Working on a project from different devices

[Sepp5FF0]

Hello, is there a way to work on a Premiere project from different devices?

Greetings

[Peru Bob]

Look at Productions:

https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/using/production-panel.html

[Warren Heaton]

Definately take a look at Productions.

As long as it's multiple desktop devices, yes, a Premiere project can be worked with from different devices. 

If everything is on external storage - like a mobile Thunderbolt or USB-C drive, it's fairly easy to move from one computer to another simply by connecting the drive from one computer to the other.  Common use cases include when one person is working on a project between two locations like work and home or a campus computer lab and home or when working on a slower computer during rough cuts and moving to a more powerful computer for the fine cut.  This, or handing off a project for graphics, audio mix, and/or color correction after picture is locked.

Ideally, everything for a given project is in the same folder and well organized in subfolders. 

Fonts and third-party plugins will need to be installed on each computer as well.  As long as the fonts being used are from Adobe Type (included with the Creative Cloud plan) and font syncing is enabled in Creative Cloud Desktop, font dependencies should load as expected.  Other third party fonts will need to be installed on the corresponding computer.

If going cross-platform, the mobile drive format needs to be supported by both macOS and Windows.  ExFAT should work well enough, but if using NTFS make sure any Mac being used has Paragon installed or if using HFS+ or APFS make sure any Windows machine being used has MacDrive installed.

Creative Cloud Desktop can be active on two computers (like a computer at work and a computer at home) without needing to sign out.  If moving the mobile drive to more than two computers, Creative Cloud Desktop will prompt you to logout of one of the two active computers.

Another option to quickly move between computers is with a LucidLink subscription.  The LucidLink share can be mounted on the computer currently in use and the files accessed like local storage; however, this requires a fast internet connection.  I'd avoid the temptation to use shared cloud storage like OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, or Creative Cloud Cloud storage - unless projects are fairly small in file size and you've allowed time for files to sync to the local storage locations (but even then, I'd avoid it).

If using the mobile drive approach, be sure to have everything backed up.  For example, cloned to another mobile drive on a regular basis.  It's a little too easy to drop or misplace a mobile drive.

[R Neil Haugen]

Excellent post by Warren.

As to LucidLink ... your media is stored "out there" somewhere, you setup LucidLink as a transport service. It creates "virtual" drives on each connected computer, so the OS and all apps think it's local media. Works across Macs (Mo) and Pcs (us) without any issues.

Somewhat approaching magical it is ...

My partner Mo is an Ae wiz and awesome sound guy also, from Cape Town SA. I'm in Oregon. Our projects and media are in (mostly) a Production on Amazon S3 servers in London. We've got a couple Team Projects with the media housed there also.

He can WhatsApp call me he'uploading a folder, and within seconds, that folder appears in my virtual drive that in reality is the Lucid Link connection to our media in London.

Then another few seconds, that folder is showing subfolders and files. I immediately open Premiere, and start importing that media ... which hasn't even finished uploading from Cape Town to London yet! ... and start plopping it on a sequence. Including ... playback.

L-L "knows" video files, unlike any other service I know of. And transfers the files in packets according to how an NLE will need to access them, unlike normal file transfer systems.

Team Projects with Local Storage

Another method is the Team Projects process, which has it's own Adobe forum btw. The TP is stored on the Adobe CC cloud, and accessed there by all members of the team. The media is typically best shared around to the users, and stored on local drives.

The "owner" or creator can actually create proxies and share those, but all exports would need to be done then from the computer with access to the original files.

Neil

[Sepp5FF0]

Hello, thanks for these advices!

One problem I faced right now is, that on my MacBook I started working on a project. I have everthing on a storage disc. But when I want to work with my older iMac, its not possible to read the file with the older version of PP. Is there a way to downgrade a PP project file? I guess not.

Greetings

[R Neil Haugen]

Maybe at times ....

Two processes but neither is perfect.

First, you can export an XML or EDL file, which is an old method of inter-app working. Then open that in the earlier version.

Can't handle a lot of effects and other things.

Second, there is a process for opening a project file in a ln un-zip process, and changing the version number. You can find details searching this forum or the wider web.

That can "carry" typically more effects and changes. Sort of.

[Warren Heaton]

For best results, you want the versions to match.

What year is the iMac?  If it's 2015 or newer, you should be able to get it up to Premiere Pro 2022.

What year is the MacBook?  If it's 2020 and up, you should be able to install Premiere Pro 2022 as well.

 I think a challenge of working on an iMac is that even if it's ten or twelve years old that it still works just fine (minus not being able to install macOS Monterey, Ventura or soon to be released Sonima).  Another challenge is that the display is excellent and replacing it with something new is fairly expensive.