Premiere - Not letting me delete video

[katerinastudios]

This is really frusturating because I have looked everywhere for a solution and nothing. Here is the problem I am having:

So I've completed editing the episode, everything has been exported and I've closed Premiere, shut down and reused my computer for around two weeks, and so on. In fact, I wasn't even on Premiere since that time. However, for no reason at all, I cannot delete the file even though it isn't open. I have Windows 11(or 10, I honestly don't know I'm not a computer person), and I keep getting the error message "This action can't be completed because the file is open in Adobe Premiere Pro 2023." Premiere isn't even running. And for some reason, all of the other videos that were in the same project have all been deleted.. except this one? I've checked task manager and Premiere isn't running. I can't delete, get rid of, or even move the file from the folder it is in. I even went inside the project, deleted the entire timeline, videos attached, and then the project itself. Nothing. The video is somehow still running in Premiere.. even if the entire project is gone and Premiere isn't running. Does anyone know why this is happening? Or why it only affects some videos imported into Premiere, but not others that are very very similar?

[IReallyPlay]

I'm having the same issue but the file I'm trying to delete is 30GB and it pisses me off. 

I'm here to ask if you were able to delete the file you want? 

[Carlos Ziade]

did you check system processes if any Premiere Pro processes are still running?

[IReallyPlay]

Yes, I did check them & closed them. I also tried closing Creative Cloud background processes but that did not help.

[Averdahl]

If you get a similar error such as "This action can't be completed because the file is open in Adobe Premiere Pro 2023" i would try to import the file in a Premiere Pro project. When done, right click on the clip and choose Make Offline and in the dialog that pops up make sure to select Media files Are Deleted. Click OK and then click OK in the new dialog that pops up.

This will delete the file from your computer and hopefully it will work since this time it is Premiere Pro that deletes the file from your computer. This should hopefully override the error message you got earlier.

Test it and report back! 🙂

I'm having the same issue but the file I'm trying to delete is 30GB and it pisses me off. 

I'm here to ask if you were able to delete the file you want? 

By @IReallyPlay

[IReallyPlay]

It does not allow me to do that either. I get this pop-up: 

Also, just for a side-note; The version I'm using is Premiere Pro 2025, not 2023.

[Averdahl]

Ok, can you delete any files at all from the computer?

What kind of Windows account do you have, Administrator or?

It does not allow me to do that either. I get this pop-up: 

Also, just for a side-note; The version I'm using is Premiere Pro 2025, not 2023.

By @IReallyPlay

[IReallyPlay]

Yes, I can delete any other file, 
My Windows account type is administrator.

[Averdahl · Accepted solution]

The file may be locked and needs to be unlocked as Premiere Pro hinted about in it´s error message. I used this program some years ago to unlock a file: LockHunter is a free 64/32 bit tool to delete files blocked by any processes

Unlock it and then delete it. Hopefully that works.

Yes, I can delete any other file, 
My Windows account type is administrator.

By @IReallyPlay

[IReallyPlay]

Hello,

LockHunter did resolve the issue, but I have one remaining concern: Adobe’s troubleshooting process for file-lock problems feels overly complex. In my case, LockHunter reported no processes holding the file open, yet it could not be deleted through Windows Explorer. I ultimately had to remove it directly within the LockHunter application.

Fortunately, the problem is now resolved. Thank you again for your assistance.

Best regards,
IReallyPlay

[Averdahl]

Great! 🙂

Thanks for reporting back!

Fortunately, the problem is now resolved. Thank you again for your assistance.

By @IReallyPlay