How do I relink footage that ISN'T missing?

Report · Jul 21, 2017

Hi all.

It seems that this would be a very, very common situation: I've used the Project Manager to copy all the clips used in a project to a new directory. I've color-corrected all of them in my color-correcting application (in this case, Resolve). Then I've rendered them all out with the same names to a new directory.

How do I re-link all of the clips in my Premiere project to those in the color-corrected directory? "Replace footage" is disabled when multiple files are selected.

Thanks!

Report · Jul 21, 2017

Hello Mobius,

select your files -> right click -> media offline.

Now you can link (-> right click -> relink media) to your colored files.

Report · Jul 22, 2017

Very helpful.

But also sadly revealing of Premiere's baffling immaturity.

All of the source files are MP4s. Of course, after color-correcting, I'm not going to recompress to crappy H.264, so I've rendered out to ProRes HQ. Thus... all of the filename extensions are different. The source clips are all .MP4, whereas all the color-corrected ones are .mov.

But Premiere doesn't offer the option to ignore filename extensions when locating offline files. Seriously? This is such a predictable scenario.

Even worse, if you select "Locate" for the offline files and select the directory that contains all the color-corrected files, Premiere will simply reconnect to the original files in a totally different location without telling you. So you might think you're playing the color-corrected files, but in fact you're playing the original files that you just said were offline.

Unbelievable. What version of the software is this? 20?

Report · Jul 22, 2017

From my experience, before you select "Locate" and select the right directory, move the old directory far far away... .

How far? Such that PP will not find it...

Later on, after PP registered the new directory's files, you may return the old directory.

Report · Jul 22, 2017

Thanks.

In the end I had to mark everything as offline (over and over, for some reason).

Then I played through the timeline and waited for the "missing media" card, right-clicked on the timeline event, "find in project," then relinked every damned clip one at a time. And, per the norm for Adobe, the Locate dialog NEVER remembers the last-used directory. So you get to re-navigate to the same place over and over and over and over. WTF, shareware programs got this right in the '90s, Adobe. Photoshop has the same stupid, glaring defect. What does it take to get this fixed? Dialogs should remember their last-used settings.

And of course, no project would be complete without the inexplicable cross-hatched event in the timeline after relinking. The best part is how these events don't display an error card or anything; they just don't show any video, so the underlying track's video shows up instead. If you don't realize it, the result can be glitchy, amateurish, embarrassing... or all of that.

Time to delete the "Pro" from this product's name.

Report · Jul 22, 2017

Delete media cache as shown below:

FAQ: How to clean media cache files |Adobe Community

Rename top folder footage is in and relink.

see how that goes.

Report · Jul 22, 2017

Thanks everyone.

I understand that if I hide the files, Premiere will be forced to ask me.

But that's not really the way a production-ready product (let alone one at version 20 or whatever) should be working. Replacing footage with color-corrected versions is a standard part of many workflows. You should not have to "fool" the editing application to accomplish it.

Report · Jul 23, 2017

If that is the way to get you back on track....

Report · Jul 23, 2017

You should not have to "fool" the editing application to accomplish it.

I won't disagree. Let Adobe know.

Feature Request/Bug Report Form

Report · Jul 23, 2017

Thanks.

I already did file a report on this, and the fact that Premiere will erroneously pretend that you were able to relink the footage but then go merrily back to using the original footage without telling you.

Report · Jul 22, 2017

With Premiere Pro closed, rename the media folder. When you reopen the project, PP will ask where the media is. Point it to the new files.

Report · Jul 25, 2018

May have lost an opportunity to have our series picked up thanks to delays from this glaring defect and other inexcusable basic-workflow failures in Premiere.

And there's no real bug-reporting mechanism anymore, which is especially despicable since we're all renting this software and PAYING PER MONTH.

There is no excuse.

More brilliance: The Link Media dialog claims to have found some files in directories that don't exist. Look at these paths; they are nonsense: