All Premiere Pro project files have disappeared from everywhere!

You apparently haven't looked at your OS. Which is by far the most likely cause ... it apparently has decided to "hide" all ,proproj files. Which has happened with recent updates both in Macs and PCs. And yea, it's darn annoying.

Win10 has decided that Pr 2017, Pr2018, and Pr2020 are fine, but anytime I open Pr 2019, Windows security dialog asks if I want to allow this program to make changes. It never keeps the setting to allow it, I get asked every time. And yet, a month ago, it didn't do this. Yea, I had a Windows update.

It has nothing whatever to do with Premiere.

Neil

This has just happened to me too, wiping out EVERY project file and autosave directory across SIX external hard drives and dozens of client projects going back to 2011. To be clear these are both projects I haven't looked at in months and also the most recent. ALL project files are gone yet the ingested video and graphics files are intact. I've been using PP2019 and a few days back changed up to PP2020. So SOMETHING has gone on a search & destroy mission for .prproj files, I certainly didn't do it. Adobe, is there a sub-routine that tries to gather up files and put them in the documents folder? Secondly please don't ask the get-out-of-jail-back-up question, I back-up all projects TWICE across the six external hard drives. Importantly, what do I do to get these back? When COVID abates I will have clients asking for revisions. What do I tell them - that I have to re-build entire clips first? If others here are working in a commercial environment, this is nothing short of a catastrophy.

omg I change from another software to Adobe and think Adobe would never treat me like this but I'm so disspointed. I was scrared this issue would happen so I worked really hard throught out the night as long as my app are still running okay. and the other morning I open and check even on external hard drive and everything was gone,  including the autosave file 10+ versions of my work, for no reason. The file location is still in my recently opened files but when I clicked the file location is unavailable.  still can't believe it. This is a huge problem because we spent so much TIME & EFFORT & MONEY and received nothing. the editing was difficult enough.

I had a similar issue, but then realized I had logged out of my icloud. 

it's not fair at all, I spent hours and hours to make a good video. and now all of it is gone.

So ADOBE, How can you still not fix the problem since 2017?? that's the real question.

you let all your users down... I expected better...

Hi all, I had the simular problem last week. Worked on a project and exported it for a first view. The next morning I opened Première Pro and I got a new screen (How to get started), no older projects. When I tried to open it via the project in the folder, the whole folder was gone.

But an hour before I saw the folder! I didn't delete it, searched in different ways, just vanished. Folders of other projects are still there.

Adobe says folders cannot just dissapear (yep, I have the same thoughts but it did) and that I have to work on the hard drive of the computer and not via external hd's...

I didn't get an answer why I got an empty screen when opening Pp but I think it is related to the vanished folder!

Hey there!

I had this issue with Premiere Pro CC 2015 just then. The issue occurred after I downloaded a free font online and went to install it. To be able to apply the font, I had to save and close my file in premiere pro. When I went to reopen it, I couldn't open any recent files and after searching my entire computer, (searching for the name of the most recent file I saved) it came up with nothing. I own a windows PC with windows 10 and it obviously has a useless search tool because I found the file after 30 mins in a different hard drive under the name of "Premiere Pro Projects." I opened it and everything is fine now, and my other recent files are there too.

I hope this helps anyone that reads this

Curtis

Files and folders rarely if ever go missing and "auto delete" themselves. Even with a virus this is something rare are viruses generally target an extension like an .exe etc. I have never heard of a virus targeting a .pproj file. Yet some viruses do exist that target folders themselves. I highly doubt this is the case in this matter. It is really easy to "misplace" files and folders if your workflow is not set up correctly from the beginning. Get into the habit of creating a folder, naming it correctly and then creating subfolder within it with RAW FOOTAGE, AUDIO, VFX, STILLS etc. In this way they are all in one place, visible and easily recognizable.

Hi. The workflow I use for myself when working on TVC's, visual effects for movies etc is as follows:

I create a folder on a local drive in which ALL assets for the project are stored. I then also save the project and a copy of the project into this folder. At the end of the days edit/vfx work I overwrite the original saves so that I always have just 2 saves. The original and a copy of it. I then copy these save files to a completely separate drive as a backup and overwrite these as each day progresses. I have NEVER had any files disappear. While Cloud storage is a great solution I prefer storing mission critical saves on drives that are local. I understand that this might not be the fix to your problem but hope it might better your workflow for the future, Thanks. Mo

Kevin-Monahan​ kulpreet singh how do files "disappear"

I would really be interested to understand how files can simply vanish and the reasons behind this from a technical point of view.

The only thing, in my opinion that could cause this sort of issue is a virus on a pc.

Would you shed some light on this please

I've just had the same issue a few days ago. Most of my project files have just vanished and I'm panicking because I've lost months of work. I only had them on a folder on my Mac and they were not backed up. I've tried recovery tools but did not find any project files in the trash of my mac. Has anyone found a solution????