Premiere confuses files of same name

Report · Dec 14, 2017

I'm editing many VOB files from different DVDs in the same project. Files from one DVD have the same files name as files from other DVDs, but placed in separate directories. Not only does Premiere get completely confused when previewing the videos (playing video from a completely different sequence than the one selected with the play head), but it replaces the incorrect audio from wrong files when rendering... or drops the audio for certain VOB files entirely.

The only way to get Premiere to correctly reference the correct file placed on any sequence timeline is to pre-process all of my VOB files with Mpeg Streamclip, saving one large uniquely named VOB file per DVD, and importing that file into Premiere.

How is it possible that Premiere cannot handle files that have the same name? This is beyond amateur.... Professional grade? Really? I'm having a hard time showing people at work that Premiere can be used in a professional environment. I'm having to resort to using a decade old video converter (Mpeg StreamClip) to read and correct issues that Premiere completely chokes on.

Combined with the horrible extremely slow import bug that plagues large projects, and the decade old 'Unknown Error' encountered by many during export, Adobe is showing that their software is not professional grade and cannot be counted on in work environments. But what choice do I have? Sony Vegas became horribly buggy 5 years ago, pushing me to Adobe Premiere. Avid Media Composer? Software standards, with the advent of never-ending patches, have turned all customers into beta testers. This is not acceptable yet seems to be the industry norm now.

In 4 years of my CC membership, paying an average of $75 CAD/month, I've spent over $3500 to use Premiere. Adobe is repaying loyal customers with terribly buggy software that is only getting more and more buggy.

Report · May 23, 2018

I had this problem today and spent 3 hours trying to figure it out and it's freekin nuts that I have to use this work around but I had to use Handbrake to convert the .vob files to .mp4 files and then they worked easily in premiere pro. The conversion was fairly painless with 5 and 1/2 hours of footage converted in just under ten minutes. This is clearly a bug that adobe needs to address immediately but I was able to do what I had to with a little bit of extra work.....baloney but hope it helps others in the same boat.

Report · Jul 31, 2018

As mentioned by others here, this is not exclusive to VOB files. I have this issue with multi-camera/multi-card projects. I am importing the entire directory structure but when 00000.MTS is the common starting point for many cameras, it is likely we will have files with the same name. The video seems to convert to a sequence successfully, but somehow the audio track gets confused in PP. I understand because files can move that Adobe might link file names to help relocate files, but it should still understand that when they have not been moved or relocated that it should match to the original file and use cache files that somehow distinguish by more than file name.

If anyone figures this out, I'd love the answer. Otherwise I have to painstakingly rename each file manually.

Report · Jul 31, 2018

"I am importing the entire directory structure "

Not sure what this means. Maybe I'm lucky, but this has never happened to me. Each SD card is copied in entirety to a unique folder on hard drive. Then in Premiere, importing is always done using Media Browser rather than File > Import. I think they is key to the issue perhaps.

Thanks

Jeff

Report · Aug 01, 2018

When I've been on long form with cameras that produce files of the same name (C0001.MP4 00000.MTS etc) then I've batch renamed those files before importing - generally appending the date in YYYYMMDD_ format, maybe with a unique identifier if that isn't enough.

Then there's not a reliance on the folder structure in relinking & it's clear from the clip name where the file should be.

Report · Oct 05, 2019

Thank you - I had a similar issue: there were different files but with the same name (as I recorded on different cameras and they both use the .MTS structure). For some reason Adobe played both and I was able to use each batch (even with clips having the same names) BUT adobe only played the audio of one set of clips. Suddenly the audio of the other batch was completely gone!!! I had to go through my library of clips and deleted one batch. I then batch renamed them as per your suggestion and then imported them again. It's working now!

Report · Aug 31, 2018

It would be nice to see comments focus on the OP's problem:

"It's having problems with media files that have the same name."

It's not about the importing, or the VOB wordflow. It's about Premiere confusing the audio of files with the same name. Happens consistently with MTS files, especially in larger(?) projects, or maybe those worked on for a long time.

Report · Apr 04, 2019

I'm having the same issue, I'm receiving a huge pack of files to edit. Once new versions received, of course the files are not renamed one by one. Not practical at all. And Premiere just not helping by not identifying that are different files.

Vanlazarus, it has been like a year and a half since you post this issue.. have you ever get a real solution from Adobe?

Report · May 30, 2019

See the suggestion at FAQ: How to clean (delete or trash) media cache files? Deleting the media cache files got me out of a similar problem where one file from a sequence of numbered files had been deleted externally and the remaining files had then been renamed.

Report · Apr 29, 2021

Three years later, this is still broken.

Report · Apr 29, 2021

When many multiple files have the same names in a project, yea, it's a pain in the tushie. And you have to be careful how you ingest them into Premiere Pro for it to keep all the data straight internally.

Whether it's mts, AVCHD or this or that, the folder structure of the initial camera card (AVCHD) or other acquisition needs to be kept, so that files referenced internally together still 'see' each other. And then the whole thing needs to be ingested into PrPro using the MediaBrowser panel of PrPro.

It seems to have a better track record at getting the file data into PrPro's internal databases.

Not that this will work perfectly, but you've got a far great chance it will. Any other import process will have worse problems.

Neil

Report · Jul 16, 2022

Hey guys.

Ive started to notice this issue trying to import Adobe Illustrator files into the Premiere and i kinda found out what solves the problem. this started when i tied to import several images from exports of artboards of the same file.

all of the images no matter what the name was were imported as same document in premiere pro.

so ive decided to dig into it and got here .

however there was no answers here also.

so I tried something else. and got to the properties of the file, in the details section I noticed that they are all having the same title despite the name of the file. and by changing them my problem was all fixed.

It is stupid knowing that this bug is on adobe, either Illustrator or PP. but I suggest this workaround for u guys. maybe it helps

Report · Aug 16, 2022

I've had a similar issue where I have many video clips with the same name recorded from different cameras (00000.MTS), My solution has been to find the affected clips in explorer and then make a duplicate file (select file, copy, paste) Then in premiere I replace "00000.MTS" with "Copy of 00000.MTS". It works on a small number of files; when wiping the media cache didn't help. I'm not sure if it's good for a large number of files. I would probably use a bulk renaming program to change all of the media in one folder 00000.MTS > A00000.MTS and then use the replace file in premiere to swap them out.

Report · Feb 28, 2023

I'm putting my drone reel together, and DJI is infamous for having no sequential (or date-driven) file naming conventions. Closing the program and re-opening the program completely wipes all stored data on where DJI_0005.mov is being pulled from. I have dozens of projects, and re-linking them all is going to take hours if not days. I wish there was some other way to link media other than just the naming convention.