Maintain folder structures on import

[davisbot]

Add an option to preserve empty folder structures on import!

Often I or an assistant editor will create a folder structure in the finder with empty folders to be populated with media later on in the production workflow (i.e. Final mix stems, color files, graphics). Currently if you import empty folders or folders with only one item in them, those empty folders disappear on import and the single item that was inside them is left outside any folder. This prevents planning and proper organization, and I'm not sure what the benefit of it is? Fewer folders? But I wanted those, that's why I made them.

Just leave the folder structures as they are, don't change them. If some users want an option to "automatically remove empty folders on import" then add that, but don't make removing them the default.


Importing empty folder structures is an essential organizational tool for any medium to large scale professional production. I made this same request in May of 2018 and have never gotten a response or seen it addressed, I really I hope I do this time!

[doctorsney]

Hi there folks, so I have a strange issue: 

I like a certain folder layout for new projects, so I made my own template project with my desired folder structure, and I import this every time I setup a new project.

However not all the folders I create in my template appear when imported into a new project. As you can imagine, there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth, and renting of garments.

If you look below at my audio folder for example, it has subfolders 2 and 4 (MSX/Music and MIX/Mixes respectively) but in my original template, my folder structure is 1. VO, 2, MSX, 3, SFX, 4, MIX

I have no idea why Premier decides to leave folders out on import of this template project but I'm hoping the community or Adobe could help solve this. 

I also tried stuffing each folder with a single file like a piece of black video or an empty title object (in the template project version), just to see if the folders were being ignored because they're empty, but the results are just arbitrary 😕

Thanks In Advance

[R Neil Haugen]

You have to have at least one file that PrPro "recognizes" in each folder for PrPro to import the folder.

So ... you need to have 'dummy' media in every folder that doesn't already have something in it. Then delete that when you add the proper items to it.

Neil

[doctorsney]

Thanks for your response Neil, however I've tried this to no avail (see attached). Though I'm using Premier generated files, not external files. I might try that now - using an external jpg or something

[doctorsney]

FML - I just tried using an external but offline file as the 'folder filler' and this time even MORE folders were MIA, like 70% of my folders in the tree just failed to appear.

I swear the harder I try the more this hates me.....

[doctorsney]

ok, successfully managed to make this work by stuffing a dummy file that is a real external file in every folder - per your suggestion, thank you! 

Dummy file for giggle tax....

[R Neil Haugen]

I've got a number of templated project setups. All with a short .wav file as the dummy file, and ... never had it not accept the folder. But PrPro can be capable of giving users a "unique" experience. Ahem. (Rarely a good thing ... )

Neil

[MyerPj]

Why not in the OS just copy the 'template' project name it as you wish and move it to where you want it and open the project and go...

[lmgphx]

I've stumbled across a frustrating import issue with the latest version of PP on my Mac and wondering if anyone else is experiencing this. When I go to import a folder of assets, it imports the assets, but ignores the folder in the project window. So if I have a folder of .jpg's/.mp4's/.wav's and I import them, my project window will show all the files but I lose the folder they were originally contained in, so now I have to create a new bin get back to where I started.

It used to retain the folder structure until 22.4. I've tried dragging the asset folder from the finder to the project window, right clicking in the project window and selecting import, using the new import window (ugh), selecting File>Import, all give me the same results. Adobe Tech Support was no help.

This happens on multiple Macs we use. I'm using an iMac with Big Sur 11.2.3, PPro 22.4. 

Am I crazy? Was this a change? Is it an OS thing and Adobe is innocent? 

[R Neil Haugen]

That's the new Import page ... yea, it only imports the contents, not the structure.

For importing the structure, do it the same as always. Set a Name, select a Location, make sure nothing is selected in the middle or far right sections. Then click Create.

That will take you to what you've seen before, and then simply import/ingest assets via the Project panel or MediaBrowser as you always have.

Neil

[lmgphx]

Thanks Neil, but not sure I follow. So let's say I have an existing project, on my external drive I have a folder that contains 10 .jpg images called Photos. I want to import the Photos folder into my project with the result being I get a new bin called Photos with the 10 .jpgs contained in it that now lives in my Project window.
I'm confused by this part of your response:
"For importing the structure, do it the same as always. Set a Name, select a Location, make sure nothing is selected in the middle or far right sections. Then click Create."
Is this in the project window, new import window or someplace else? I'm not sure where the Create button is located when doing an Import. 
Or is what your saying is that I need to create the new Bin myself in the Project Window and then import the .jpg's into it? This is the step I'm trying to avoid if possible. 
Thanks in advance for any clarification.

[Conrad_C]

I sometimes import video the same way — as folder hierarchies I would like to preserve as bins — so I took an interest in this thread. What I got in version 22.4.0 was unexpected.

First, I usually don’t use the Import screen, before and after the recent changes. This is because Import makes me manually drill down to the folder I want, but I often have the video content already available in another application (such as Adobe Lightroom Classic or Bridge) or in an open folder window in the Mac Finder desktop. So it’s a lot faster to drag the content from wherever it is, and drop it directly into the Project panel in Premiere Pro.

So when I start a new project in the current version of Premiere Pro and it goes into Import, I click through to Edit without stopping to import. Then I drop the content into the Project panel as I always have.

Premiere Pro 22.4.0 still lets me drag content from a valid Mac drag source and drop it into the Project panel. And folder hierarchy is still preserved*. So far so good, it looks like the key is to bypass Import and use direct drag and drop to the Project panel instead.

*But here’s the twist. In the sample content I just tried, Premiere Pro lost a folder. It didn’t lose any files, but here’s what happened. The original hierarchy on the desktop is:

Folder

- Video A.mp4

- Subfolder 1

- - Video B.mp4

- Subfolder 2

- - Video C.mp4

- - Video D.mp4

On drop into the Project panel, Premiere Pro 22.4.0 imported it like this:

Bin

- - Video A.mp4

- - Video B.mp4

- Bin 2

- - Video C.mp4

- - Video D.mp4

It lost Subfolder 1 and imported its one file at the same level as Subfolder 1. The only difference was that Subfolder 1 has only one file. Was that it? On the desktop, I moved Video A.mp4 into Subfolder 1 (so that folder now contained more than one item) and tried again. This time Premiere Pro preserved the entire hierarchy perfectly:

Bin

- Bin 1

- - Video A.mp4

- - Video B.mp4

- Bin 2

- - Video C.mp4

- - Video D.mp4

So the two things I got out of this are:

- To preserve folder hierarchy, you do want to avoid using the Import module, and instead drop content directly into the Project panel. At least on the Mac (I did not test Windows).

- There may be a bug if a folder contains only one item; Premiere Pro might import that one item on its own without its containing folder.

You should probably test this yourself, but if losing folders containing a single item is easily reproduced then a bug report would be worth submitting. Because it would be nice if Premiere Pro still preserved folder hierarchy faithfully on a direct drop into the Project panel.

[R Neil Haugen]

In the Import page, name the project, set the location, click Create.

Go to the Edit page.

Use the Project panel or MediaBrowser panel, either one.

In the Project panel, right-click/Import. In the MediaBrowser, navigate to the folder, select and Import.

Importing a folder in either place brings all subfolders in as bins.

And in general, I don't recommend drag/dropping media from the Explorer/Finder windows.That mostly works, but can often not get some of the necessary file metadata loaded into Premiere's databases.

Neil

[Boka2112]

Why can't we just select folders and keep their names from the outset?  The entire dialog box is a big tease and a waste of time.  It has no insight in its design.  Who made it?

[Conrad_C]

---

@R Neil Haugen wrote:

And in general, I don't recommend drag/dropping media from the Explorer/Finder windows.That mostly works, but can often not get some of the necessary file metadata loaded into Premiere's databases.

---

I should clarify my earlier reply. My use of Premiere Pro is probably more casual than most, with more consumer-oriented file formats. If you are working with more complex video formats (especially multi-file packages) and preservation of metadata is important, then you should totally follow Neil’s advice and go through the Media Browser because as he said, the Media Browser is technically a more robust import method than drag-and-drop direct into the Project panel.

@Boka2112 wrote:

Why can't we just select folders and keep their names from the outset?  The entire dialog box is a big tease and a waste of time.  It has no insight in its design.  Who made it?

---

My guess is that the Premiere Pro developers received some sort of customer feedback or focus group data that new users were getting hung up on how to start a project and get stuff into it. Before they added the Import screen, you had to already know that after creating a new project, you need to use the Import command, drop stuff into the Project panel, or use the Media Browser, but in the crowded Premiere Pro workspace, none of those is visually obvious as a next step. So they decided to make a discrete Import step the next thing you see after creating a new project, kind of like how Premiere Rush works. They tried to simplify the process. This is understandable.

But simplifying works only when it doesn’t compromise professional workflow efficiency. For me, it’s fine, because it takes one click to move on from Import and then I can import things the way I like. But the new Import screen is so “in your face” that it rubs people the wrong way when it can’t do exactly what they want, and also, it isn’t obvious how to move on (the answer is to just click Create or Edit).

By the way, this is a recurring theme at Adobe. I am also a heavy user of Adobe Lightroom Classic. A couple of years ago, the Lightroom team inserted a new, simplified “import experience” into the application. It looked a lot like the new Premiere Pro “import experience” in that the minimalist design and simple options looked more like a mobile app. But they did not preserve alternate ways of importing like Premiere Pro has. The more advanced Lightroom Classic users protested vehemently for an extended amount of time, and in that case the new import experience was pulled out and the old, more capable one restored. So I was amused when I saw Premiere Pro go down the same road. But at least in Premiere Pro, the existing import methods are still available, so it’s not as bad.

[R Neil Haugen]

So true.

Neil

Mod note: Edited for content.

[Boka2112]

It shows ALL the folders!  Its design is unapparent and misleading, boring, frustrating, unintuitive, etc...  A BIG step backward in a mediocre world quickly turning to a poor world. 

Do even come close to understanding this?

[default4tci94m9rf1s]

See screenshot below. I dragged over everything from the folder on the right to the project tab in premiere on the left and for some reason, some of the folders won't import. The video imports without the folder and it's ALWAYS the ones with a hyphen in it. Some with hyphens will import correctly but the ones that don't import are ALWAYS with the hyphen. The videos inside are all exactly the same type of video, 1080p, 120fps, between 10-30 seconds. 

VERSION:

Hardware:

Also, screen recording is attached. Please help. Thank you.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hello Sir,

I am sorry about your issue. I've seen complaints along these lines before. Usually, it's because the clips are nested deeply into a folder structure. You indicate that punctuation marks and special symbols may be at issue. However, the complaint is usually about folder structure and not much to do with the clips' naming conventions or format. I think up to 3 levels of folders are acceptable to drag in. After that, you may need to make some adjustments. Could this be your issue? Let me know.

Thanks,
Kevin

[default4tci94m9rf1s]

Hi @Kevin-Monahan ,

I appreciate your prompt answer but I don't think this is the answer since the folders I'm dragging in are the ones containing the videos and not parents of sub-folders with videos nested within them. The folders i'm dragging are the direct parents of the video clip(s). Let me know if you have any other ideas.

[Kevin-Monahan]

I'm sorry about this, @default4tci94m9rf1s. I found a comparable feature request for this issue. I will move it there.

Thank You,

Kevin

[jasonk54312862]

it doesn't "work as always"  no matter where I import a folder from it just brings in the media and NOT the folder structure I already created on the drive.  this is really bad and amateur hour, there's a reason pro editors organized everything on the drive and then import to preserve the folder structure.  Please fix this ASAP

[R Neil Haugen]

Which process are you talking about?

The "Import page" project start will never import folders, only their contents. It's intentionally designed to be a "flat file" workflow. Think TV newsrooms: you have 6-8 30 second to 2 minute 'shorts' to get ready uber fast for broadcast.

An assistant or supervisor creates a folder for each project and puts a talking head clip, a couple phone vids, and the on-location talking head in a folder. Your job it to take that and quickly make both a 30 second cut and a 2 minute cut. You've got half an hour for all six or eight projects.

For that workflow, the new Import page is actually awesome.

That ain't me nor most other users though. For the rest of us, we need to build projects with some organization in depth.

And for that, using the Project panel or MediaBrowser is still the proper method. So at the begining on that "Import" page, it's just Name, Location, Create ... the project opens. Use Project or MediaBrowser panels to build as always.

Now ... are you having a problem where the Project panel and/or MediaBrowser aren't importing folder structures? They do for me, so I definitely want to know if that's a problem on your rig.

Neil

[jasonk54312862]

No I am just right clicking on the bin and hitting "import" and it just beings in the file not the folder I'm clicking to import.  same thing when I click "file - import"

[R Neil Haugen]

I can't replicate that on my PC.

I'm in a bin, right-click/Import, navigate to and click a folder from the Explorer window simply to select it. The window includes the options at lower right to 'import folder', 'open', and 'cancel'.

I click on the import folder option, I get the folder popping up in my bin.

What OS, and what number.number version of PrPro?

Neil

[jasonk54312862]

just did it now.  have a "music" folder on my drive and have a dated folder 09.02 in there with a folder named "APM" and inside there 4 folders with about 50 tracks.   I right click in proj window and hit import, find the folder named 09.02 and it imports the "APM" folder and all the folders inside with the tracks.  but then i have to RECREATE A BIN that says 09.02 so it matches the drive structure.  why doesn't it import the 09.03 folder i click.?  VERY ANNOYING

mac 0sx 12.4    PP 22.5 build 62