Importing folders with subfolders does not work in CS6?

Report · Sep 05, 2012

I've been working with Final Cut Pro for years, and at the beginning of each project I would always set up a project folder on my drive with subfolders for my audio, images, PSD (a subfolder of images), etc. I would then drag all of my content into the folders and subfolders and then drag the main folder into the Browser of Final Cut and it would import it with the same structure using bins. I just tried this in CS6 and it imported the main folder as a bin, though it dumped the content of the subfolders inside the main folder/bin. So I would now have to recreate the folder/bin structure that I setup in my initial project folder on my drive if I wanted everything to be organized the same way.

I always thought of this as a good workflow for starting and working on a project. Is there anyway to import a folder with lots of other folders into CS6 and have it keep that structure after import?

Thanks.

Report · Sep 05, 2012

There is no way to 'automatically import folder structure with media' as you request. But I agree it would be a good workflow to start with and would save some work for people like us who like to arrange all their assets on the os before importing them int Prpro. Please submit a feature request for this.

Report · Dec 21, 2012

There is a way to import organized media!

In Media Browser switch to directory view using the second icon to the left of the scale slider at the bottom of the window
Navigate to the folder containing all of your orgaized media, and open it
Select all of your media folders with cmd-a (ctrl-a on Windows)
Drag and hover the folders over the Project tab until it becomes visible, and drop them into your project

Hope that helps someone.

Report · Jan 15, 2013

You can also drag from a Finder window (on the Mac) but it can only import one level of folders, so make sure you re-create the rest of your folder structure as bins first.

I had to import 5 days of 4-track audio recordings and it just kept bundling the tracks from the same day in a single folder, which was too bad, since they were all named 1.wav, 2.wav etc.

So I made bins for the days and just dragged all the file folders from each day into the day bins from the Finder window. Presto!

Report · Jan 16, 2013

I do it the way that bernk suggested.

I have a project that I use as a starter for other projects. Actually, I have a few different starter projects. You might find it handy to have one for personal videos, another for television commercials, another for weddings. Whatever. That project has all of my logo stuff, some sequences that have video or audio that have effects or transitions applied to them that I can copy and paste attributes over to clips in the new project, things like that. Black video, white mattes. That sort of thing.

What I do not have in the project is any reference to my video or audio directories.

I copy that entire directory structure over to a new location and give it a proper new name. Then I rename the project in the top level folder and open the project.

That leaves me with everything I need except the items that are specific to the new project. Then I just use the Media Browser to bring in those folders as bins. Since I keep my audio and video on a different drive, this works out well for me.

artofzootography.com

Report · Jan 24, 2013

Yes, that was a good suggestion by bernk. I had forgotten about that. As a bonus, importing via the media browser eliminates other problems too... mainly having to do with folder-dependent media.

Report · Oct 24, 2013

bernk,

When trying your method, I'm still only able to import one layer of folders.

If I have a master folder '1'
- inside of folder '1' I have three folders labeled A, B and C.
  - Inside of A, B and C are 5 video clips each.

If I drag the master folder, '1' into the project, all 15 video clips are bundled into the master folder, '1'... and no sub-folder hierarchy is retained.

Any help on keeping the file structure, no matter how complex? Mine aren't that complex, only 1 or 2 sub-folders deep.

Thanks all!

Report · Oct 24, 2013

I find that I have to import each folder individually, and subfolders don't work the way that you want.

But since I have my bins pre-arranged, I don't use a subfolder system on my drive for media, and that solves the problem. I suppose a feature request would be appropriate.

artofzootography.com

Report · Aug 13, 2015

bernk‌
Perfect thanks bernk! Your method still helping someone 3 years later with Premiere CC 2015!

Just saved me hours of tedious work and possibly loads of mistakes with 'missing' footage!

Sai

Report · Sep 05, 2012

There is a workaround (if you have AE) to get the folder structure in Premiere.

Import all folder/subfolder etc into After Effects

Select all, copy and paste into Premiere.

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform

Report · Sep 05, 2012

I'm just switching to Premiere and like everything so far except this. I can't believe this is not part of PP. I always work off of an external drive in Final Cut Pro and setup my project folder with all of my media before importing it.

1. What is the Premiere Pro way of setting up a project folder? Do you just dump a bunch of files into a folder on a drive and start importing them and then sort them into bins once in Premiere?

2. After you already started working on a project and you need to bring in new media, do you copy those new media files to your main project folder, and from there import them into Premiere? Or is there a better way to do this?

Thanks.

Report · Sep 05, 2012

1. There is no absolute workflow or this. I create bins names in a way that is logical for that prject 'Video, Audio, Graphics... etc) and then import into those bins. or, if you name the media folders that way and import the folders it will inherit the correct name. It just wont get all of it's sub folders and keep the media organized within them.

2. I open the bin which corresponds to the new media I want and then import directly into it. Or you could just drag it in after the import. Either way, there is some organizational work to do when you start and as long as you go along. But there would also be some work at thr OS level if even if we did import all subfolders as they live on the OS.

Report · Sep 25, 2014

I think the best/fastest workaround to preserve the folder structure of your media when importing to Premiere Pro is, as what Ann Bens said, is to import first to After FX then import your project as Premiere Pro project. It works best when you have multi-level nested folders.

Saved me big time! Thanks a lot to Ann!

Report · Nov 28, 2013

If you still have FCP7, import the files (with folder structure) into a clean project, export an XML of the project and import into PPro. Much quicker than a slow AE import if you have a lot of camera rushes.

P.x

Report · Mar 19, 2016

Just noting that this is so explicitly dumb that I cannot believe it's 2016 and I have to try to get into folders I created for drives in 2008. Switching from FCP for a project in Premiere Pro better have some advantages when this is all done. This file structure situation is not cool at all.

Report · Jan 07, 2021

2021 and this is still a problem, a small one, but frustrating.

When media are organized on the hard drive into folders with subfolders, the subfolders are not respected by Premiere on import, regardless of import method. I've tried Import, Media Browser, and drag and drop from Finder. No matter which method is used, when I bring a folder containing subfolders into the Project Pannel, all media in the subfolders is placed into one Bin with the name from the top level folder on the hard drive, without subfolders.

A simplified example, If I have a folder structure like this,

PHOTOS

PORTRAITS

Jamie.jpg

CANDIDS

Classroom.jpg

and I bring PHOTOS into Premiere, what results is a Bin with two photos...

PHOTOS

Jamie.jpg

Classroom.jpg

It is frustrating to have to duplicate organization time, manually recreating a Bin structure to match a folder structure.

Premiere 14.5.0

OSX 10.14.6

Report · Mar 17, 2021

This happens, when there is only one item in the subfolder.

When there are 2 or more items it will preserve the folder structure.

I am still looking for a way to preserve folders with only one item in it...

any hints?

Report · Jun 17, 2021

see bernk's solution above. i just followed those steps and everything imported in the correct folder structure, with the exception (as Juhn5DF4 pointed out) that singleton items get dumped to a top level of the bin. seeing as 252 photos were all kept organized in their folders, i'll accpet creating 2 bin for the 2 strays 🙂

Report · Mar 09, 2023

Premiere 2023 - importing files in subfolders still does not work! What - THE - HELL!? Any - JUST ANY - video editing software can do this. I drag and drop a folder with subfolders in it with files and get a forder with empty subfolders. Is that OK?