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OfficeBatz
Participant
July 25, 2025
Answered

Struggling to use an EDL to replace clips on a sequence with master clips with modified file names.

  • July 25, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 195 views

Hi all, 

 

I am working on a doc that was already being edited but due to poor media management we are rebuilding the project. They used prosumer cameras so I had to modify the file names to include the dates when they were shot (so if the old name was "C0001.MP4" the new name is "C0001_250701.MP4"). I then created a new Production and brought in all the files with modified names there. 

 

I am now trying to take the stringouts that were made with old file names in the old project and convert them to match back to source clips with dated names. 

 

What I have been trying to do is export an EDL of the sequence, then convert the EDL into a CSV, edit the file names so that they match the dated names, then convert back to EDL and bring into Premiere. 

 

This works fine in onlining the sequence with new, dated names, however what happens is that Premiere creates duplicates of the sources when I import the EDL. I've tried many different ways to "Reassociate clips" to new, dated files, but it's not working. I have also tried to consolidate duplicates, but that has also failed. 

 

Has anyone dealt with this an made it work successfully? It would be so helpful if I could prevent Premiere from importing new sources clips when importing an EDL, but that doesn't seem to be an option. Thanks in advance!

Correct answer ScottSimmons

Unfortunately, there is not much you can do here. Whenever Premiere imports an EDL, XML, or some sort of list type, it always creates new master clips. This is regardless of whether or not the exact same clip exists in the project already. This is a known issue that has been discussed before. There seems to be little will on Adobe's part to address this, but it can make workflow difficult. 

What I do is when I have to import a list like that, as soon as it's imported, all the clips will be highlighted, and you can make a new bin from those highlighted clips, which at least sorts of separates them.

1 reply

S
Community Expert
ScottSimmonsCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
August 6, 2025

Unfortunately, there is not much you can do here. Whenever Premiere imports an EDL, XML, or some sort of list type, it always creates new master clips. This is regardless of whether or not the exact same clip exists in the project already. This is a known issue that has been discussed before. There seems to be little will on Adobe's part to address this, but it can make workflow difficult. 

What I do is when I have to import a list like that, as soon as it's imported, all the clips will be highlighted, and you can make a new bin from those highlighted clips, which at least sorts of separates them.

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