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Andrei34595109awe3
Participant
February 16, 2026

Premiere automatically replaces a deleted video file with another file with the same name found in other folders on the drive.

  • February 16, 2026
  • 3 replies
  • 76 views

Premiere automatically replaces a deleted video file with another file with the same name found in other folders on the drive. More details. I was given two flash drives containing video from different cameras, even from different shooting days. But the file names in the folders are the same. Both are Sony cameras. The files in the first folder start with C001, and the files on the second flash drive also start with C001. I import these files into Premiere. All the files are in different folders. Each camera has its own Composition (Sequence). I start editing. I find the defective shots and immediately delete these files from the computer drive so they don't take up space. Previously, Premiere would immediately display an error that the file is now unavailable (it can't find the file), and Premiere would open a window asking me to find the file manually. I see which files it can't find and then simply delete them from the project. But now Premiere simply replaces the deleted file from the first composition with a file with the same name from the other composition. It doesn't understand that these are two different files (different dates, different sizes, different folders both on the disk and in the project) and simply replaces it automatically. And then chaos ensues. All the files are mixed up in the composition.

    3 replies

    Community Expert
    February 20, 2026

    This can be frustrating, but it should also be a lesson in file management. In post-production, you should never, ever have multiple files in your project with the exact same name. In theory, Premiere should be able to track different files with the same name. As when they are imported, each file is assigned a unique clip ID. Assuming those files aren't moved or changed from their original locations, things should stay fine for most of the edit. 

    But as you found, when you start moving things around, that's when chaos can ensue. What I would attempt is to go back to the original files, right-click, make them offline, and then manually re-link the clip in Premiere, to the correct file. 

    Andrei34595109awe3
    Participant
    February 23, 2026

    Of course, the first thing I solved this problem was batch renaming the files. But this wasn't my project that I would be working on later. The task was simple. Just find and delete bad frames from the disk. That is, upload all the files to Premiere, view the video files, and immediately delete them from the disk. That's it. The footage was shot with two cameras. The camera numbered them in the folders starting with 001 because the flash cards were new. Of course, there are different ways to solve this: first delete the folder from the first card without saving it to the disk for the second camera, then batch rename the files, which is what I did. And there are probably many other options. But this won't solve the Premiere problem. Because at some point, when several people are already working on a project and it's been going on for a while, you might receive a new video file with some additional frame. And it might be called something like C086. And it turns out that a file with the same name already existed a year ago in another folder, from another camera, from another operator. And I don't know whether it will be replaced or not. And one more thing. After batch renaming, after deleting unnecessary files, I'll need to rename them again, preserving the same numbering, but the numbering is no longer sequential. And I don't know how to do that.

    Community Expert
    February 24, 2026

    Did you try to make them offline and then manually re-link it, pointing to the file that you know is correct? 

    Peru Bob
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    February 20, 2026

    I agree with you that this is not desired behavior on both issues.

    I would, however, use a batch renamer to rename the files from one of the cameras before importing into Premiere Pro. It would be less confusing.

    Andrei34595109awe3
    Participant
    February 23, 2026

    Конечно, первым делом, которое я решил — это пакетное переименование файлов. Но это был не мой проект, над которым я буду работать позже. Задача была простой. Просто найдите и удалите неисправные кадры с диска. То есть загрузить все файлы в Premiere, просмотреть видеофайлы и сразу удалить их с диска. Вот и всё. Запись была снята двумя камерами. Камера пронумеровала их в папках, начиная с 001, потому что карточки были новыми. Конечно, есть разные способы решить эту проблему: сначала удалять папку с первой карты, не сохраняя её на диск для второй камеры, затем пакетно переименовывать файлы — так я и сделал. И, вероятно, есть много других вариантов. Но это не решит проблему Premiere. Потому что в какой-то момент, когда несколько человек уже работают над проектом и он длится уже давно, вы можете получить новый видеофайл с дополнительным кадром. И это может называться что-то вроде C086. Оказалось, что файл с таким же именем уже существовал год назад в другой папке, с другой камеры, от другого оператора. И я не знаю, заменят ли её или нет. И ещё кое-что. После пакетного переименования, после удаления ненужных файлов, мне придётся переименовать их снова, сохраняя ту же нумерацию, но нумерация больше не является последовательной. И я не знаю, как это сделать.

    IanB_360
    Community Manager
    Community Manager
    February 19, 2026

    Hi ​@Andrei34595109awe3 
    Welcome to the Premiere community. Thank you for taking the time to report a problem. It would help us if you could use the link " How to Report a Problem," which provides steps to provide more information that can help us identify the issue. Are the files the same length and have the same timecode? Can you share a few of these duplicate files? 

    Here to help.  

    Ian

    Andrei34595109awe3
    Participant
    February 20, 2026

    Hi. Well, writing a request here is quite a quest. I made a video explaining the problem. And a real cry from the heart (I don't know who should see this): This three-minute video recorded from the screen (.wmv format) took about an hour to convert to MP4. On different computers, an Intel I7 and RTX graphics cards. Their .WMV format is simply converted to MP4. For testing, I did this in a different editing program. It took 12 seconds. How is this possible?