P: Major issues with 'link media...'

[braydon]

'Link media...' doesn't function the way it should when linking more than one clip at a time. 

When I need to re-link the media for multiple clips in the same folder, I'll navigate to the correct folder, select the first clip and then Premiere takes over and rediscovers the rest. The problem is, Premiere starts looking for those clip names OUTSIDE the folder I've specified. The clips are IN the folder I've specified! But Premiere keeps looking elsewhere until it finds other clips on the harddrive with the same file name, albeit it in drastically different parts of the file directory, and then links them instead.

I've had similar problems in the past when bringing projects from one computer to another and allowing Premiere to discover the media. It looks outside the directory I pick the first clip from, and links to outside clips with the same file name (Sony's in-camera file-naming resets to zero after every 10,000 instances, so every year or so I end up with a new clip called, for example, C0234). In the past I've been able to select all the clips in the bin, 'Make offline...' then 'Link Media...' and it works. It only linked to clips in the folder I've specified.

But something's changed, and now when searching for media, Premiere immediately goes to the highest level of the folder structure, and starts searching them one by one until it finds clips with the same name. This is completely the wrong way to go about it. It needs to STAY in the folder that's been specified, and find all the clips in there. Then, if there are still outstanding clips, it should notify the user and ask for a new directory, instead of automatically going to the top and picking the first file name that matches. 

It's a nightmare. I literally have to link hundreds of clips individully. I wish Adobe would stop wasting time on the half-baked generative AI rubbish and get the core foundations of its software in order!

Adobe Premiere Pro Version 25.3.0 (build 84), zero 3rd party plug-ins

Windows 11, Intel(R) Core(TM) Ultra 9 285K 3.70 GHz, 128 GB (127 GB usable), 64-bit operating system, NVIDEA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER

[Brandon5]

I’ve noticed recently with these new updates of Premiere that when relinking media it no longer links other missing media files automatically.

This example here, I’m relinking missing media files and although all the missing files are in the same folder I’m having to link each clip individually. Before in older versions of Premiere I could link one video file and it would find the remaining video files in that directory or sub directory, sometimes it’ll also link files on other drives too once it found the main video files. But now its this slow processes. Am I doing something wrong, is this a bug or is this just how Premiere works now.

[IanB_360]

Hi @Brandon5 
Have you had this experience with all of your projects, or is it just the one on which you are noticing the relink issue? Could you file share the project and a few test files for us to relink with? You can send. Direct message me, and I can share those files to the team and see what we find. Also, if you can use the link here, How to Report a Problem , it has steps to provide more information about your bug that can help us identify the issue. 
Here to help.

Ian

[Brandon5]

Hmm its interesting that you mention other projects, which this bug has occurred on before, but it seems that I can’t replicate it consistently. Here’s what I know. This bug frequently occurs when switching between pc’s, my project files are stored in dropbox but the projects footage is either stored on my local device such as my laptop or on a network share. And when switching from my laptop to my desktop, I have to link the footage to the network share as it was last seen on my laptop which is usually off. This scenario frequently gives me this bug. However, if I just offline the footage and re link it again it seams to work as normal.

And while this project in particular has been known to produce this bug it has cropped up on other projects of similar size to.

[nate_2868]

Premiere Pro 2025 (v25.3.0)is not relinking media files automatically after transferring them to a different hard drive. The folder structure between hard drives is maintained as-is, but the media relinking tool won't locate all other files at once and is requiring a sub-folder-by-folder relinking.  What used to be a simple process is now time wasting, and it doesn't matter whether matching "file extensions" is turned on or off, as suggested by other posts. This seems like a bug, as previous versions didn't have an issue across all projects, like this one. Thanks for any help addressing the issue.

2024 Mac Book Pro

Mac OS Sonoma 14.4 

Apple M3 Max chip

[IanB_360]

Hi @nate_2868 

Welcome to the Premiere Pro Forum community.  Thank you for taking the time to file a bug report. Do you have this happening in more than one project? Can you provide examples of what's happening? Where do the files live? Do you have to relink to them? The link here  How do I write a bug report has steps to provide more information about your bug that can help us identify the issue. 
Here to help.

Ian

[Rach McIntire]

Hi @braydon,

I'm sorry to hear your media isn't searching the specified folder. I have seen a couple of other users with similar-sounding experiences. Does this sound similar to what you're seeing?

Premiere No Longer AutoLinks

Does the media live on a hard drive when moving back and forth? Where does the project file live? Any other workflow info you can think of to help us reproduce this issue would be great. I hope we can help you soon.

[braydon]

Hi Rach, thanks so much for your reply.

Yes, the case you referenced sounds almost exactly the same as what I'm experiencing.

The footage lives on external harddrives. The project is located on the PC's SSD, as are the project proxies. I don't use any cloud services for storing video project assets. I've recently moved the footage from many small 5TB harddrives onto a single large RAID, but the incorrect linking has behaved the same.

The main project I work with uses footage from many, many shoots over the last five years. All camera cards are stored in folders with consistent naming conventions, and each year's worth of footage is in a master folder, eg. 2021, 2022, 2023, etc. The reason I know that Premiere is reverting to the top of the directory and searching the folders sequentially is because it keeps incorrectly linking to files in the 2021 or 2022 folders.

One futher piece of info. Sometimes when running 'Link Media...' the first few clips (sometimes up to ~25% of the clips) will be from the folder I've selected, then at a random point the rest are from very different cards. Other times, all but the first clip will be from the wrong folder (the first clip being the one I manually selected to begin the process). Very occassionally it will correctly link all the clips correctly from the folder I've selected, but this is the exception, not the norm.

One point that I didn't mention, but was reminded of by brandon05's case, is that sometimes when linking, the automated process would just stop half way through the list, then I would have to manually link every remaining clip thereafter. This is a new thing I've only just started experiencing, and it hasn't been all that often. It was only on the most recent occurence of this that I noticed the point where it stop was at a numerical gap in the file names, where a clip had been deleted in-camera and the file naming convention skipped a number. For example:

C0047 - linked automatically

C0048 - linked automatically

C0049 - linked automatically

C0051 - prompted to manually link

C0052 - prompted to manually link

C0053 - prompted to manually link

Clip C0050 never existed (and wasn't a clip Premiere was trying to relink) but it seems that because of that numerical gap the automation stopped and the rest of the exercise became became a manual process. I don't know whether a numerical gap was present in other instances of the automatic process failing.

I actually did try to 'Link media..." using only the clips after the numerical gap, to get the automated process to reactivate, but it immediately made me manually link each one. 

[Rach McIntire]

Thanks for that extra info. The sequential thing is definitely interesting. Are there any repeat camera roll numbers, like a C005 in 2021 and a C005 in 2022, that could be tripping it up?

[Dani_V.]

Hi @braydon, is this happening with the 'Use Media Browser to locate files' option checked, or are you linking files through File Explorer (or does it happen with both)? You also mentioned you've noticed this when jumping from one computer to another. Has this jump been between Windows systems or has it been between Windows and Macs? What files are you working with (are they .mp4s), and what camera model?

@Brandon5, I noticed in your screen recording there is a mismatch between .mp4 and .MP4 under 'Clip Name' vs 'File Name'; can you try unchecking 'File Extension' under the Match File Properties section, and see if that helps?

[Brandon5]

Hey @Dani_V. I don’t think this has helped, it seams that windows will show .MP4 whether the file is .mp4 or .MP4

[braydon]

@Rach McIntire - yes, there are repeat instance of the same file name in the different folders. For example, there's a C0439 in a card folder in the 2021 master folder, and a different C0439 in a differently-named card folder in the 2022 master folder. When automatically linking files, it seems that Premiere searches for file name in the first alpha-numeric folder (in my case, the 2021 master folder) and if there's not a matching file name it moves onto the next master folder in the structure, the 2022 folder and looks for the file name there. I know if every clip had a uniqe file name this would be less of an issue, but that's something I didn't know to set in motion five years ago!

@Dani_V. - always between Windows systems

- .mp4 files, from multiple Sony A7S iii cameras

- I'm not using either of those methods of linking files. So, because the files all automatically linked wrongly when I first opened the project on the new computer, I'm having to unlink them by shift+selecting all the clips in a bin, right-clicking and selecting "Make offline..." (and choosing to keep the media on the drive). Then I'm right-clicking on the still-selected clips and choosing "Link media..." That's the process I'm using (as per this screenshot).

It then gives me this window (below), so I click 'Locate', navigate to the folder where the clips are stored, then select the one that matches the specified file name. Occassionally it links all the files correctly after I select the first one. More often than not it links the one I've specified correctly and then starts searching through the 2021 folder onwards until it finds the same file names for the rest of the selected clips. And lately, in the last few days, it's stopped automatically linking altogether and I have to manually work my way through every single clip in the window (below), which sounds like the problem @Brandon5 is having.