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Francis-Crossman17221443
Community Manager
Community Manager
September 5, 2023

Premiere projects saved in v25.6.0 cannot be opened in other v25.x versions

  • September 5, 2023
  • 168 replies
  • 12054 views

We are aware that customers who saved projects in Premiere v25.6.0 may find that those files now open only in v26 (beta) and cannot be opened in v25 versions. We know this is disruptive, and we’re working on a fix. 

 

What you need to know: 

  • Projects saved in v25.6.0 save in the v26 version format. 
  • Because of this, they can’t be opened in earlier versions, including v25.6.1 (even though it is the current generally available release) 
  • We’re developing a tool that will let you convert affected projects back to a v25-compatible file.  

 

Our Solution 

We’re building a small app that will convert a v25.6.0-saved project back to the v25 format. We’ll share more information, including availability and instructions, as soon as the tool is ready in the coming days.  

 

We know that there is nothing more important than the reliability of a project file, so we’re working with urgency to get this downgrade tool in your hands as quickly as possible. 

 

We know there are a number of downgrading apps available online, but we strongly recommend utilizing our tool when it becomes available. Non-Adobe apps and scripts are often outdated and may cause crashes and data loss.  

 

Further Details 

A bug caused Premiere v25.6.0 to prompt customers to enable Object Masking even though it is not yet in full release. Object Masking (and our yearly major version update) changes the Premiere project file structure such that it can only be opened in v26, which is only available in public beta. Turning this on caused projects to save in the newer v26 project format, even though users were still technically on the v25 release line. 

 

Opening an older project in v25.6.0 triggered a prompt to save a copy of the project with “_1” appended. We know that many customers upgraded the project and continued working in the new copy, potentially also deleting the original. This means the only active version became the file saved in v26 format. 

 

Premiere 25.6.0 was only available briefly before being replaced by 25.6.1 and is no longer available to reinstall. This means impacted users who auto updated to 25.6.1 cannot open v26 formatted projects. 

168 replies

Participant
November 14, 2025

I got excited when the new UXP developer tools said it was supported in 25.6 as I have made a UXP plugin that I'm waiting to use and distribute team wide.. But alas, 25.6 was retracted and we are still waiting.

Participant
November 14, 2025

3 days on still no fix? Sounds like its a bigger problem than just the pop up asking about the beta feature. Sounds more like someone uploaded the whole 26.0 Beta version and labelled it 25.6 lol

R Neil Haugen
Legend
November 13, 2025

They took the new awesome masking tool from the public beta and dropped it into this build, so I think there's something there that thinks it's 26.x.

Everyone's mileage always varies ...
MyerPj
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 13, 2025

@R Neil Haugen 

<<I was kinda suprised we were getting another 25.x build. >>

 

Yes, me too, I wonder what's up with that? Plus it is acting like 26.0 would in wanting to convert the project.

R Neil Haugen
Legend
November 13, 2025

A good share of the time users have worked successfully with the public beta without any issues. Hopefully that will work for you. I know last year I did a lot in the PB version. During the time when the PB and release were the same version especially, in order to do things in the PB.

 

Sometime relatively soon ... the 26.x release will happen. Normally it's happened the first day of Adobe MAX, which is now about two weeks past, so it's late this year. I was kinda suprised we were getting another 25.x build. 

Everyone's mileage always varies ...
Inspiring
November 13, 2025

I just tried this and got this error when trying to open the new file in PP 25.5

Inspiring
November 13, 2025

So I was one of the few who updated to 25.6 and I ended up converting a project before hearing that I shouldn't. I'm still pretty early on (assembly phase) in what will end up being a documentary short (8-12 min). After the issues became clear, I rolled back to PP 25.5, but of course my project file didn't open in it. I downloaded PP Beta and I've been able to continue working on the 25.6 project in there, but I'm concerned that the project file will end up breaking down the road since it was never supposed to be converted in the first place. Anyone have any thoughts on that here? There doesn't seem to be an easy to way convert the project file back down to PP 25.5. I tried using the export as Final Cut XML tool, but I've gotten pretty terrible results - the first try only imported a fraction of the files and sequences, and the second try didn't even work at all (import error message in PP 25.5). I've already wasted quite a bit of time on this so I may just need to keep using PP Beta.

Participant
November 13, 2025

Ann Bens,

When you followed this YouTube video, how did you accomplish the archive step?  The default archive in Mac OS doesn't have an "Extract Here" option.

jamieclarke
Community Manager
Community Manager
November 13, 2025

Hi @Anatoliy5E1B - If you need to get your timeline back into version 25.5, try exporting it as an FCP XML or AAF, then import that file into a Premiere Pro 25.5 project.

Stan Jones
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 13, 2025

@Anatoliy5E1B,

 

> The beta version opens it as empty project.

 

Sorry to hear it. That sounds like something more than just needing to downgrade the project.

 

Stan