The project is not compatible with the current version of premiere elements... but it was before saving

Report · Jan 07, 2018

Hello,

I'm redoing stuff to old Premiere Elements projects. I now have Premiere Elements 13 with the latest updates. I was able to open an old prel file I think from version 7 but I have some from later versions. The project opened fine and so I started working on it. I saved the project, all fine. Now when I try to open the project file all the media seems to load (according to the status bar) but I get the following error:

The project is not compatible with the current version of premiere elements

A new project is then started with none of the media or anything in the timeline.

I have backups of the prels but I'm hoping I haven't lost the time I've put into making changes. Regardless, what's going on and how can I resave these prel's so they open OK again? As I said they opened first time, but seem to get corrupted after a save. Is there any way to clean the project file I've now saved?

Regards,

Craig

Report · Jan 07, 2018

As I say on my books and as we regularly point out on this forum, Premiere Elements is NOT backwards compatible. You can not open an older version project of Premiere Elements with a newer version of the program. The result is nearly always corruption of some sort.

But jumping all the way from version 7 to version 13 is definitely not going to work.

I hope you have a copy of your project file so that you can complete your work in the same version it was started.

Report · Jul 22, 2020

I think it is shameful that Adobe doesn't want to work with its customers by allowing upgrades that can be used to accentuate previous work rather than essentially saying to the customer - "Tough luck. You've lost your ability to work on older files no matter how much they may mean to you. Just keep sending us money for new versions and we hope you have all needed files to start over".

Report · Jan 08, 2018

Steve,

Thanks for the reply and a real shame. What's interesting though is that the project was opened first time OK in PE13. It's the save that then corrupts the project, and this is saving in PE13 of course. I am guessing therefore that saving in PE13 saves something that corrupts the project, a leftover from earlier versions. Do we know what those corrupting elements are or do we just accept this situation as is? If I know what the corrupting elements are I can remove them from the project when it first opens so that they are not then saved.

Regards,

Craig

Report · Jan 08, 2018

Version 13 of the program is dramatically different from version 7. Any version 7 project you've opened with version 13 is completely corrupted and unfixable.

Your best option for recovering is opening one of the auto-saves with version 7.

Report · Jan 08, 2018

Again thank you.

I guess it's big company syndrome, we take your money then you're on your own. Funny though Microsoft would never do this with Visual Studio projects and they support loads of different types. Either there's backwards compatibility or they report what couldn't be migrated. Even my company goes through the pain of migrating from one version to another.

I'll have to balance the product features against future upgrades if projects from one version to another are not going to be supported.

Really poor show.

But thanks for the prompt response, Steve

Report · Jan 08, 2018

craigm49377069 wrote
Again thank you.
I guess it's big company syndrome, we take your money then you're on your own. Funny though Microsoft would never do this with Visual Studio projects and they support loads of different types. Either there's backwards compatibility or they report what couldn't be migrated. Even my company goes through the pain of migrating from one version to another.
I'll have to balance the product features against future upgrades if projects from one version to another are not going to be supported.
Really poor show.
But thanks for the prompt response, Steve

"Really poor show". That is probably true, but also a little unfair.

Adobe has two video editing programs. One usually costs $70 or so depending on promotions. It is aimed at consumers that what to make videos with their consumer cameras. It is not aimed at commercial enterprises. The "good show" is that it comes with what is necessary for current consumer demand. Consequently it changes what is under the hood for current demand.

For "backward compatibility" Adobe does maintain availability of the installation files for past versions. They also keep your serial numbers for you in your account. All versions run independently. So, if you really need the pricing of consumer software in your business environment, you can keep all the necessary versions on the same computer.

Another work around is to use what was thought to be the final output of the previous projects as media input to a current version of the software.

As a fellow user, I am sorry for your disappointment.

Report · Jan 13, 2018

I wasn't going to reply to this forum since the answer here seems to be final however it seems there is no way to contact Adobe for this product, I get redirected here each time. Adobe is now becoming my least customer focused company.

To answer the question about going back to v7 and running alongside v13, erm no. Talk about polluting hard disks. Also to import the output doesn't help with removing or changing transitions and other now "burned" in elements.

So for what it's worth it's rant time here.

We as paying customers should not excuse a company as big as this for providing no project migration options from one product version to the next or even further back. I have v13. I have no idea if my projects will work in v14, v15 or vxx. On this basis why should I part with more money. Adobe in this instance is willing to take money and provide no upgrade option. Ridiculous. OK so some of my projects are from v7, a big jump. But again if I compare to Visual Studio Express/Community editions, which are free, I have had no problem in migrating old projects. My own company allows migration while jumping several versions. Adobe should know the spec's of their products to be able to solve this particular issue.

I don't know if this problem in endemic in this type of product but it's time to look at the competition. If I really think about it, yes Premiere Elements is feature rich but as an amateur creator I don't use maybe 80% of those features. Since I have no confidence projects will be supported from one version to the next it is pointless even carrying on with this.

The fact that they make it so difficult to contact them, as I said, just demonstrates what they think of us.

Rant over with. Off to look at the competition now

Report · Feb 11, 2018

I just discovered this problem the hard way today when I tried to play an end-of-season slideshow at my daughter's dance team banquet. I created the 30-minute slideshow in Premiere Elements 2018 by modifying a copy of the slideshow I made last year using Premiere Elements 2015. I spent the better part of 24 hours on this project, and didn't close and reopen the project until it was time to play it at the banquet. But alas, every attempt open the project and every auto-saved version caused Premiere Elements to crash. Also, after being saved in the 2018 version, the file was no longer able to be opened using the 2015 version either.

Why doesn't Adobe warn you when you open a project created in a previous version that it will be permanently corrupted upon saving? This would have saved me a lot of time and disappointment!

Report · Feb 12, 2018

I'm sorry you too have lost your work. I've moved over to Corel VideoStudio (well I'm trialing it). It's a new learning curve but once I considered this problem has been around for a long time with no resolution from Adobe, seemingly no desire to correct this shortcoming then I felt I had little choice. Without a guarantee that the next version would be able to open the current versions project files then carrying on would be pointless. I'm not prepared to keep 2, 3 or 10 versions of this product polluting my laptop just because they cannot be bothered to make projects backwards compatible, or at least provide an upgrade path. I guess when customers excuse this as "just something the company does not support" then there is no hope of changing this situation.

Report · Feb 12, 2018

Interesting how these issues have happened to some users. Maybe I've just been lucky with upgrades.

I had Pr-11/Ps11 and created several projects, some completed and some needing additional work, 10 - 12 in all. A bit apprehensive about upgrading but I installed Pr-18 /Ps-18 and have worked on a few of the older Pr-11 projects, all modified and saved with no issues so far.

However, I did run across one strange thing with text applications. For some reason, a new text area appears off center horizontally requiring centering, and all the older Pr-11 projects need to be adjusted as well.

Report · Feb 12, 2018

Indeed I would say you are lucky although clearly there are problem during the "upgrade" which are not obvious. If I think back to project upgrades in Visual Studio they at least told you about incompatibilities. I'm guessing you had no information that text areas would not work the same after the upgrade.

It is entirely possible the use of certain "elements" causes the problem of upgrading and saving a project. With no information about what those elements may be then you take your hard earned time into your own hands. I notice there are other threads about this issue. So there are more than a few having such problems.

If anyone reads this, having the same issue and your product is in support then please raise it to Adobe. As I said unless things like this get raised Adobe are unlikely to do anything about it now and in the future.