Saving new projects in wrong folder

[travisbakcou]

As I create new projects and try to save the file in a folder, it saves it in the higher folder. 

ie:

-Create new project

-create new folder to save project in called "Premiere"

-new folder in "premiere folder called "project file"

-title project "example edit" and save it in "project file" folder

- file saves as Projectfile/exampleedit.prproj inside "Premiere" folder and not inside "Project file" folder

 

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?!?

[Jeff Bellune]

Mac or Windows? I can't duplicate it on my Mac. When I create a new folder and save the new project in it, it is saved in the correct location.

Did you copy/paste the path instead of just the file name? It looks like Pr thinks the project file is named "Project File/Free..." That looks like a full path instead of just the project name.

[travisbakcou]

Mac. I'm not copy/pasting at all. Just open premiere, create new project, new save location, click new folder, think that it's saving it in there, then I go to open it and it's in the folder that the new folder is in, not in the new folder. It's been driving me crazy. 

[Jeff Bellune]

But do you see what I see? 

Instead of the .prproj file being named "Free Kuat with 2 bikes", it seems to be named "Project File/Free Kuat with 2 bikes".

That indicates that somehow the containing folder name and the project file name are being appended and used as the project file name. That's not expected.

[Sumeet Kumar Choubey]

Hi Teri249747733d3y,

We're sorry about the poor experience. We're not able to reproduce this issue at our end. Would you mind sharing a screen recording of the issue with us? We can share it with our product team to take a look at it. Also, are you working with the latest version of Premiere Pro?

Thanks,

Sumeet

[dmartin72266]

I recorded an example. See attached.

[travisbakcou]

Yes! That is the same thing that is happening to me and it is so frustrating. 

[Warren Heaton]

Does this only happen when you save to the Promise Pegasus?

You have a folder named "grfx/artwork".  Do you also have a folder named "CURRENT/RECENT_PROJECTS" in the project file path?

What happens when saving a project file to a location on Macintosh HD?  Or to a folder where there's no forward slash "/" used in a folder name that's part fo the file path?

macOS allows us to use a lot of special characters, but in general they should be avoided.

[dmartin72266]

No special characters were used in any of the file naming within the path of the saved project, but I think you are on to something with the Pegasus drive. Saving directly to the internal hard drive, I did not have the issue.

[travisbakcou]

I wish that was it. I save on my internal hard drive and it still has that issue. 

[Mommys Smart Little Boy]

Thought I'd share in this thread too:
The name of the folder I had been saving in contained a "/". After removing that from the target folder's name, I no longer have the issue.

Glad it's resolved, but still seems like a pretty silly issue for professional software to be unable to handle "special characters" like a slash 🙄

[Mommys Smart Little Boy]

I'm having this same issue on Mac! It's incredibly frustrating.

[dmartin72266]

Having the same issue. Were you ever able to fix it?

[Mommys Smart Little Boy]

Unfortunately, I haven't. Not even sure where to start! Reluctant to do a fresh install of Premiere since I just had to do that only a month ago to resolve a frequent crashing issue 🙃

[Mommys Smart Little Boy · Accepted solution]

The name of the folder I had been saving in contained a "/". After removing that from the target folder's name, I no longer have the issue.

Glad it's resolved, but still seems like a pretty silly issue for professional software to be unable to handle "special characters" like a slash 🙄

[Warren Heaton · Accepted solution]

Internally, Premiere Pro allows us to use just about any characters we want.  It's when Premiere Pro interacts with an operating system, a volume file format, certain file formats (EDL, OMF, XML, etc.) and so forth that issues arrise and they can be anywhere from minor to show stopping.

Per the Final Cut Pro classic user manual:

"Filenaming Considerations
Proper filenaming is one of the most critical aspects of media and project management. When you capture your media files, consider how and where your files may be used in the future. Naming your files simply and consistently makes it easier to share media among multiple editors, transfer projects to other editing systems, move files across a network, and properly restore archived projects. The following sections present several issues to consider when naming project files and media files."

It's the best advice any edtior can follow.

More here:

• Avoiding Special Characters
• Restricting Length of Filenames
• Using Filename Extensions
• Adding Times and Dates to Final Cut Pro Project Names (applies to Premiere Pro in regard to use of special characters)
• Using Multiple Hard Disks

The list of best practices sometimes feels as though it's never ending, right?

[Mommys Smart Little Boy]

I had been using the folder containing "/" for 18 months without issue. Adobe updated Premiere to include the new Project Creation and Footage Importing workflow and then this issue began. I've been using Premiere regularly for five years and have noticed the stability and reliability of the program diminish significantly, and this folder naming issue is another example of that.

However, I've learned my lesson! From now on I will not expect Adobe products to continue to be able to handle the same basic functions from version to version. When a process that I continually implement without issue suddenly begins to cause problems, I'll assume that it's due to something I'm doing wrong and not due to a recent update in which a bug may have been introduced in the mix 🫠

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hello Community,

True. You can screw your workflow up with an odd file naming scheme like using brackets and slashes. I cannot recommend it. I am glad that some of you on this post have solved their issues by renaming your files.

I suggest these links Warren wrote about might be worth your time reading to avoid errors brought about by file naming practices like using special symbols, punctuation marks, etc. Thanks, Warren! True that best practices for NLE editing are endless.

BTW, I helped write the FCP 3 and FCP 7 documentation, and when teaching editing, part of the courseware I taught went over file naming best practices straight out of that manual. I dare say this used to be common knowledge among editors. I have to tip my hat to my colleagues on the FCP docs team for that masterwork. We had several writers and freelancers banging out these articles.

Come to think of it, these conservative file naming practices were introduced by the Avid documentation that I learned from back in the '90s, so using them goes back a long way. Who would know that, though? Not intuitive as one should be able to name anything whatever they like. Right? Unfortunately, not so in NLE land!

I will submit the issue to the current documentation team to ensure that similar information is folded into the user guide. I agree that it's essential. Using punctuation marks is mentioned here, however: https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/kb/error-compiling-movie-rendering-or.html More needs to be done, for sure. Sorry to those that experienced this frustrating issue.

Take Care,
Kevin

[Mommys Smart Little Boy]

Because I am Mommy's smart little boy, I will no longer user special characters when naming folders, but don't you think it's interesting that this wasn't an issue for me until the recent update?

As I said in another response, I had been saving projects to a folder that contained a "/" in the name for a year and a half without any problems, so when the issue arose, I assumed that it had something to do with the recent update to the software. Actually, I'm still convinced that the update caused this to become an issue because—I'll repeat it—this wasn't happening until I updated . 

With this in mind, I feel that Warren's and your responses read as fairly condescending and appear to be more interested in letting those seeking help know that they're doing something so obvious incorrectly. Now we who were seeking help know that it is best practice to never use special characters when naming folders, but I believe it's implicit in the initial requests that something has suddenly caused this problem to arise. To my mind, the intial request implies that the user was doing something they've always done, the way they've always done it, and for some reason, it didn't work the way it always does! Could, perhaps, this be due to an update to the software?

I'll freely agree it's likely that most issues posted on these forums come down to user error and I understand the desire to expedite the problem-solving process and avoid numerous responses back and forth, but in this case, acting on that desire was misguided.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi Gabe,

I was just trying to let you know that file naming is a pretty common problem. Sorry if I came off the wrong way. I am just trying to pass along knowledge in the forums that may help others too. 

Yes, it is interesting that it worked for you before and does not now. Not sure why, but I see your point, though. You can certainly file the issue on User Voice. Maybe you could request that file naming should not disrupt any workflows. 

Have a good one.

Thanks,
Kevin

[travisbakcou]

I feel extremely envious of you becuase the master folder I was sharing mine in had a "-" so I was thinking maybe that's it. I took it out and I'm still having the issue. Maybe remove the dash and restart my computer? 

[Mommys Smart Little Boy]

Teri, I didn't have to restart my machine and I'm not sure that dashes would cause the problem (but what do I know since I didn't think slashes would cause the problem, haha 🙃) but I did just create a chain of folders like this: "Video/Folder" > "Folder 1" > "Folder 2" and then I created and saved the project "Test Project.prproj" in "Folder 2" and experienced the issue again. The project file "Test Project.prproj" was saved in "Folder 1" and the name of the project was changed to "Folder 2/Test Project.prproj" instead of just "Test Project.prproj".

So it looks as though the issue could stem from any folder in the path containing one of the most specialest of characters, such as a "/". Are there any folders in the entire path that contain special characters?

[travisbakcou · Accepted solution]

I FIXED IT!!!!!!! So the dash "-" in my master folder called "-work folder" was changed to "work folder" and then I restarted my computer and now the problem has been fixed. So I guess it is the right answer that with the new update the file name cannot support being in a location that has a special character. Thanks everyone for the help! 

[Warren Heaton]

@Mommys Smart Little Boy 

@travisbakcou 

***Cough, cough.***

[travisbakcou]

Are you feeling sick? Might want to get that couch checked out @Warren Heaton