Search issue when linking media in Premiere Pro 2025

[Jordan_Frank5877]

When I attempt to 'Search' during an initial 'link media' for a handed-off project, it starts searching on a different drive entirely, then from the root of my computer, instead of in the folder I'm asking it to search in. Takes forever, so I wind up having to manually click on every file. Once I find a file within a certain folder it will automatically link any others in that folder, but I have to redo this with every single project. What is SHOULD do is just search within the folder I'm selecting.

I click on 'link media', the media browser pulls up, I click on the clip name and click 'locate'. No matter which folder I select for it to start looking in (the actual folder the clip is in, the one above it, the one above that, etc), the search always starts elsewhere as if it's looking through every single file on my computer.

I have noticed this for a while (prior to the version I'm on now), but this is the first I'm officially complaining about it. I'm on Version 25.3.0 (Build 84), on macOS 15.6.1, Apple M2 Max Studio (2023).

[Dani_V.]

Hi @Jordan_Frank5877, 

Thank you for reporting a problem and sorry you've been experiencing issues. 

Some relinking improvements have been implemented in the beta version of Premiere Pro (see here for more). If you are able to try it, let us know if you are still seeing the issue there. 

What source media/file formats are you usually working with? And where is your media located (external, internal, network drive, etc)? 

Are the file names always exact matches, or do they ever have any name or file extension differences (e.g. .MP4 vs .mp4; or .mp4 vs .mov)? 

Sorry for the frustration, 

Dani