Trouble opening .Prel file on Premiere Elements 2022 (not PRO)

[geminiguy90028]

I open Premiere Elements 2022. I try to open a .prel project as usual, but going to FILE, OPEN PROJECT, and when I click on it, it says, “loading project”, but then something strange happens. A new window pops up and wants me to choose a file again. When I choose the .Prel file, another window pops up and says, “file import failure; the type of file is not supported, or the required codec is not installed.” When I exit out of the File Import Failure window, and then I exit out of the Open Project window, my .prel project loads up, but it brings up something totally different than what I created, and no sound to boot.

I didn’t have this problem before on my old Dell Inspiron laptop. I now have a Dell XPS 17 and I’m having a hard time getting my Elements video editor to work properly. I’m using Windows 11 and I’m not sure if that’s what’s giving me problems.

[Ann Bens]

The new window probably is asking you not for the project but files used in that project.

[Steve Grisetti]

Was this .prel project created in version 2022? Premiere Elements is not consistenly backwards compatible and doesn't do well opening projects created in earlier versions of the program.