XML file and plop it right back into that project file.  It will duplicate all files. 
      3. Using the Edit -> Consolidate Duplicates function yields no results, when it should be removing all of the files.  When it works correctly, Consolidate Duplicates isn't even needed, but that's never the case.

      Note: The file properties for all files are exact in every way on import - file path, size, codec, etc.  My theory is that something is rounding somewhere where it should not on the export, the import, or both.  I'm not smart enough to know what is happening in the XML files that are produced, so I asked ChatGPT, and it says it is likely a Premiere issue in how it's checking for things on the import:


      Chat GPT      :
      When you import the modified XML into a clean project (or one where those files haven’t been seen yet), Premiere doesn’t duplicate them. But once a file is already in the project, even if it's the same source clip, Premiere assigns a new master clip if the incoming XML’s metadata or internal IDs don't perfectly match.

      So here’s the working theory:

      Premiere relies on internal clip/project metadata — not just file names or paths — to determine if something is a duplicate. Once a media file is added to a project, future imports with even slightly different metadata or masterclipid values (even if consistent) are treated as new items.


      One last note: The only reason I'm trying this is because of Syncaila - they're defeated and so am I.  Help me Adobe support, you're my only hope!

      R Neil Haugen
      R Neil Haugen
      Legend
      April 23, 2025

      As from discusssions of duplicates in Production workflows this has come up, I do have some knowledge. Yes, you are correct, Premiere creates an internal reference for each asset file.

       

      Why? Because this allows a flexibility for when you need to have say duplicate 'references' to a file due to different uses of it within a project. Such as for making subclips, for instance.

       

      So Premiere does not see the link to a file only to the filename/location. But as the internal reference it created within the project.

       

      Which is an issue for other things, like, bringing in an XML.

       

      In the past, in round-trip online/offline/online workfows, when you brought in the XML back from the grading app, you immediately went to the bin and selected all those 'new' references, make offline, and relink ... to the files. 

       

      Premiere then normally relinked correctly to the original files.

      Everyone's mileage always varies ...
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