Saved projectfiles gone - only .prmdc2 files left

[Claude Crobatia]

Exactly one month ago I was working on a series of videos, all of whom I saved under separate project file names. The files were named "cursus 1 module 1" - to "cursus 1 module 7"

Now I think I made the mistake of entering spaces in the filenames instead of underscores. Still, I have another .prproj file in my auto save folder with a space in the name that I am able to open without any problems.

The biggest issue here is that all of my saved .prproj files from the series "cursus 1 module 1" have disappeared. The only thing I am able to find on my harddisk are files with names like this: "cursus 1 module 789a0368b-767d-4e99-af73-d49c0c289d40.prmdc2"

I worked on these a month ago and have not done anything strange to my mac, I have been working on other premiere projects in the meantime without issues. I am supposed to finish these videos from last month now and am quite stressed for not being able to find the .prproj files, or any autosaved files...

Help?! 🙂

Can anybody help me figure out where my files went?

[Ann Bens]

Files just dont disappear on their own. But usually is difficult to backtrack what really happened.

Is this an external drive?

Make a habit of making a Save a Copy to another drive.

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

[Claude Crobatia]

Yeah I save like 100 versions of a file always because I am terrified of losing it - and now it has happened regardless of my OCDish saving... 😕

So I have saved several copies of these files - but somehow cannot locate them. Only files that pop up are these .prmdc2 files. Any clue on what that means?

[Averdahl]

Yeah I save like 100 versions of a file always because I am terrified of losing it

Have you used the search function in Explorer/Finder or any other file manager to search the drive/s?

Premiere Pro project file are named Name.prproj and if you type in *.prproj and search you should get some hits.

[Claude Crobatia]

I find all of my other .prproj files through finder with search, but not these files from a month ago. I am thinking it might have something to do with my mac and an update... but it is all very strange and quite upsetting, as these were 7 seperate files (which I saved as several different versions) and it is going to be a lot of work to start over 😞 

[Claude Crobatia]

PS: the raw footage files I was editing are from an external  drive yes.

[Ann Bens]

Might have overwritten files without you knowing you were doing that.

Hence the save a copy suggestion.

prmdc2 are cache files.

Might have to do some house keeping and get organized.

[Claude Crobatia]

Might have overwritten files without you knowing you were doing that.

Hence the save a copy suggestion.

Can't imagine I did something like that - but the save a copy option is something I will definitely keep in mind from now on.

Might have to do some house keeping and get organized.

A condescending remark like this isn't very helpful for me at this point Ann, but I appreciate your other feedback.

[Ann Bens]

Sorry you feel its condecending but its not meant to be condesending.

You need to find out where things went wrong.

[Claude Crobatia]

I was able to recover the files with deep scan recovery software last night - so my project is back and I am very glad. It still doesn't solve the mystery of how the files disappeared, but I will make sure to save a copy of everything in a different location from now on.

[Ann Bens]

Not just location but antohre drive. If your working drive suddenly breaks down you still end up with nothing.

[Michael Grenadier]

Always make sure your project file is saved to a different physical drive from your autosave folder so in case either drive fails (and EVERY drive will fail, even an ssd).  It's a question of when not if).  Here's what I do:  I save my project file to a folder on my startup drive that's automatically mirrored on dropbox and my autosave folder lives on my media drive for the specific project...  This workflow actually has my project file living in 2 places; my startup drive and dropbox on the cloud.   This workflow also allows me to work on the same project in multiple locations either with duplicate media drives or with shlepping the media drive. 

Besides editing I provide support for a number of other editors and for some reason or other this workflow seems to stump them, so I've learned to double-check where their project files and autosave folders live...

[Rajeewa5FC5]

THis happend to me now. because I saved my video files in a portable drive.    check if you saved your files in a portable drive . 

[chicken11]

same problem. i had all my projects in a folder and some day after 3 month i came back and saw that the folder is empty. and then i used explorer search but found .prmdc2 files instead. what i think is premiere deleting the unused projects after a while or even when you do something irrelevant leads to this.

[Michael Grenadier]

seems unlikely that premiere is doing it bwdik...  You should still have your autosaves...  do a search for files with the extension .prproj.   I have a folder for my premiere projects on my startup drive that's automatically mirrored on dropbox and I have my autosave folder for each project on each project's media drive so basically suspenders and belt...  

[Jeff Bellune]

3 words:

1. Carbonite

2. & 3. Time Machine

[Colegio272729221ico]

The same happen to me. Exactly the same way. You get any solution after 2 years? The Adobe support team tried to help me, but also don't have any idea of what happened