Autosaves for Project Incorrectly Switches to Same as Production when opening non-related Production

[Yeaton Studios]

There is an issue with how Premiere Pro handles scratch disk settings when working across both Productions and standalone project workflows. When a standalone project is open, and its scratch disk is set to “Same as Project,” it behaves correctly and autosaves into that project’s own folder.

However, if I later open an entirely separate Production that the original project does not belong to at the same time,  Premiere automatically switches the global scratch disk setting to “Same as Production.” This immediately hijacks the autosave destination for every currently open project, including projects that are not part of that Production. All autosaves for unrelated projects get redirected into the active Production’s folder, breaking project organization and making version tracking unpredictable.

Why This Is a Problem

I work on several client projects at the same time. Some are organized inside Productions and others are traditional standalone projects. Each project needs its own autosave history and scratch structure preserved within its own context. Right now, opening any Production overrides the autosave path for all open projects, regardless of whether they belong to the Production.

This behavior defeats the purpose of having “Same as Project” as an option, and requires me to manually reset scratch disk locations every time I switch contexts. It also increases the risk of misplaced project versions, overwritten autosaves, and inconsistent backups.

Expected Behavior

Premiere should respect each project and productions individual scratch disk setting, and change back and forth from Same as Project, to Same as Production when each project or production project is being used.

If a project is set to “Same as Project,” its autosaves and related scratch files should always write to its own folder, even if other Productions or projects are opened afterward. Scratch disk settings should be project-scoped, not globally overridden by opening a Production.

Requested Fix / Feature

Allow each project (Production or standalone) to maintain its own autosave and scratch disk paths without being overridden by the most recently opened Production. Ideally:

• Projects set to “Same as Project” always save autosaves within their own folder.
• Productions only change scratch disk behavior for projects belonging to that Production.
• Opening a Production should not overwrite the scratch settings for unrelated open projects.

This would make multi-client, multi-workflow environments far more predictable and prevent autosave conflicts.

[Dani_V.]

Hi @Yeaton Studios, 

Thank you for reporting a problem. I hear your frustration on this. There has been a similar issue reported here and a bug has been filed for it. Could you confirm the version of Premiere Pro you are on? 

Sorry for the frustration, 
Dani

[Yeaton Studios]

@Dani_V.  Thanks for the heads up. I did an initial search before posting and that thread didn’t come up, so apologies for the duplicate. I’m on Premiere 25.6.2 build 1, macOS 26.1, Mac Studio 2023 (M2 Ultra, 128 GB RAM). The issue was happening on earlier versions as well before I updated this week.

While you’re here, there’s another Production versus Project issue I haven’t fully written up yet, and you may already have it on your radar. I’m seeing consistent, significant memory leaks when working in a Production while also having regular projects open. Premiere will eventually become unresponsive and require a force-quit, and Activity Monitor reports extremely high RAM usage that exceeds the limits set in Premiere’s Memory preferences. This has been happening on this and several prior versions for roughly eight months.

[Dani_V.]

No worries @Yeaton Studios! Regarding the other issue though, do you see this only when any Production and a regular project are open simultaneously, or can you point to a specific project/projects showing this behavior? Other questions, like are you using any third-party plugins or any effects? Does this happen even if the project is left open without working on it? The more information about the projects that can be narrowed down, the better. 

You did mention you have to force-quit eventually—do you ever get a crash report dialog box? If you add your email to it before sending the reports, the team can look them up.