All Premiere Pro project files have disappeared from everywhere!

Report · Mar 14, 2017

Hello,

I have no idea what to think here. All of a sudden, all of my .pproj files (and auto saves) are missing off my computer. I was working in a project earlier today, even, and that file is gone, too. I thought I may have accidentally saved that file in a different location, and that's when I discovered that every single .pproj file I had saved was missing (dozens of them).

So, some background. I am using Adobe CC 2017. I had .pproj files saved both locally (on my D: drive--Windows) and in Dropbox (which is also synced to a separate folder on the D:drive of my PC). Both of these folders are also backed up by CrashPlan. All .pproj files have disappeared from the local folders, from Dropbox (local and web UI), and CrashPlan backup files. When I open PremierePro, it doesn't show anything under recent files. When I do a search of my computer, none of those missing files come up. They are not in the Recycle (Trash)--of course, as I did not delete them. Nothing else seems to be missing except for these .pproj files (and the associates auto save files). I still have all my After Effects project files (.aep). All the video and audio files that were in the same folders as the Premiere Pro project files are still there. So this definitely seems like the issue is with Premiere Pro.

How in the world did all these files disappear, and is there any way to get them back? I figured having the files backed up locally, through Dropbox, and through CrashPlan would be enough of a contingency plan to prevent the loss of data. However, I have never heard of (or experienced) anything like this before.

Report · Nov 29, 2018

Have you gotten any answers?? I teach A/V and it’s happening to my students too!!

Report · Mar 03, 2018

My project and all the sequences are gone! I can't see anything in the project when I open it, it's totally empty! even the Auto-Saved files are empty! I am using Premiere 2018 12.0.1

Report · Apr 02, 2018

Hi, This just happened to me. All my Pr files from the last 1 month are gone! Completely deleted. No project file, no auto save, nothing. Nothing has happened to the hard drive on my mac. So crazy that there would be a problem like this, that the program itself would delete the files from existence. So ridiculous. Is Adobe going to compensate me the thousands of dollars of time I just lost?

Report · Apr 03, 2018

Hi Bohdandoval,

Sorry for this. Have you contacted support? FAQ: How do I contact Adobe Support? Please do so and let us know what they say.

Thanks,
Kevin

Kevin Monahan - Sr. Community & Engagement Strategist – Pro Video and Audio

Report · Apr 03, 2018

Hey, yes with help from Adobe I was able to locate the files. Somehow the original files disappeared from the original folder and appeared in a different location. It also doubled up the files to two different locations. One worked and the other didn't. Not sure why or how it did that, but I'm glad it got worked out. Thanks!

Report · Apr 03, 2018

Oh, that's great news. Thanks for sharing!

Kevin

Kevin Monahan - Sr. Community & Engagement Strategist – Pro Video and Audio

Report · Apr 08, 2018

I am having a serious problem with Premiere Pro CC. I downloaded the digital version and created a working file on my desktop with many additional supporting documents, audio clips, etc.
After working at the office all week, I sit down to get back to work on the film piece and my desktop is COMPLETELY BLANK.

I open Premiere pro to get back to the saved file.... and it is gone.

I spent HOURS on the friggin 10 second intro.... and the whole thing is GONE.

I am so angry. I have been a client for over 20 years, worked in this format in different countries and nothing like this has ever happened.

Am I going to have to start the whole project from scratch or is there a way to retrieve the file?
Why did this happen!!!

Report · Apr 08, 2018

Ok so what I did was open the main hard drive in the finder and search the whole computer for ".prproj". That way all project files will show up. Multiple copies of my missing project showed up, all in a different location then where I saved originally. The Adobe person said it's impossible for the files to get deleted. But apparently can get moved.

Report · Apr 12, 2018

This just happened to me, was freaking out for a bit, but I found the project files.

What seems to have happened is Premiere deleted its cache of the files and doesn't remember where they are - but It would be sinister evil of adobe to track down and delete actual project files, so I decided to install "Ultra Search" from JAM software (you need this, do not depend on windows 10 search function) and I searched all the drives to find my project file.

I searched .prproj and found the latest edited project file on the external drive I have been using - placed in a very strange place. Luckily enough it is still there!

I wouldn't put it past Adobe to delete original project files, but before you confirm that happened, search all your media with a proper search tool like "ultrasearch"

Report · Apr 13, 2018

You just saved my ass big time! Ultra Search did the trick. Thanks a lot!

Report · Apr 13, 2018

SeriousShots THANK YOU SO MUCH !!!!

Report · Apr 13, 2018

DOH!! found the project but it's from the start of the day 11am was last change .... lost the entire day ! what a nightmare

Report · Apr 13, 2018

with the help of adobe I found it again ... on a different drive ... I guess there's a chance I accidentally changed the location of the autosaves and project but I doubt it ... why were those projects not in the "recently opened" list?? All a bit of a mystery..

Report · Jun 18, 2018

THANK GOD UltraSearch found it within seconds! my 5 days worth of After Effect .aep workfile along with its autosave was moved to another folder. I thought they were gone missing forever. Scare the shit out me.

Report · Jun 18, 2018

You are all blessed who had opportunity to recover.

Our work was of several weeks. Adobe moved on its own, and no recover top paid software could ever find it.

And then this happened on the weekend and Adobe because they are very busy even to the clients that pay the highest subscription they have to offer, were not interested in helping.

So, we had to go and redo everything from scratch. And this at a later stage, happened again, but at that time we had already 3 saves on different external drives which saved us.

So, in the end of the day, what can we do with these situations in a paid service which they help not, when it would be their obligation ?

Thank you and good luck for those under the same issue but that find a solution for the endeavors.

Report · Jun 28, 2018

I'm glad you were able to figure out what happened to your files. That may have been the case for me, too, though I'm not certain. I wasn't using another user account, and I certainly know where they were saved. I did a thorough search of both C: and D: drives (using Windows Explorer, and even checking for hidden files). I had then thought it might be a Dropbox issue, though of course that wasn't the case (as I had files that went missing from folders not synced to Dropbox). When I contacted Dropbox, they let me know that those files were deleted from Dropbox because they went missing from my Dropbox folder on my hard drive (which usually means they were deleted or moved elsewhere). I was lucky enough to be within the 30 day window where, when files are deleted from your computer, you can still restore them from Dropbox (and from CrashPlan -- now using BackBlaze -- for the other files that weren't syncing through Dropbox), so I got everything back (I think).

After I saw your post, SeriousShots, I installed Ultra Search and did another search of my C: and D: drives just to see if I could find those files in any other locations, and didn't find those projects files anywhere else (only the ones I was able to recover through Dropbox and CrashPlan, and moved back to their original locations). I would assume if this was a matter of the cache of files being deleted, and so inadvertently located elsewhere, that installing Ultra Search later would have shown me where those were, but nothing else came up (beyond the files I restored myself from Dropbox and Crashplan). Of course, maybe when I restored those files, that changed things (I really don't know).

Anyhow, whatever caused this to happen to me and others (quite a few others, from the looks of things here) looks to be still happening for others (though it hasn't happened to me again...yet). I sure hope Adobe gets a solution out soon. I was fortunate enough to be able to recover my files from other backups, but not everyone can be so lucky.

Report · Jun 30, 2018

Same problem. all my projects disappeared. and the auto-save didn't keep the latest versions

Report · Jul 26, 2018

I have just had the same problem. I am running Premiere 12.1.1, and I opened a premiere project and about 30 seconds into working on the project the program crashed. When the program crashed, it also crashed my computer. After restarting, I navigated to the folder that contained the project files, only to see the entire folder empty. This folder had the premiere project, the Auto-save files, as well as an After Effects project with its auto-save files, but all of these files had disappeared. So the crash not only affected the premiere project, but all the files and projects that were in the same folder.

I proceeded as some others have suggested in this thread, and used a couple different file explorers (including UltraSearch) to try and search through my computer and hard drives to see if the project files had just been moved to another location. However, they are nowhere to be found. I have no idea how or why these files have disappeared, and I also have no idea how to recover them.

I work for a school district, and we use Adobe products for all of our video and graphics work, and this is very disappointing that this seems to be an on-going issue for which Adobe has not found a fix. It also makes me nervous to continue using the software, because if this happens again (which from the amount of people in this thread, it seems likely) I still have no idea about how to resolve the issues. I also have no idea why this happened, so I do not know how to prevent this from happening in the future.

This inexplicable disappearance is affecting my job, and my time, as I will now have to re-create the project from scratch, as well as re-create the after effects project that has disappeared too.

Report · Jul 26, 2018

Can I ask where you Save your projects? It is some default "Users/Adobe/Premiere" and so on folder?

Thanks

Jeff

Report · Jul 26, 2018

New thread by this user here:

Project Files Disappeared from Hard Drive

I added the safeharbor note and my comments there.

Report · Jul 26, 2018

The projects are saved on a mirrored external hard drive when they are finished, but in-progress projects are on the C: Drive desktop. The project in question was on the external drive when it disappeared.

Report · Sep 28, 2018

I've just had the same issue a few days ago. Most of my project files have just vanished and I'm panicking because I've lost months of work. I only had them on a folder on my Mac and they were not backed up. I've tried recovery tools but did not find any project files in the trash of my mac. Has anyone found a solution????

Report · Nov 02, 2018

Using premiere 2018 ver 12.1 (Kentos), I have never had the disappearing problem so far; however, it is a little scary to read of the number of people who have, with no seeming consistent reason or solutioni Since the last post in this thread had no response, I would like to know the current status of this issue, causes, solutions, etc.

Thanks.

Randall Martin

Report · Nov 03, 2018

Hi. The workflow I use for myself when working on TVC's, visual effects for movies etc is as follows:

I create a folder on a local drive in which ALL assets for the project are stored. I then also save the project and a copy of the project into this folder. At the end of the days edit/vfx work I overwrite the original saves so that I always have just 2 saves. The original and a copy of it. I then copy these save files to a completely separate drive as a backup and overwrite these as each day progresses. I have NEVER had any files disappear. While Cloud storage is a great solution I prefer storing mission critical saves on drives that are local. I understand that this might not be the fix to your problem but hope it might better your workflow for the future, Thanks. Mo

Kevin-Monahan kulpreet singh how do files "disappear"

I would really be interested to understand how files can simply vanish and the reasons behind this from a technical point of view.

The only thing, in my opinion that could cause this sort of issue is a virus on a pc.

Would you shed some light on this please

Report · Nov 05, 2018

Hi Mo,

how do files "disappear"
I would really be interested to understand how files can simply vanish and the reasons behind this from a technical point of view.
The only thing, in my opinion that could cause this sort of issue is a virus on a pc.
Would you shed some light on this please

I really am not sure. Sorry about that. I suggest you file a bug on the User Voice site as a rule of thumb: Premiere Pro: Hot (3080 ideas) – Adobe video & audio apps

Thanks,
Kevin

Kevin Monahan - Sr. Community & Engagement Strategist – Pro Video and Audio