FAQ: How to export in Premiere Pro

[caroline_edits]

Export settings in Premiere Pro can be a little overwhelming.

• Help documentation for Exporting from Premiere Pro is here.
• Here are some short tutorials to help you post to the most popular platforms.

https://youtu.be/nogynEmPD_k

Details on video formatting for Youtube can also be found here in Google's help documentation.

Different formats that work for Facebook can be found here in their help documentation.

More details here on Instagram's requirements for posting video. 

Auto-reframe can save you lots of time when working with vertical video. More details here on Adobe's HelpX platform. 

H.264 formatted videos make for an easy delivery. They're quick to upload and compatible with all share services. 

Save your final projects in a high resolution so your portfolio stays crisp and clean. 

I hope this helps you get a better understanding on the export options available in Premiere Pro! For more details on file formats, go here. 

Caroline

[caylak0723]

I have used premier pro to edit videos many times and never had an issue before until now.

I made a project and when I try to export the media, it only will give me the option to export as a 3gp.

The format is a MPEG4 but the preset will only give me two options with h.263

The videos were shot in 1080HD. and in the past or on different projects, it will give me a giant list to choose from, or custom. It shouldn't be any different now.

This time when I was editing, what I did different from past videos was I put the music (mp3) on the sequencing/editing bar first. In the past, I put the video clips on first and then added the music. Did that cause this to happen?

To try to fix it, Ive copied the edited video clips into a new project and then placed the song there after, but it still only gave me one option to export as.

Is there any way to fix this without me having to re-edit the whole video on a all new project?

[gerikp]

Why are you needing to export with the MPEG4 format? Where is your video going? Did you try the H.264 format, which is a very common delivery format, you will have lots of presets to choose. And that will give you an mp4 video file which is what you are indicating you want by reading the subject of this post.

[Jim_Simon]

Choose H.264 as the Format.  That creates MP4 files.

[Henry21866169vh9z]

Prior to recent updates, you used to be able to select mp4 as a format and the default video codec would be h264.

Note that h264 is a video codec, not a file format. h264 can be used with multiple file formats.

Why Adobe decided to rename the option to create mp4 files with h264 encoding "save as h264" we'll never know - possibly just to confuse people who are used to working with those file formats.

[ofmice5]

There's many export options in the media export dropdown list.  Which one is best for Facebook.  My video is 1920x1080.  29 frames.  I'd like people to see it full screen on their cell phones.

HP, windows 10, intel i7, premiere pro cc

[John T Smith]

Found in 2 seconds using Google Video Views: Facebook Video | Facebook Ads Guide

[kulpreet singh]

Hi Ofmice5,

There's many export options in the media export dropdown list.  Which one is best for Facebook.

This might help: Premiere Pro CC Export Settings for Facebook - YouTube

Thanks for your input John T Smith.

-Kulpreet Singh

[JohnnyBoyBriggs]

I know this is an old post but Premiere CC allows you to publish your video directly to social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook etc.

I actually have a free tutorial that explains how best to optimise your video and how to publish directly to these platforms.

Premiere Pro - Export Settings & Presets | The Learning

Hope this helps

[Ann Bens]

For free in my book is click on the link and play and not having to make an account first.

[sparkle twinle]

I agree with you, so annoying!

[Frederick_Park]

Hey John,

You may want to be so kind, next time, as to mention that your link may require membership and payment to access the info you're sharing. Just a thought.

Frederick Park

[christopherm57682811]

I have a 1080p video I uploaded to facebook.  After about half a day worth of uploading, the results on facebook were atrocious.

It looked like an 8-color atari video, funny huh... well not really, literally.  I've actually never seen a look so bad in all of my facebook feeds.

I must be way off for export settings!

The original video was exported, optimized for YouTube settings.  Some literature I came across noted that anything optimized for YouTube, should be equally good for FaceBook.  I've not found that to be true.

The original video export from Premiere Pro CC was in mp4 format. It was approx. 7 minutes long and the total file size was approx. 800 MB.

The original media was 1080p video capture from a Canon 5D at 30 fps.

The main export settings used were (showing Video & Audio settings):

This is what I uploaded to facebook that looked like total poop.

I feel like I need to dumb it down in quality in order for facebook to minimize it's compression.

Is there some go-to export settings from Premiere Pro for best results on facebook?

It's odd that most peoples basic smartphone videos look 100x's better than a clean 1080p PP-CC export after facebook get's it's compressing hands on it!

Thanks!

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi Christopher M,

I have had pretty good success uploading ProRes 422 files up to Facebook. Have you tried that (or if on PC, try DNxHD/HR or Cineform)? Takes longer but with great results.

Thanks,
Kevin

[christopherm57682811]

Giving this a try...

I'm using the settings suggested in this video for ProRes settings:

Export ProRes 422 from Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2015 (Mac) - YouTube

I'll return with results,

Thanks!

[christopherm57682811]

PROBLEM SOLVED (it seems)...

Worth a follow up... and thanks for the tip.

When I exported in PRO-RES, the final file size was 6.5GB (over the original 800 MB).

Solution could be 1 of 2 things I did.

1. I used Premiere Pro CC's preset export settings for "Facebook" which was a 720p HD, 30 fps.

2. On a desktop browser, in Facebook... I went to "SETTINGS" under the drop-down arrow on the top / search bar.

     I selected "VIDEOS" (the last option from the menu on left of screen).

     I changed the first setting under "Video Default Quality" from Default to "HD if Available"

I thought this setting only pertain to how other's videos load on your feed when browsing, though I've seen others refer to this change in order to upload in HD.  Not sue about that, but overall, this upload worked great, so it's worth noting.

The quality is a pristine HD (at 720p)... it's impressive actually, not even the slightest facebook compression noticed.

Also, worth noting, when I first uploaded it, I didn't publish right away... instead did a scheduled post so I could see it before it posted.

When it first uploaded and was waiting to be published, it looked terribly compressed.  I went back and checked it about an hour later and it looked superb.  I think there may be a delay in facebook's processing and player catching up to the full video file and quality vs. it being playable right away.  It seems like in the background, it took a little while for the full quality to catch up.

[JohnnyBoyBriggs]

I know this is an old post, but in Premiere CC you can publish your video directly to platforms such as Facebook, YouTube etc from the Export Settings.

Here's a free tutorial on how to optmise your video and also covers publishing your video to directly to social media.

Premiere Pro - Export Settings & Presets | The Learning

Hope somebody can fin this useful

[nben233]

Hello, I have lately been having trouble when exporting my edited video to use for Youtube. I have tried (I think) everything! When I'm filming the video I film it in 1920x1080 at 16x9 ratio which is what Youtube asks for. I then import my videos into premiere pro cc, edit it all, then when exporting I have tried every setting I can think of but no matter what I do, when I upload to youtube it either puts black bars on the sides of my video or it zooms in just a tad. I have exported in h.264 by match source high brilliant, h.264 by youtube 1920x1080, as well as a few others! Can someone please tell me what export settings I should be using so that how it looks when I'm viewing it in premiere pro, is how it will look when viewed on Youtube! As well is there like a completely different setting that I'm just not thinking of that is causing this?

Thanks!

[Jim_Simon]

My first advice is to know what you're doing.  If you've "tried everything", that implies that you don't know what you're doing and are taking shots in the dark.

You should remedy that.  Learn about codecs, frame rates, resolutions, pixel aspect ratios - all of it.  Know what you're doing.

Having said that, my second piece of advice is to export to DNxHD using the HQX preset.  The files are large, but I do find the results on YouTube better than H.264 uploads.

[HarveyBlogger]

Could you be anymore condescending. That's the whole point in these forums. 

[Ann Bens]

Post screenshot of your export settings with left tab open to output with a visible image.

[joliens60402762]

Hi

Is there any chance you might be able to help me too? I have been having a serious issue with washed out colors with the H264. Now I've found the solution with the NVIDIA control panel and that indeed made a complete difference. Now my exported files look as good as in PP, but when I upload them on YouTube however, they look bad again. So I upload a good-looking video, but somehow with the upload on YouTube the colors wash out and the quality looks super bad. How is that possible? Hopefully you can help me.

Kind Regards

Jolien

[nben233]

[Ann Bens]

Your export shows black bars, so will Youtube.

Post a screenhot of the sequence settings

a screenhot of a clip in MediaInfo in treeview

and a screenshot of the interprete footage of one of the clips.

And is scale to framesize and set to framesize on or off?

[nben233]

So the top should have black bars on the top and bottom (going for a more cinematic effect) but once I export the video and import it into youtube, it puts veritcal bars on the left and right side...