Saving premiere cc 2019 project as cc 2018?

[Cburwell03]

I may be mistaken but I thought this used to be a thing.  I wanted to try the new cc 2019 for a bit (and yes I know that this is risky to use new software once it's been released).  So yes I found bugs and it keeps crashing sporadically on copy and pasting a clip in a sequence and moving that said clip.

Either way I just want to save my work and go back to cc 2018 for a bit but there's not an option for this.  Do I just lose my work?

Quick note it's a sound synced multi-cam sequence embedded into another so Final Cut XML will not work here.

Thoughts?

[Ann Bens]

Open a New Premiere Pro Project on an Older Version! New PP Project on Older version, no software! -...

[Cburwell03]

Pretty roundabout but it works!

How about it Adobe? Is this the official fix?

[Ann Bens]

Official fix? No. Officially you cannot revert.

Its either xml or changing the project number, which has been done this way for quite some years now.

[R Neil Haugen · Accepted solution]

You don't need to download anything though ...

1. copy your prproj project file
2. on the copy, delete the .prproj extension, the period and all past it.
3. right-click on the remaining file, go to 7-zip/extract here.
4. open the file in wordpad.
5. Starting down a bit from the top, you'll see:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>

<PremiereData Version="3">

    <Project ObjectRef="1"/>

    <Project ObjectID="1" ClassID="62ad66dd-0dcd-42da-a660-6d8fbde94876" Version="35">

        <Node Version="1">

            <Properties Version="1">

1. see the place it says " Version="35" ... ?
2. Change that number to 34 for 2018, 33 for 2017 ... and on as needed.
3. Save the file.
4. rename adding the .prproj to the file again.
5. open in the version you just modded the project file for.

Not everything will translate back as there aren't the new toys in the older version ... but I've done this many times to take projects back so I can use them in "Direct Link" process with SpeedGrade, and never actually had a problem.

Always do this with a copy of the project file!

Neil

[Ann Bens]

Of course one needs to download if one does not have 7-zip.

The program does not come with Windows.

[R Neil Haugen]

When in Win10, Explorer, right click on a file, 7-Zip is about the second option in the list of Open and all.

I've had this in Win7 also.

I've never downloaded it.

Neil

[Ann Bens]

You might have forgot about it....

[ocube]

Had to sign in just to say thanks...

[JT@NC]

This is extremely helpful, thank you thank you thank you

[joem29802641]

First time I've ever posted here... I think.

Just wanted to say thank you that works a treat.

[R Neil Haugen]

Glad it helped you.

Neil

[JM - José Mesquita]

Bom dia.

Sua dica foi muito boa.

Mas tentei também e deu certo. Exportei do projeto feito na versão 2019 como (Final Cut (*.xml), depois abri o arquivo gerado direto na versão 2018 e abriu completo inclusive com as transições.

Grato.

Mesquita  

[joeb36194373]

Thank you R_Neil_Haugen, you're a life saver!

I can confirm this solution worked a treat for reverting CC 2020 files to the 2019 spec as well, in case anyone is encountering difficulty with the new version.

[José22953284qjg1]

I also just signed in as well to say thank you for this amazing response. First comment I make, and I am proud os for this golden repsonse

[Stan Jones]

You're thinking of After Effects which has the ability to save as to a previous version. For CC 2019 (version 16), you can save to 14.x or 15.x. And as noted, PR does not have this feature.

I'll emphasize the caution about the method described above. The main method (and different from Neil's) is to set the version to 1, so that any version, no matter how old, will convert the file. We don't know (at least I don't) how clever (or not) is the conversion. So if I am opening a PR CC 2019 project file in PR CC 2017, and it includes references to functions that exist in 2019 and not 2017, can it successfully ignore them or not? Does Neil's method help, by convincing PR CC 2018 that it is a 2018 file? Rather than an older version?

And btw, contrary to Neil's numbering, 2018 had 2 versions, 33 and 34. When 12.1.0 came out, you could not open 12.1.x in 12.0 or 12.0.1 etc.

Anyway, when needed, it is a reasonable thing to try.

[Cburwell03]

The method did work with a few minor inconsistensies.  Lumetri color profiles were pretty off, but that was manageable.

It did save me a good bit of time recreating the work I had done rather than completely reverting back to my older project.

[TheRightDoctors]

I tried this method for 3 times.. But dosen't work for me.. now what can I do?

 Please Suggest.

[Michael Grenadier]

as a last resort you could export an xml file and then import it back into premiere.  At least your edits would be there if not your effects, etc.  But first tell us why you need to revert to an earlier version of premiere and tell us what version of premiere your project is currently in and which version you want to downgrade to.   If you're talking about a premiere 2020 project, there are multiple earlier versions of 2020 still available that might allow you to overcome what ever issues you're having.

[MyerPj]

Try this, similar but clearer:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro/open-premiere-project-in-older-version-downgrade-project...

[tim anthony Forde]

So I tried the steps to get back to the 2018 version and I'm getting an error msg, any ideas what to do?

[Stan Jones]

The on line method or Neil's method?

And what error message do you get?

[tim anthony Forde]

It's says " The Project appears to be damaged, it cannot be opened"

[Stan Jones]

Did you use the one line option or manually change the file? One or the other may have made a mistake...

[tim anthony Forde]

The oneline option? Can you elaborate please