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 05, 2018

Kevin-Monahan Thank you. I appreciate the feedback. Should any of my files do a "Houdini" on me I will certainly file a bug.

Report · Dec 26, 2018

Files and folders rarely if ever go missing and "auto delete" themselves. Even with a virus this is something rare are viruses generally target an extension like an .exe etc. I have never heard of a virus targeting a .pproj file. Yet some viruses do exist that target folders themselves. I highly doubt this is the case in this matter. It is really easy to "misplace" files and folders if your workflow is not set up correctly from the beginning. Get into the habit of creating a folder, naming it correctly and then creating subfolder within it with RAW FOOTAGE, AUDIO, VFX, STILLS etc. In this way they are all in one place, visible and easily recognizable.

Report · Apr 03, 2019

Hey there!

I had this issue with Premiere Pro CC 2015 just then. The issue occurred after I downloaded a free font online and went to install it. To be able to apply the font, I had to save and close my file in premiere pro. When I went to reopen it, I couldn't open any recent files and after searching my entire computer, (searching for the name of the most recent file I saved) it came up with nothing. I own a windows PC with windows 10 and it obviously has a useless search tool because I found the file after 30 mins in a different hard drive under the name of "Premiere Pro Projects." I opened it and everything is fine now, and my other recent files are there too.

I hope this helps anyone that reads this

Curtis

Report · Apr 29, 2019

Hi all, I had the simular problem last week. Worked on a project and exported it for a first view. The next morning I opened Première Pro and I got a new screen (How to get started), no older projects. When I tried to open it via the project in the folder, the whole folder was gone.

But an hour before I saw the folder! I didn't delete it, searched in different ways, just vanished. Folders of other projects are still there.

Adobe says folders cannot just dissapear (yep, I have the same thoughts but it did) and that I have to work on the hard drive of the computer and not via external hd's...

I didn't get an answer why I got an empty screen when opening Pp but I think it is related to the vanished folder!

Report · Apr 29, 2019

When you get the type of splash screen (welcome/learning) you see on a new install, that points to your preferences having been reset/deleted/missing.

The only situation I had where files/folders seemed to be disappearing was Windows 10 related. Newer file system operations result in files being tracked across drives. I was doing a dual boot (swapping the system hard drive), and discovered that it messed up one system seeing some files. This does not apply to what most users here are experiencing, but there are odd ways for files to appear to disappear.

Report · Apr 29, 2019

Thanks for your answer, Stan.

I am working on a Mac (but crossing over to pc) and I will keep it in mind that Windows 10 also may cause trouble.

Report · Apr 30, 2019

Hi there, I'm using Premiere for a commercial broadcasting cooperation, yesterday we updated Premiere CC2018 and since then all my Project-Files are gone; before you ask: I've checked with the IT-support of our company, they ran an intensive search on all harddrives, but they found nothing (not in the save folder, not in the auto-save-folder, not in any folder on any harddrive). All there is left is to start from scratch, which puts me back about 8 workdays, which costs my company about 2000 Euros, not to speak about the frustration. One problem as well is now that there arte deadlines which have to be met, but so far I've heard/read nothing from the Adobe Team which could help in any way. My recommendation: just don't use Adobe Premiere if you can avoid it.

Report · Jan 19, 2020

it's not fair at all, I spent hours and hours to make a good video. and now all of it is gone.

So ADOBE, How can you still not fix the problem since 2017?? that's the real question.

you let all your users down... I expected better...

Report · Jan 19, 2020

And your backups are gone too (not talking auto save)?

Did you do a computer search for xxx.prproj

Report · Feb 02, 2020

I had a similar issue, but then realized I had logged out of my icloud.

Report · Feb 26, 2020

omg I change from another software to Adobe and think Adobe would never treat me like this but I'm so disspointed. I was scrared this issue would happen so I worked really hard throught out the night as long as my app are still running okay. and the other morning I open and check even on external hard drive and everything was gone, including the autosave file 10+ versions of my work, for no reason. The file location is still in my recently opened files but when I clicked the file location is unavailable. still can't believe it. This is a huge problem because we spent so much TIME & EFFORT & MONEY and received nothing. the editing was difficult enough.

Report · Apr 18, 2020

Did you get anything back?? This just happened to me too and I spent over 3 hours talking to their support team only to be told that someone will need to call me tomorrow!! It's such a headache!!!!

Report · Jun 04, 2020

This has just happened to me too, wiping out EVERY project file and autosave directory across SIX external hard drives and dozens of client projects going back to 2011. To be clear these are both projects I haven't looked at in months and also the most recent. ALL project files are gone yet the ingested video and graphics files are intact. I've been using PP2019 and a few days back changed up to PP2020. So SOMETHING has gone on a search & destroy mission for .prproj files, I certainly didn't do it. Adobe, is there a sub-routine that tries to gather up files and put them in the documents folder? Secondly please don't ask the get-out-of-jail-back-up question, I back-up all projects TWICE across the six external hard drives. Importantly, what do I do to get these back? When COVID abates I will have clients asking for revisions. What do I tell them - that I have to re-build entire clips first? If others here are working in a commercial environment, this is nothing short of a catastrophy.

Report · Jun 04, 2020

You apparently haven't looked at your OS. Which is by far the most likely cause ... it apparently has decided to "hide" all ,proproj files. Which has happened with recent updates both in Macs and PCs. And yea, it's darn annoying.

Win10 has decided that Pr 2017, Pr2018, and Pr2020 are fine, but anytime I open Pr 2019, Windows security dialog asks if I want to allow this program to make changes. It never keeps the setting to allow it, I get asked every time. And yet, a month ago, it didn't do this. Yea, I had a Windows update.

It has nothing whatever to do with Premiere.

Neil

Report · Jun 04, 2020

Hi Neil, thanks for your help. I'm glad you've found sucess and the reason on a Windows install and that's some strange behaviour on Windows/PP2019! Sadly I'm on a Mac where 2019 has behaved very well.

I looked at my drives thoroughly before I posted this, showing hidden and system files too (Cmd + Shift + .) and found nothing. I am currently running a deep scan recovery program (am about halfway, it takes about 8 hours per drive) and lo and behold there are dozens of deleted project files and autosave files unearthed across at least 3 of the 6 external drives so far and also the original SSD drives I actually edit on before I move two copies to the external hard drives for archive/back-up. Something has deleted them and the prime suspect for me personally is the upgrade to PP 2020 which I did last week.

At the moment I can't 100% go with your statement it has nothing to do with Premiere. Why would Windows and Mac users both exhibit exactly the same problem at the same time? I can understand one OS doing something daft but not both at the same time. And would not a common program PP be a more logical suspect especially in that Windows/Mac are being very specific about the files they're hiding? Why would an OS choose to target such a specific file extender used by a relatively small user group compared the domestic users and leave everything else alone?

Can you throw any light on the problem/solution from a Mac point of view i.e. what needs to be enabled so these files are visible again? To give others hope, here's a screen-grab of what I've recovered so far with the main project file and a sub-directory of auto-saves happily in place.

Project files recovered in place

Again, thanks for your help but I'm still dubious as it not being PP2020. Any more input highly appreciated, I'm keen to get to the bottom of this.

Regards

Report · Jun 05, 2020

Different account?

Report · Jun 05, 2020

Nope, only one admin account on the machine, if that's what you meant?

Report · Jun 05, 2020

Hi, I've found some semblance of a smoking gun. Looking at the dates when ALL the premiere project archive folders on my SIX external drives were last accessed (and presumably when the project files and auto-save files were deleted), the time stamp on all those folders is 30th May 2020. This is the same day I upgraded to Premiere 2020. So there's no absolute casual link but strong circumstantial evidence? I have deleted PP2020 and gone back to 2019 13.1.5 which was not naughty. Looking forward to hearing feedback from anyone.

p.s. Be careful out there.

Report · Jun 11, 2020

Well, after a lot of help from Adobe (read: virtually none) I have recovered 90% of my disappeared prproj files through a deep scan recovery program. Across six drives, about 3 days of work. And still no suggestions or answers, deeply disappointing. And for anyone who gets the categorical tech support reply that Premiere NEVER deletes files, then there's this:

Underwhelmed, Adobe.

Report · Jun 11, 2020

You apparently didn't read the link you posted ... or pay attention to comments up above.

That suit was for Premiere 2017, the 11.x build series. AS STATED ABOVE, that one version could delete files and they recognized that and immediately requested users revert to the previous version while they fixed that version.

By the way ... where on your computer did you store the files that were lost? What sort of folder structure were they in? And where were the Premiere cache files in relation to them?

Neil

Report · Jun 12, 2020

I don’t feel you understand the severity of the situation for me as a business and the dismay I’ve felt at very little support over the 8 days since I posted, asking for help. A first post assuming I’m on Windows and blaming the OS and a second post that says merely ’different account?’ and nothing else isn’t really good enough. This isn’t a hobby, it’s a business.

The fact that this thread has many people suffering from the same thing, suggests I'm not an isolated case.

After 8 days in the wilderness with nothing forthcoming from Adobe, I posted the 2017 ‘Adobe sued’ article to show that you have previous and that it IS possible for PP to have actively deleted files. I did this as a wake-up call, especially after I’ve bothered to include screen-grabs and describe the problem accurately and then been left hanging for days. You apparently didn’t read where I also said it’s not a casual connection but strong circumstantial evidence.

In response to your throwaway ’by the way’ comment at the end (which is perhaps what you should be focussing on):

For the third time, the files weren’t ‘on my computer’, they were backed up twice across six external drives, So there’s no possibility of project files getting mixed up with cache files. Something went out and found said files, specifically .prproj files including siblings in the auto-save folders but nothing else. Why would a virus specifically do that? It wouldn’t, it would take out everything it could and cause as much damage as it could.

Those .prproj files were both recent and historical, going back to 2011, edited on successive versions of PP but all missing.

I never edit on the C drive, I edit on external USB 3 SSD drives for portability and speed. When signed off, I make two back-ups on the external six hard drives. The directory structure is nice & neat as below so things can’t get mushed up together or deleted by mistake.

The cache files are here, well away from the project files, right next to the check-box that says ‘don’t automatically delete cache files’. I checked in those directories just in case.

So…

It’s not the OS hiding .prproj files as I searched with ‘show hidden and system’ files on. And I don’t use Windows. I am using Mojave 10.14.6 and not Catelina.
The prproj files HAD been deleted by forces unknown and 95% responded to the recovery software.
Most tellingly the date that all directories containing the .prproj files had last been accessed was May 30th, the same day I installed PP 14.2. That in itself must be very suspicious, mustn’t it? Yes/No?

Finally, the use of capitals ‘AS STATED ABOVE’ and ‘apparently you didn’t read’ makes your posts sound ever so slightly defensive. And ever so slightly unhelpful. I realise you have a daily battle against mistakes and misunderstandings, even stupidity, but I feel your approach to this all along has been it must somehow be my fault or Windows' fault. This could lose me clients and income at a time when both are critically important. AND there are many others battling the same thing in this thread.

So, on the evidence I’ve supplied, what is your analysis and where do we go from here? Please escalate this if you’d prefer.

Regards Mark