Solving Duplicate Master Clips AFTER they have been edited into timelines

[mjshade]

I'm editing using the most recent version of Premiere on the most recent version of OSX.

I'm working with two other editors who have the same versions of Premiere and OSX as me. We have been importing sequences/project files back and forth for several months, and we didn't realize that this was causing the master clips from each sequence to create duplicates of themselves upon each import from one project file on one editor's computer to another.

When we realized it was happening, it caused an organizational nightmare, and we didn't know how to fix it.

After reading through this guide: Reuse clips and work across multiple projects | Adobe Premiere Pro CC tutorials I think we've figured out how to prevent dupes going forward.

HOWEVER, we have a huge number of duplicate clips that we can't get rid of now. If we delete one dupe master clip, it deletes itself on whatever timeline it's been used with. We will lose our work if we delete any of our master clips.

My question is: is there a way to make Premiere realize that all of our duplicate master clips are the same media and winnow them down without deleting their appearances on our timelines?

THANK YOU

[Trevor_Asq]

alexl45094283  wrote

You’ll notice that some times creates the same folder structure, and it seems that is duplicating the clips, but if you go inside the bins, you’ll see that it’s only duplicating the folder structure and inside the bins there are the clips that were not included when you dragged the first sequence.

I think you'll find that you have 'Automatically Hide Dependent Clips' enabled - if you try and delete those folders you'll be told that you will lose clips from the timeline.

[torchia1667]

That's great Alex, thanks for sharing, I've already been through days of hell, manually resolving thousands upon thousands of files in a feature doc project.

Again, a shame that the great engineering minds at Adobe keep adding gimmicks such as VR to the program, while still being unable to properly implement such a basic feature as stable dupes resolution system or fixing a program-wide UI crawl whenever the timeline is zoomed out a bit.

Priorities, Adobe.

[John Paul Horstmann]

This worked for me. Please note you don't need to do it to two projects. Even if you just move one project form the media browser into a blank project, it will simplify it down so there is only one instance of a master clip.

However, I found that in order for this to work, you can't have the master clips strewn in random folders about your project. You first have to simplify your folders so that the masters are next to each other, with the same "path".

[voyagertv]

Thank you for this solution, Alex! In the middle of editing a feature doc and was in panic mode with this precise issue, but this WORKED! I will say, after a few days of using this solution, some things have change for me. Now when I drag a sequence from media browser into the root of my primary project, nothing happens! However when I right click and hit import, the sequences AND their duplicate media come into the project. I was so frustrated, but then on a whim I tried just deleted the duplicates, and somehow the new sequences stayed intact. This is the current evolution of this workaround for me. Curious if anyone else ran into this?

[lcagaiden]

Can't figure out if i'm doing something wrong but this is not working for me...

I have two separate projects i'm essentially trying to merge into one.  They both use the same exact media files, except one is better organized, and the other editor was a bit messier with the work.  I already re-organized both files into the same bin structure and all to make sure this is not tripping premiere up somehow, but no luck.  All that my few few hours of effort accomplished is that premiere doesn't create extra bins for the footage but instead inserts all the - still DUPLICATED - media files into the right folders now...

I spent the entire day today trying to find a solution to this, it's so damn frustrating!

[WMK]

Dear Alex,

Thank you so much!!!!

This did the trick!!!! You saved me on this one!!

Wayne

[jd878787]

ALEX!!!!!! YOU ROCK!!!!! Thank you for this! Saved me hours and hours of fixing a mess!

[chrisb72412436]

ugh, no! the solution to this problem isn't to turn XMP writing on, it's to turn it OFF. This problem of PP not recognizing media on import it COMPLETELY manufactured by adobe. It doesn't completely solve the problem (Adobe has shown little interest in fixing this issue (its been a huge problem for years) but:
1: go into the preferences and UNCHECK every preference having to do with XMP. Do this on every computer that will open a project containing the shared media. Quit and reopen PP several times to make sure your setting are all saved (Adobe, like a sleazy russian spam bot, will try and reset the XMP in order to boost usage of their pathetic, unusable, metadata system.)

2: ingest the media and if you are going to do any "Modify" settings on the clips, such as switching stereo audio to  mono, etc, do it now, because once you ingest media into multiple projects and then "Modify" in one, the other project will not reconcile the 2 clips. (Adobe's pathetic developers aren't competent enough to manage this "confusion")

3: you should be good to go, but make sure you copy media into each version of your edit project before you start trying to move sequences back and forth. Definitely keep an eye out for duplicate media bins popping up, and trouble shoot when you do, otherwise you will start multiplying your media database and pretty soon you will be out of control and you will crash your project.

4: Pray to whatever god you choose to reduce the scam artists at Adobe into dust