Open Premiere Project in Older Version - Downgrade Project Version

[MyerPj]

Premiere Pro users sometimes want to open their project in an earlier version.

Here’s the quickest way to open your projects in an earlier version. Only 4 steps to revert the PP version.

This assumes you have 7-Zip installed. It’s free and awesome and why would anyone not have it! 🙂

Also, that you have a COPY of your project that you will be converting.

++++ Make a Copy of your project with a New Name in the same folder as the original ++++

     1) Right-Click the COPY of the project and from the 7-Zip menu select “Open Archive”

     2) In 7-Zip there is one file same name as the project – Right-Click the file and select EDIT*

     3) On the fourth line change the Version = “??” Change the number portion to “1” Save and Close

     4) 7-Zip will ask you if you want to update that file in the archive, Select <OK>

That’s it! When you open the project Premiere Pro will say it is from a Previous Version, and will give it a new name as usual.

*Of note, on step 2, the bigger your project the longer it takes to open.

Here’s a link to an online program which requires you to upload the file but will do the above for you.

joshcluderay.com/downgrade-premiere-project-converter

Of course you loose any new features of the later version you edited with.

[cscooper2013]

I started a project in Premiere Pro CC, in hopes that the program would do what I needed and that bugs would be at a minimum.  Perhaps I could even participate in these forums to help make Premiere better by offering up my beta testing insights to the community.  Now, after having paid my tithe in time to Adobe and having experienced several issues, a few crashes and a show-stopping issue (either a Multi-cam issue or an AVCHD spanning issue; I'm not sure), I'm ready to humble my appetite for the bleeding-edge technology and go back to CS6 so I can simply finish my project and pay the bills. 

The new CC features are and/or will be AWESOME when the kinks are all worked out.  In the mean time, how can I revert my CC project file back to a CS6 project file?

[Sunny_photographer50B6]

When I tested loading a CC-created PPro project into PPro CS6, it did not work (error reads, "The project appears to be damaged, it cannot be opened").  If you pull both a CS6 project and a CC project into TextEdit, you'll see that they are radically different.  I don't think what you need is possible.  I'd love to be wrong, though.

[Ann Bens]

Nope CC is not backwards compatible.

Export as XML and import that into CS6.

[Guest]

Since so as to fulfill customers' needs and wants much better and deliver even more value Adobe stopped storing .prproj files as plain XML documents, good old tricks no longer work in CC. Hence, you're stuck monkeying with exporting to FCP XML, AAF or EDL, losing Dynamic Links, 3-rd party effects and even some built-in PrPro effects and transitions...

[cc_merchant]

Those are the hand-cuffs you willingly put on when going to CC. You can never go back. You have to keep on paying rent to access your own material, even 50 years from now, if you live that long.

So much for fulfilling customers' needs and wants.

Luck never lasts a lifetime, unless you die young.

[Kevin-Monahan]

cc_merchant wrote:

Those are the hand-cuffs you....

cc-merchant,

Remember to be constructive and helpful in your comments as stated in our community guidelines. If you want to vent, please take it to the Video Lounge.

Thanks,

Kevin

[cc_merchant]

Not much is lost if you go back now. At most one weeks work is lost, but the longer you wait the harder it gets.

So, the only constructive and helpful solution is to cut your losses and continue with CS6.

[JonChappell]

Fuzzy Barsik wrote:

Since so as to fulfill customers' needs and wants much better and deliver even more value Adobe stopped storing .prproj files as plain XML documents

The files are still XML, it's just that the structure has changed slightly.

[thepossibility]

cscooper - How are you planning to downgrade your install to CS6?

Can you do it through the Cloud App manager? Or do you have original disks or something?

[thepossibility]

All good - I found this:

http://blogs.adobe.com/davtechtable/

[thepossibility]

Adobe stopped storing .prproj files as plain XML documents

The project files are just zipped now.

Rename any .prproj created in CC to .prproj.zip and double-click to unzip. You'll get an XML file.

I tried this on a hunch, 'cause it's exactly what Microsoft did with .docx, .xlsx, .pptx to get the file sizes down.

[JonChappell]

I'm not seeing that. My project files are pure XML.

[Guest]

Rename any .prproj created in CC to .prproj.zip and double-click to unzip. You'll get an XML file.

Thanks for the tip.

I haven't tested CC by myself yet and judged by this.

[KrisShen]

So I'm guessing that CC would not be backwards compatible with CS 5.5? Is that true?

[Ann Bens]

That is correct.

[nmandri]

Hello,

I'm working with a colleague but he's on a 2017 version fo Premiere and I'm on a 2019 version. Any ideas how I could downgrade my project so he can work on it on his version?

I tried this method but when I wen to open the project is says there is an error. Open a New Premiere Pro Project on an Older Version[Mac]! Downgrade a Premiere Pro Project! - YouTub...

Thanks

[Jogen]

Have you tried a workflow via XML-export yet?

Simple editing should be able to be transposed correctly.

[nmandri]

Heven't. I'll try that now. Thanks

[Kevin-Monahan]

Sorry about this NMandri,

Can you try an FCP XML? That's the usual way to do something like this.

Thanks,

Kevin

[Kristian Gabriel]

I usually use the method you listed above. Another method would be to export your sequence as an AAF or FINAL CUT XML. These will output your sequence versus the entire project. You may have to re-link media or re-organize a bit--but this does work well if all else fails.

[R Neil Haugen]

Here's a thread I started in the SpeedGrade forum with instructions for trying this in both Mac & PC, note, I'm on PC. It may be of use to you.

The 2017.4 version of Premiere is the "33" version in the project file, in that fourth "string" of data ... each section enclosed in < ... > being a "string". I would actually replace the current number in that with the number 33, then close.

And I just added the .prproj extension back on the file, and opened it with Premiere. When Premiere closes the file it will re-zip it anyway.

Neil

Direct Link manual Hack for PrPro 2017/SpeedGrade 2015.1

[Michael Grenadier]

I've tried this and it did allow me to load the timeline but it was unplayable.  This was a simple, cuts only project...  Somewhat useful, but better to control which version of premiere you're working in.  You can have cc2018 installed at the same time you have 2019 installed.

[Ann Bens]

This on is for the mac

Open a New Premiere Pro Project on an Older Version! Mac

[anyeyin]

Hello,

I accidentally upgraded Premiere from 2019 to 2020 and saved the project with PR 2020.  Now I wanted to open the project in PR 2019 but I just couldn't find the way....

I tired this way to manually downgrade the project:

https://video.stackexchange.com/questions/3804/how-do-i-downgrade-an-adobe-premiere-pro-project-file...

But it still didn't work. When I opened the downgraded project with PR 2020, it said the project is damaged. Although I know this way works fine in downgrading 2019 to 2018.

Is exporting XML the only way?? Can anyone help?

Thank!!

[Ann Bens]

Might not have done the downgrading correctly:

Open a New Premiere Pro Project on an Older Version! Mac

Open a New Premiere Pro Project on an Older Version! Windows

exporting as an xml is another way.

Or use the last saved copy in 2019.