Relinking to Proxy files with a different extension (CC)

Report · Jun 19, 2013

Due to the well-documented and discussed AVCHD bug present in CS6 and now in CC, I tend to transcode all of my AVCHD footage for editing. If it's a multicam project, I like to use lower-res proxies so playback stays smooth.

The problem I'm running into is that whenever I go to relink my media to the original files for export, Premiere's new Link Media dialogue doesn't allow me to search for file names without including the extension. So instead of being able to look for "Clip_01" regardless of the extension, it's looking for "Clip_01.avi". When the original file is called "Clip_01.MTS", this tends to be a problem.

I can manually go to the "Clip_01.MTS" file and make it link to that, but then the rest of my media just stays linked to the files they were linked to in the first place. This makes it impossible to relink multiple files with different extensions. I literally have to go through each and every clip and manually "Replace Footage" with the original MTS file. Which sucks.

So there you have it. Is there any way to get around this? I know I can transcode to both an intermediate and a proxy with the same extension, but then I would just be eating up harddrive space. Should this be a feature request? I thought Adobe had this whole relinking thing figured out.

Report · Jun 04, 2014

I'm pretty sure you can do in now in Premiere CC.

I just re-linked footage that was proxyed with a small mp4 file with an mov file.

Just unclick the "match extension". It re-linked the footage. I was even able to flip back and fourth. If all of your footage is proxyed in one folder and source from another, it should work to relink them all.

Good luck.

Report · Aug 16, 2014

After you have a no folder with the footage you want replaced, trash the folder with your original footage. After everything is relinked correctly, take the original footage out of the trash and put it back to where it belongs. Voila!

Report · Jun 24, 2015

Okay, I have just found a work around that completely solved this issue for me, thank goodness!

I was trying to replace my MOV proxies with the original R3D and MXF files, but I couldn't do more than one file at a time. When I had "relink others automatically" selected, it would only connect the first file, and then the rest would default to my proxies EVEN IF I renamed the proxy folder so Premiere shouldn't have known where they were.

The trick is to move the proxy folder upwards in the file system. This stops premiere from finding the old proxies.

BUT, I was still having issues with my RED footage because it splits up some of the clips into multiple R3D files. So I unchecked "extension" and "name" in the locate window and checked "media start" instead. It takes a little while to connect, but it sure beats doing it manually one by one! I found too that if you change the file structure of the original footage to match the proxies, this also speeds things up.

Report · Jul 09, 2015

Check this out. 4K Proxy Editing Video Workflow Efficiency // Tutorial Series on Vimeo

Excellent tutorial for figuring this stuff out. Watch the whole series including the video descriptions and comments for other troubleshooting. Good luck!

Report · Oct 12, 2015

Hi there,

I have the same requirement- to use proxies to offline and then relink to masters with a different file extension (...I'm actually surprised this isn't easy.) I have followed the steps outlined by Monkeyeatsmonkey and Mark but I still can't get PP to see the files even with "File Extension" unchecked.

I have shot ProRes HQ 422 and am finding this isn't working in my system (Windows 10.) So I have made DNxHD files that I want to use as proxies. Of course the ProRes have the .MOV extension and the DNxHD are .mxf files.

I can't figure out what I am doing wrong- can anyone help me figure this out? Maybe walk me through it step by step.

Thanks!

Report · Jul 18, 2016

Okay, I have solved my problem relinking proxy media to original media with different extension name.

here are my steps

1. Make media off-line

2. Select footage and link media

3. On "match file properties" only select "CLIP ID"

4. Now locate your folder with the original media and everything should relink automatically.

I hope this works for every body, if you have any trouble try to move the proxy folder up a level and repeat steps 1 - 3

Good luck!