Productions: source media has been deleted or moved

[KazuTa]

In Premiere Pro 24.3.0 (Build 59) on a MacBook Pro 2023 M2 Max (macOS 14.5), I have a Production with two projects, "Cuts" and "Footage". In one of the sequences in my "Cuts" project, there are clips from a video file that play back, but when I try to "Reveal in Project", it says:

When I click OK, it says:

Again, the clip plays back in the timeline, but it has somehow lost its clip project association. I know where the file is on my external hard drive, but I can't relink it because the clip has lost its clip project association.

Here's a similar discussion. I don't know if a solution was reached:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro-discussions/premiere-production-sequence-loses-clip-proj...

[R Neil Haugen]

Are the clips 'stored' in the same project as the sequences?

One of the problems with Productions is that the references on sequences to the 'home' project of clips is not spiffy. As in match frame doesn't work correctly. And I think this is what you are running into.

It's something many of us are pushing for a change on, as well ... the reference back to the project the clip is stored in can be rather crucial at times, right?

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hello @KazuTa,

Thanks for filing your bug report. I hope the team can help you as soon as possible in the meantime, can you provide the team more information? See, How do I write a bug report? Information about workflow, media type, and system configuration might be helpful.

I hope @@mattchristensen or @Ben Insler might comment. Sorry for the frustration.

Thanks,
Kevin

[KazuTa]

The clips aren't 'stored' in the same Project as the Sequences. 

[Ben Insler]

@R Neil Haugen 

As in match frame doesn't work correctly.

Can you detail this a bit more?  I'm curious about your experience (becasue you're not wrong, althoug it's not usually match frame that's the problem).

[KazuTa]

• Issue - A short description of the problem. 
• Adobe Premiere Pro version number: 24.3.0 (Build 59)
• Operating system - macOS 14.5
• System Info: CPU, GPU, RAM, HD:

  • CPU - M2 Max 12 core

  • GPU and Driver Version - 38 core

  • RAM - 96 GB

  • Hard Drive (and, if external, how the drive is connected: USB 3, Thunderbolt, etc.). - LaCie 5 TB Rugged (USB 3.1? Micro B super Speed to USB A?)

• Video format: H.264
• Workflow details: I have a Production that had several projects in it; the projects had sequences & footage. I created a "Cuts" project and moved all sequences from the various projects into it, and created a "Footage" project and moved all footage into it. After doing this, for one of the clips in a sequence, when I select it in the timeline and try to "Reveal in Project", I get this error:
  When I click "OK", I get this error:
  The clip plays back in the timeline, so it is referencing a file on my external hard drive. However, there is no "master clip" for this file in my "Footage" project. So, when I try to "Reveal in Project", there's no "master clip" to reveal.
• Steps to reproduce - (Very important!) 
  1. Create a Production.
  2. Create a project that has footage in it. Cut the footage into a sequence.
  3. Create three more projects with different footage using Step 2 above.
  4. Create a "Cuts" project. Move the sequences from all four projects into it.
  5. Create a "Footage" project. Move all the footage from all four projects into it.
  6. Delete the previous four projects so you only have two projects in the Production: "Cuts" and "Footage".
  7. Choose a clip in any sequence in the "Cuts" project. "Reveal in Project". (Unfortunately, in a Production with 60 sequences and 347 pieces of footage, only one clip in one sequence has lost its connection to its "master clip", so this error is very difficult to recreate. However, it appears to be an issue multiple users have had with Productions?)
• Expected result - There's no 100% way to recreate the error, but it's possible that the error might recur, though one would have to check each clip in each sequence to know. 
• Actual result -  With one clip among the 60 sequences in my "Cuts" project, that one clip does not have a "master clip" in the "Footage" project, so when I "Reveal in Project", I get the two errors above. 

[KazuTa]

@R Neil Haugen Ironically, in my case, match frame still works. However, in the Source Monitor, if I right click and select "Reveal in Project", I get the error pop ups I referenced in my original post. 

The issue happened because I had a Production that had four projects in it. Each project had sequences as well as footage. I created a "Cuts" project and a "Footage" project and moved all the sequences from my previous four projects into the "Cuts" project, then moved the footage into the "Footage" project. A janky workflow, I know; on my older laptop, the project had gotten so bulky that it didn't work well, so I migrated it to a Production. Now that I have a newer laptop, I was experimenting with a way to make the Production easier to navigate.

Everything is fine except that one clip in one of my sequences. It plays back, I can even match frame; but "Reveal in Project" doesn't work (there's no "master clip" in the "Footage" project).

It wouldn't be an issue except that the original footage is some form of web H.264 that doesn't play back smoothly in Premiere. I transcoded it in Handbrake to an H.264 that plays back smoothly and wanted to "Replace Footage". 

[Ben Insler]

@KazuTa Thanks for reaching out!

I expect the situation you're experiencing has to do with the way Productions work... or maybe more appropriately the limits of what Productons can do.  One of these limits is the fact that closed projects in a Production are not aware of actions you take in other open projects within the same Production, even though those closed projects may reference the contents of the projects that you have open. 

Let's use, for example, a Production with three projects:

• import.prproj
• media.prproj
• sequences.prproj

I can import .mov files into import.prproj, and then cut those .mov files into sequences in sequences.prproj.  Thanks to Productions, the .mov files will continue to live in import.prproj, and I don't (well, shouldn't...) get duplicates of these clips in sequences.prproj.  Further, sequences.prproj remembers that the .mov files live in import.prproj, so I can select a .mov file in my sequence and choose reveal in project, and Premiere Pro will automatically open import.prproj where my .mov file lives, even if import.prproj is closed.

But, I might decide that my .mov files shouldn't live in import.prproj - that's just where I import all my media before I organize it.  I should organize my imported media in media.prproj (obviously this is an oversimplified example, but real world cases of this are common, for example making a new import project per shoot day, where the footage then gets redistributed to different scene projects).  So I move my .mov files from import.prproj to media.prproj.  This wouldn't be a problem if you were doing this as part of your initial import process, but it does create a problem since you already cut your .mov into a sequence in sequences.prproj.  When you cut the .mov into the sequence, sequences.prproj made a note that the original .mov lived in import.prproj.  Now that sequences.prproj is closed, it is not aware, and can not track, that you have moved the .mov from import.prproj to media.prproj. So then when you open sequences.prproj and try to revel that .mov in project, Premiere Pro opens import.prproj and asks if it has .mov, imoprt.prproj responds "Nope!", and you get presented with the Media Not Found error you're seeing.

Keep in mind that Premiere Pro still keep references to where media files live on the drive in ALL projects where the media is used.  So, as you have experienced, the media will still play just fine.  It's just the path to trace back to where it has been organized in the Production that has been broken.

You can use the Edit > Reassociate Source Clips... command to point sequence clips back to the correct project:

1. Select clips in a sequence (you can use CMD+A if you want, see note below)
2. Select Edit > Reassociate Source Clips...
3. Point Premiere Pro to the correct .prproj in the Production that contains those source clips.  Any selected sequence clips that can be reassociated to source clips in the selected project will now be connected to this selected project/source clips.  Reveal in Project will now work as expected on these clips.  Clips that cannot be reassociated to any source clips in the selected project will simply be skipped.
4. Repeat steps 2-3 for however many projects are required to address any clips that were skipped in step 3.
5. Save the project containing your sequence (if you do not save, the reassociations will not stick).

NOTE:  Step 3 does not "only do the broken ones" in your selection; it does not check if an existing Reveal in Project association returns an error before reassociating clips to the selected project.  If a match is found, the reassociation is made.  Using CMD+A in step 1 is fine, but if you happened to import a .mov into multiple projects (which you really shouldn't do), any selected timeline clip that finds a match to reassociate to in the chosen project will get reassociated to that selected project, so either be sure that your source media is not duplicated across projects in your production, or be sure to only select clips you intend to reassociate.

All that said... best practice is to organize your media before you put it into any sequences.  Once you start adding media to sqeuences across the Production, don't move it.

[KazuTa · Accepted solution]

Thank you, you pointed me to the tool I needed:

Edit / Generate Source Clips for Media

This created a new "Source Clip" ("master clip"). The original file was a form of web H.264 that doesn't play back well in Premiere. I used Handbrake to create a new H.264 that plays back more smoothly in Premiere. By right-clicking on this new "Source Clip", I was able to "Replace Footage" with the Handbrake version, move the new "Source Clip" to my "Footage" project, and everything is hunky dory!

[Ben Insler]

@KazuTa Great!  I'm glad you found a solution to your issue.

I do just want to point out (for others that may find this post in the future) that using Generate Source Clips for Media is not actually a solution for the problem detailed in your bug report.  Given the steps:

4. Create a "Cuts" project. Move the sequences from all four projects into it.
5. Create a "Footage" project. Move all the footage from all four projects into it.
6. Delete the previous four projects so you only have two projects in the Production: "Cuts" and "Footage".

The source media has moved from one project to another in the Production.  The Generate Source Clips for Media command is used to create new source media items for the contents of a sequence, and then connects the sequence items to these new source media items*.  So, in this case, you would end up with two copies of the source media:

1. The original source media that was moved to the Footage project.
2. The new source media generated with Generate Source Clips for Media

Of course, using Generate Source Clips from Media does, in the process of making the new source clips, also connect them to the sequence clips.  Reveal in Project will now function as expected instead of presenting the "Media Not Found" error, which appears to fix the problem; you reorganize the new source clips and you're good to go!  But in my experience, most users will not want to create one (or multiple) duplicates of their source media simply in order to restore Reveal in Project functionality.  This can actually become organizationally confusing if you have multiple projects with sequences, where some are aware of the media move and are able to Reveal in Project to the clips in the Footage project, while other projects Reveal in Project to the newly created clips since they were not aware of the initial media move.

Provided that you have only moved/reorganized your source media across projects and none of the source media used in any sequence has been deleted from the Production, the correct way to resolve the issue without creating additional copies of your source clips across your production is to use the Reassociate Source Clips... command.

* Usually, there are only a handful of scenarios where Generate Source Clips for Media is necessary.  Examples include:

1.  If media gets deleted from a project in a Production (deliberately or accidentally) after that media was already cut into a sequence in a different project.
2. If a project with sequences only from a different production was added to the current production.

[KazuTa]

I totally hear you about duplicate source clips. In my situation, for whatever reason, the source clip for that one instance seems to have disappeared from the projects in the production. I did a search in all the projects in the production, and that particular source clip no longer existed. I don't know why it disappeared. The fact that it disappeared is the essence of my bug report. Unfortunately, I doubt that the error can easily be replicated. 

[R Neil Haugen]

Ben,

This issue is why I've gone to single "media storage" projects in any client projects in my yearly Productions workflow. Which helps for each individual project, of course.

But when I grab b-roll or sound library things, other assets, well ... that gets messy.

Like so many others, I would really appreciate being able to have a match frame no matter where the clip's "reference" is located. As so many users have commented, if Premiere can track the clip reference itself across projects, why can't it track to match frame?

That just seems ... odd. It holds the reference here, but not there ... hmmm.

[Ben Insler]

@R Neil Haugen 

Like so many others, I would really appreciate being able to have a match frame no matter where the clip's "reference" is located.

Honestly, I'm confused.  Even in any of the situations described above, you can always match frame.

To confirm, we're talking about:

match frame = press a hotkey (default: F) to load the corresponding source clip into the Source Monitor
Not to be confused with:

double-clicking on a clip in the timeline = which loads the instance in the timeline into the Source Monitor (which would also work in all cases above)

and not to be confused with:

reveal in project = right click menu function (and mappable hotkey) used on a clip in the timeline to open and identify the corresponding source clip in it's project within the Production

[KazuTa]

The video file that the clip was linked to was a web form of H.264 that doesn't play back smoothly in Premiere. I transcoded the file to a form of H.264 that does play back smoothly in Premiere and was trying to "Replace Footage" so that it would replace the clip in all the instances it was used, in all the sequences it was used. Match Frame wouldn't allow me to do that.

[Adobeispoopoo]

For me the edit command:

Generate Source Clips for Media

Worked and is the current solution as of 25th September 2024.

I just love reading about these bugs from Productions, it's really keeps us on our toes.

Thank you Adobe, please send more bugs so we can try to be like Sherlock Holmes.

It makes our days more interesting.

It if all worked smoothly, where do we get our fun?