Prevent auto-relink (C0001.mp4)

[Trevor_Asq]

I have multiple C0001.mp4 files.

Mostly I manage to rename them to something unique before importing, bit on occasion I might have to use them in a rush.

Now I know this will come back and kill me somewhere along the line so I’ll do a little trawl of anything starting C00 in the project and rename them in finder.

This then prompts ‘media offline - reconnect‘ dialogue and I point PP to the newly renamed files (based on file name, media start). All good.

Only often it has reconnected the first few because it has found one of the other files with the same name and DIFFERENT media start (and duration).

Is there any way to stop PP from doing any automatic relinking (or at least set the parameter that the media start and duration must match)?

[Meg The Dog · Accepted solution]

Uncheck Relink others automatically:

MtD

[Trevor_Asq]

Thanks Meg

I’m fully aware of the relink dialogue boxes.

Do those settings then affect behaviour outside relink dialog?

i.e I rename file C0001.mp4 to Xx_C0001.mp4 WHILST prem is still open and WITHOUT warning or dialogue box PP links original to random C0001.mp4 file with different media start/duration/creation time and therefore random media.

[excited_Genie16B8]

When it comes to tapeless media, it's often best to leave things alone.  Copy the full card.  Don't delete, move or rename anything.

[MyerPj]

Jim_Simon  wrote

Don't delete, move or rename anything.

I just got an AX53 and I've been thinking about a workflow, it names the files C0001.mp4 as the OP states. So then you are somewhat likely to have multiple files in use of the same file name and end up with the issue the OP is stating.

I've been reading various threads about the metadata from the AX53 after looking at the files, and it seems like there is currently nothing of value in the related xml file, so for now I was contemplating discarding the very thin xml's and related thumbnails and renaming all my files.

How do you deal with that then Jim, do you just use all the same file naming for all the clips and perhaps just rely on the folder name?

[excited_Genie16B8]

do you just use all the same file naming for all the clips and perhaps just rely on the folder name?

Yup.

[Trevor_Asq]

I would have over 30 C0001.mp4 files in this current project.

Trick is to rename them before ingest/proxy creation

[excited_Genie16B8]

Put them in different bins.

Card 1

Card 2

Etc.

You can always rename or recolor the clip in the project, which won't affect file names and generate this problem.

[Kimsanov]

Once encountered with this issue and now I always batch rename such files before importing into Premiere. I use Better Finder Renamer for Mac. But I am sure there are plenty similar apps.

That rare occasions when I don't do this (usually when in rush) and encounter this problem I enable path column in bin and unlink all wrong media and delink one by one manually (with mentioned checkbox turned off)

Maybe it is possible to open premiere project in some text editor (it is simple zip archive with .prproj extention with .xml file inside) and rename wrong pathes. But I haven't tried this yet