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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 Non-Adobe apps and scripts are often outdated and may cause crashes and data loss.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

Peru Bob
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 20, 2025

@mattlth 

Try installing the Beta version.

Participating Frequently
November 20, 2025

I just installed 25.6.1 (build 2) on two different machines, and neither will open the projects I worked on yesterday in 25.6.0. I also tried opening the most recent auto-saved project, and those won't open either.

R Neil Haugen
Legend
November 20, 2025

Note, that I'm another user like unto thee.  😉

Everyone's mileage always varies ...
Inspiring
November 19, 2025

I continued to work with 25.6, cause I didn't think it was such a big deal until I found the above statement. After I downgraded back to 25.5 I also downgraded one of my projects. I could work with it in 25.5 but after updating to 25.6.1 I can't open it anymore. If I open it with the Beta 26.0 it just works.

 

It's great that this was a known issue and you just didn't push an alert to everybody via the Creative Cloud app who has installed 25.6. Shouldn't this be super easy since we are forced to use that Create Cloud thingy anyways. Would have saved a lot of headaches instead of somehow getting wind of it in the forums, where only the die hard users look.

R Neil Haugen
Legend
November 19, 2025

Did you open this in the initial 25.6.0 release of a couple days ago? If so, that's the problem.

Everyone's mileage always varies ...
Participant
November 19, 2025

Just updated to the 25.6.1 update, and now I can't open any of my projects!

Doesn't help when you are working on urgent client work!
This keeps popping up.

Participant
November 19, 2025

Hello Adobe Team and Community,

I recently updated Adobe Premiere Pro to version 25.6.1, and now I’m facing a major issue. I had a project that was almost finished and only needed rendering, but after the update, Premiere refuses to open it. The error says the project was created in a newer version, which makes no sense because I just updated.

I tried opening the project in After Effects and Media Encoder, but neither recognizes it—even the auto-save copies in the designated folder fail to open. This project is highly sensitive and time-critical, and this situation is causing extreme frustration and anger.

When will this be fixed? Is there any official workaround or patch coming soon? This kind of compatibility issue is unacceptable for professional workflows.

Thank you for any guidance or immediate solution.

Participant
November 19, 2025

I updated to 25.6 and created a new project file. Now that I have updated to 25.6.1, I am getting dialogue with the 25.6 projects that my project was saved in a newer version of Premiere and cannot be opened with this version. Tried going down to 25.5 and that didn't help. Tried re-installing and that didn't help. Tried booting it from an auto-save and that didn't help. Now I'm stuck with my project being inaccessible and I made a lot of edits...

Participant
November 19, 2025

The software was updated today. I can no longer work on my projects. I don't understand what's happening.

1

 

Puffancs
Participating Frequently
November 19, 2025

Same here.

Beta can open theese projects, but the official version can't.

This happens with every project that has been created with the last version, which shouldn't have come out. I think it was v26.0.

 

Ron Rigler
Community Manager
Community Manager
November 19, 2025

Interesting. You should have seen a prompt when you opened the 25.5 project. This wshould leave the original project un-modified. Can you please double check that the original 25.5 project is not available? You may also be able to open the project in the current 26.0 beta.