Premiere overwriting multiple projects with old projects - new projects not saved

[jessehamad]

I have been producing a series of videos over the last year or so and everything has been fine. Today I went to continue editing a project that I had almost finished and the entire project folder - sequences and source material- had been replaced with an older project. The new project is just gone. I opened another project and same thing- everything replaced with sequences and source material from the same older project. Everything that was supposed to be there was gone. I checked autosaves- same story. I now have three projects that are completely overwritten by data from an older project. All the work from the last month is just gone.

I always create new work files and begin each project from scratch. Each project is saved in separate folders in windows. Occasionally I will copy and paste specific elements (usually text & graphics) from an older project but it's never caused any problems in the past.

About to lose my mind. Any help would be appreciated!

[jessehamad]

EDIT: I finally found an older autosave with the correct project files.. so while I still lost the most recent work, at least I didn't lose everything.. Still curious what would cause something like this.. 

[Ann Bens]

FAQ: When to use "Save A Copy," or "Save As," and and when to simply use "Save"

[jessehamad]

As I mentioned before, I always start new projects from scratch.. the only "cross contamination" is when I copy static elements like text or graphics from one project to another.. 

I did use "save as" once recently, when I split a project into two parts- but when I opened the newly saved project, the entire contents had been replaced with timeline / material from an older project that I had finished over two weeks ago (and hadn't touched since)

[Peru Bob]

It would be a good idea to follow the advice given in the link provided by Ann Bens .

Also, please see Schofield's Second Law:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/follow-schofields-three-laws-of-computing-and-avoid-disasters/

[jessehamad]

I read through the "save as" article, and schofields laws... both good reads, and good advice.. but neither answer the question of "what the heck just happened?"

I'll break it down again:

1. I start a new project- from scratch.

2. Work work work

3. Close premiere and eat a burger

4. Reopen premiere, and the project I was working on

5. BAM- new project is populated with old project stuff. New sequences and source material are gone, and in their place I find sequences and material from an old project that I have not touched in weeks. 

I will make a point to manually backup my work using save-a-copy. This, however, doesn't answer the question of this bizarre behavior from premiere.

[Ann Bens]

It is so easy to save the wrong file after copy static elements like text or graphics from one project to another.

I try to avoid having more then one project open. I rather import sequences from other projects.

[jessehamad]

First: I really appreciate you taking the time to work through this with me.. so thanks for that.

But am I then to understand that, if I hit ctrl-s with the wrong project window open, it will overwrite another project? and how could it then overwrite yet another project that wasn't even open at the time? I feel like I've fallen into the twilight zone of weird circumstances here... 

[R Neil Haugen]

The issue you're having is probably due to saving with the 'wrong' project in focus. Which is one of the things that is very problematic with the stand-alone projects and Premiere.

And one of the reasons I went to Productions mode. In my small, one-man shop. All my work for the year is in one Production, with sub-folders for each type of job, and subfolders for each job, and subfolders for the assets.

As in Productions, the folder structure is your organizational part, and projects are actually used like bins to store the assets and working parts. Projects for media, for sequences, and on.

There are many benefits, including that my b-roll and sound libraries and 'template' sequences are available to all jobs/projects in the Production. Without fear of duplication. Without saving over anything. Without slowing anything down by adding assets.

I would never go back to generally working in stand-alone mode.

[jessehamad]

ooooo premiere productions looks awesome! thanks for the tip!

[willbfilms]

Jesse, if you're still looking for a solution I think I may have found one...

The same thing happened to me -- it is MADDENING and I cannot understand how Adobe could possible let such a destructive (and potentially expensive) and devestating event be so easy to happen. Even if it's not a bug, the architecture which led to this is absolutely not okay.

Long story short -- I feel your pain. Even though I scrubbed through my many autosave files (many of which were replaced by the same old files) I used a freeware program called "Easy Find," typed in the file name, and found many instances of the project file that were invisible to Finder and Adobe.

[Shirley Gutierrez]

Jesse, this doesn't sound like your fault to me. No one is really acknowledging your situation and workflow, because no one has an answer about Premiere's bizarre behavior. I think there's a profound psychological investment in the belief that the products we depend on actually work and can be relied upon; the alternative, that using them can be the equivalent of printing a document to damp toilet paper, doesn't bear contemplation.

I haven't experienced anything so profound, but I have seen it corrup project data more than once, and I think it's doing it when it saves. I had to stop using bezier handles when I mixed audio for a project that was being shared across platforms, because they would become corrupt and create very weird and extreme volume curves. I've also had work I've just done disppear as I worked through the timeline, and no, it wasn't because I made a mistake. I know what mistakes I tend to make.

Premiere is simply unstable, and has been for a long time. Good luck.