.prel file saved in premiere elements 2023 won't open in premiere pro 2023 on the mac

[Michael Grenadier]

working with a client who's just learning premiere elements 2023 on a new macstudio with the idea that I'll help him via zoom and then do the final finish in Premiere pro 2023...  I tested the workflow on a windows machine, and I was able to open the .prel in Premiere pro 2023.  Now that we're deep into the editing I figured I'd see if his .prel would open on my new macstudio (the client's working on an identical mac).  Gave me this message when I tried to open it...  But booted up the windows machine and was able to open it and save it as a premiere pro project and then bring that over to the mac...  a royal pain.  Am I missing something?  Luckily I still have the windows machine...

[Ann Bens · Accepted solution]

Elements files can only be opened in Premiere on windows.

Mac is a no go.

[Michael Grenadier]

thanks Ann,  where would I have found out about this before setting up the project?   I do try and do due diligence before going down the rabbit hole...   And that error message is as cryptic as possible.    Initially I tried to setup the client with premiere rush...  that was even more of a nightmare...  and that's why we decided to move to elements...  

Thanks as always.  

[Ann Bens]

where would I have found out about this before setting up the project? 

By @Michael Grenadier

Supported video project files formats.

https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/using/supported-file-formats.html

[Ann Bens]

I dont think the message is that cryptic.

Premiere CS2 and older might resemble Elements.

2023 does not have the DVD feature anymore, but older versions do, and work in the same way as the build in DVD feature from CS2.

CS3 had a big change under the hood.

[Michael Grenadier]

really, as far as I can tell CS3 was released in 2007.  How many people are going to get this error message today because they are working in CS2?  Probably not as many as people working in Premiere elements who want to open their work in premiere pro...    Updating the error message seems like a simple enough task.  But thanks for letting me know what the issue was...   I did some searchng on the premiere elements forum without any elucidation...    so at least I can stop wasting my time trying to figure out what's going wrong.  

[Bill Sprague]

Ann points out that Elements files can be opened in Pro.  I have a Windows system.  The few times I've tried opening a Premiere Elements project in Premiere Pro, I got mixed results.  There are features and tools in Elements that don't migrate fully to Pro.  The projects opened, but parts were missing or not entirely functional.  Very simple Elements projects might work well.  

[Michael Grenadier]

Thanks, I understand the limitations of moving edits between platforms but in this particular case, there don't seem to be any issues bringing in the simpe edits that the client has done.  The reason I did the transfer today was to see whether still animations would transfer accurately.  Doesn't seem to be a problem...