Issues with Default Export Location

[edit58989569]

I am on Premiere 2023 and Mac M1 Ventura. 

Premiere has been very finicky this week with the default export location. I know Premiere Pro exports default to whatever directory you exported to last. That has usually always worked for me.

However, I must select the export location every time I export. I created presets, and that does work; only a few times did it not, and I had to restart. 

I am working on an external hard drive, and the folders I used to export still exist. Any tips or suggestions to get the default export location working again? 

[Parul Gupta グプタ パルル]

If you could tell what your default location looks like? 

Can you share the exact path so I can identify any characters Pr might be having trouble with

[edit58989569]

Okay so it's defaulting every time to my  "Documents"  folder on my computer. 

My File Path is (sorry I wasn't sure how to copy and paste my exact file path) but this is what it looks like:

T7 Drive_121022 Project_Exports 

[edit58989569]

Hi Parul, he is my file path:

/Volumes/T7 Drive /120522 Brand Name/Exports

Let me know what you think might be the issue. It currently defaults to my "Documents" folder on my computer. 

I'm on Apple Ventura 13.0.1 Premiere Pro 2023. 

Thank you! 

[Warren Heaton]

While you're firguring this out, the macOS Location pop-up menu has "Recent Places" toward the bottom of the list.

It can also be helpful to add folders that are used frequently to the Favorites section of the Side Bar.

Sometimes I'll temporarily put an alias to an export location on the Desktop.  That's one way to have the folder just two keyboard shortcuts away (command shift d to go to the Desktop and then the first letter of the folder name to go to the folder within the same first letter range of the folder).

[edit58989569]

I'm sorry I don't understand your comment reguarding recent locations. 

My export location keeps defaulting to "documents" and I have to change it every time I export--even if I exported from the sequence before, and I can't save the export location with my Preset (if that is possible). 

[Warren Heaton]

 

[edit58989569]

LOL you're hilarious. How old is that photo? Rght now Premiere keeps exporting to "documents" I can't get it to default to the desktop, I have to select it every time. 

[Warren Heaton]

It hasn't changed much.

Nor has going to "Finder > Peferences > New Finder windows show" and then setting the pop-up menu to what you prefer (Macintosh HD, user folder, Desktop, Documents, iCloud Drive, Recents).

[edit58989569]

Okay,  I checked and I had that set to "Desktop" already.  

[Warren Heaton]

If the Desktop is where you'd like to get to quickly, command shift d.

[edit58989569]

I want Premiere to default to my previoulsy used export location. Instead it deafults to "Documents" and I have to change every time I export to Desktop. 

[Warren Heaton]

Choose one:

• Place an alais to the desired location in the Documents folder.
• Use Recents from the Where pop-up menu (assuming you've used the desired export location recently enough for it to be there).
• Add the desired location to the Favorites section of the Sidebar for quick access.
• Use keyboard shortcuts to navigate to the desired location, with that location placed somewhere easy to get to via keyboard shortcuts.
• Keep the desired location open in a Finder window where it can be seen as a folder.  Whenever the Save dialog box appears in Premiere Pro, drag and drop the desired location into the Save dialog box to set that as the Where location.  (I find this appreach exteremely helpful when multiple projeccts with mulitple expoert locations are used throughout the day).

[Urik_Kane]

I too have been really annoyed with that behavior lately.
For some reason Premiere has been stuck at "remembering" the export to a very specific subfolder on another disk, I don't even know how it happened, but it was like a one time thing and far from where I'd normally export.
Since then, regardless how many times I'd re-point it to my usual export location, with every new project it would again

default to that very specific distant folder.

I realize from your post that you're on Mac, so I don't know where things are located there, but maybe this'll help

What seemed to help me just now (found and tested it a few minutes ago), on Windows, I opened 

%userprofile%\Documents\Adobe\Premiere Pro\23.0\Profile-<username>\Adobe Premiere Pro Prefs

Basically, it's the Premiere user settings folder, you probably know where it is on Mac

That file has no extension, I just opened it with notepad++ as text, inside it's structured like xml file

Search for ExportSettings.Info.SaveAsFile element, there was a OutPath which I edited to match my needed export path.
Note that they use double back slashes there, and it seems that to make it work, it should also reference a (dummy) file like
"OutPath":"D:\\exports\\myfile.mp4"

Once I changed that, saved (with Premiere closed), then opened Premiere, created a new project, and now it defaults to export exactly where I specified.

I don't know if it works for others but perhaps.

[Warren Heaton]

Compas, a free extension for Premiere Pro, keeps track of the project's export path. You can set it to be absolute or relative to the project path, and create an output folder if it doesn't exist. And it works in the background!
It is compatible with Premiere Pro 2019 and higher (macOS & Windows).

Watch the overview: https://youtu.be/fXGrM9wpWC8

Get Compass here: http://knightsoftheeditingtable.com/compass

[RC Sloan]

I have the same issue. I exported a project months ago to a specific folder and now Premiere defaults to that particular folder for every export instead of my most recent as it is designed to. Workarounds like the ones suggested above are unhelpful when we are just asking to software to behave as it is designed to, rather than superimposing a new behavior. 

[edit58989569]

I never found a solution for this issue, it just kept defaulting to documents and I had to set the export folder every time. 

[einsof613]

Same issue. I just want my default export location to always be my Desktop. But, it continually resets to My Documents and there doesn't seem to be any option in the preference panel of both PrP and ME. beyond annoying.

[JKiddUA]

For any future time travelers, I don't know if this will apply to everyone and it's not really a fix but I had a similar problem where the Export kept defaulting to an old location. Here was my process on Windows. 

1. Pull up the Subsequence I wanted to export and go to Export tab, change the folder location, change the preset. Export. 

When I went to next clip the Location and Preset would be back to the old folder location and preset. What I realized was that I was exporting for one preset and the folder location was getting saved for that preset, but the old location was still saved for the Default preset, in my case "High Quality 1080p HD". So here's what I did. 
2. Chose Subsequence and went to Export Tab, changed folder location but left preset alone, exported clip using "High Quality 1080p HD". I then went to export again and this time the new folder location was saved and I could chose my preset. 

So it appears that the location will default to whatever the last export location was for that default Preset and you just need to export once to your new location with the default to have it stick for additional exports.  

[soniqueb]

Wow, it's been 6 months and this annoying issue is still there 😞
I'm experiencing the same thing with a random folder I used for export a loooong time ago. It was a one-time thing, but now every time I export Premiere suggests that I export in the same old folder over and over again. And I have to change the location every single time. Super annoying

[ccycc]

it's July, 2024 now

the issue is STILL HERE!!

DO SOMETHING, ADOBE!!!!!!!!

[huseynm14372082]

I deleted premiere forever/no problem anymore

[michaeld82340534]

I'm experiencing this issue today, it was working fine until this afternoon.  Now it is continually choosing my documents folder instead of the last used location for exports.

[laclaqueproduction]

Hi @LL,

Since yesterday I have the same issue. Super anoying indeed, I do not have the solution but an easy work around FOR MAC

Click on the location link, then do not choose the destination manually, click on the dropdowm menu, there you'll see your last desination folders.