"Delete Media Files From Disk" Where did Premiere delete them to? Can I get it back?

[defaultceq9oemxoa79]

Is there a 'recycling bin' or a buffer folder somewhere? I didn't understand what I was doing when I offlined those files, I need them back. 

Pardon me for sounding flustered, but if there isn't a way to restore them, why not? Computers have a recycling bin, send it there. Dropbox and Google Drive store your deleted files in a cache for a few days so you can get it back, I didn't think Premiere had the ability to just delete my files like that. Help would be appreciated, I really need that file back, I was just offlining it to check an alternate and then was gonna relink. 

[R Neil Haugen]

Premiere "imports" only a reference to the current file location on disc. It doesn't copy the file on import.

So "offlining" a file only deletes the reference within the Premiere project file.

This does trip people up if they think that importing a fike into Premiere means it copies or creates a literal file on disc.

Then they delete the original, and wonder why they cannot find the file. What did Premiere do with it?

The answer is sadly, that Premiere didn't do anything to the file ... but they did.

I hope that isn't the problem here.

[defaultceq9oemxoa79]

Not quite, what I did was check the button "Delete Media Files From Disk" within the offline popup. I didn't think Premiere was capable of deleting the actual files for the reasons you mentioned, it only ever seemed to care about Premiere's relationship to the file, not editing/deleting the file itself. I'm not even sure why anyone would want Premiere able to do that, seems easy enough to go delete the files yourself, and at least then they wind up in the Recycling Bin.

Luckily the folder the file was in was also hooked up to my Dropbox account, and Dropbox saved a copy so I was able to restore from Dropbox, but so far it's looking like Premiere would have cheerfully obliterated that file without recourse on its end. I guess I need to be careful not to check that button in the future, and to realize that Premiere is capable of leaving its domain and deleting or editing files elsewhere on my computer, which is lowkey scary but good to know I guess.

[Warren Heaton · Accepted solution]

When using File > Make Offfline , if you chose "Media Files Are Deleted" instead of "Media Files Remain on Disk" then, yes, the file was deleted.  

Pictured: Make Offline dialog box with Media Files Are Deleted selected.

If the file is backed up, you would want to restore it.  

If the file is not backed up, stop any work on your computer immediately and run a recovery utility that can scavenge the drive for video files where it was located.  I like EaseUS for Windows and Data Rescue for macOS.

[defaultceq9oemxoa79]

I was able to salvage it through sheer luck (turns out Dropbox was synced into that folder and they had a copy in their cache) but I'll grab a recovery utility for just in case this happens again! I've also learned my lesson regarding that button and won't be deleting any media files through Premiere, now that I know that's a thing Premiere can do

[R Neil Haugen]

Ouch ... yea, that is one 'button' I've always avoided like the plague ... don't even think about it anymore. Good catch, Warren ... 

[Warren Heaton]

I'm glad to hear that you were able to restore the file.

To delete a video file from a project, select it in the Project tab or Bin tab and press Delete.  This removes it from the Project while leaving it in place on your storage media.

The two options in the Make Offline dialog box are what's commonly used in video post production.