Problems With Team Projects - Media Offline and Auto-Save Error

[GriffinLouis]

I have a Team Project with collaborators both in the US and India. The project is connected to Lucid Link, which is where all the files and assets are stored. I am the creator/owner of the project, I'm in the US, and I am not having any issues. However, the team in India is hitting two major problems that are making it impossible to proceed online.

First, they are able to connect to the footage on Lucid Link but it keeps going offline every other minute. They relink it and it links at first, and then goes offline again. This is happening constantly. They are also getting an Auto-Save error that keeps popping up, which says:

"There was an error auto-saving the changes you have made in the last XX second(s) to the Team Project....Your changes cannot be saved while the problem persists. Please close and reopen the Team Project to revert to the last auto-saved version."

I checked Google and Reddit and found one or two other threads but not really any satisfactory answers. At first the Auto-Save directory and Media Cahche were set to my local drive, which I thought might be causing the issues, but I switched the directories to the shared Lucid Link folder and the problem is still happening. If anybody has any advice I would sincerely appreciate it. This is a massive project that is just getting underway, and having to do the whole thing offline is going to be a serious drag on time.

Premiere Pro v.25.1.0 (Build 73)

Not sure about each editors computer specs but I believe this is more of an issue with Team Projects/Lucid Link than with any individual computer. I don't believe it has anything to do with their system either, as they were able to access the project at first amd work without issue. These problems sprang up after the project was underway. There is also one editor who is still able to work, but the rest of the team is having problems.

[GriffinLouis]

I tried removing all the collaborators and adding them back to the project, and that worked for one person, but the others are still having problems. The ones who are having problems are seeing old things in the project that have since been deleted, and they are still getting the same errors.

[R Neil Haugen]

Using Team Projects is a bit more complicated ... the 'owner' adds files as we are all used to in Premiere.

ALL OTHERS must only navigate to the media and include if, by using the Edit/Team Projects/Manage media options. NEVER from the Project panel or "standard" MediaBrowser.

Actually, we used to used TP ... but a couple years back switched to Productions. Vastly more 'normal' workflow, handles small to massive projects ... and it what they currently recommend for most situations. And you don't have this sort of issue.

I've also used LucidLInk, in fact, to store our entire joint operations. Our Production and all media live on an S3 server in London. I'm in Oregon on PC, my partner in Cape Town on all Mac, and neither of us stores anything 'local'. And it works gloriously.

Premiere Pro Productions Introduction

Using Productions in Premiere Pro

Adobe Long-form and Episodic Best Practices Guide 

Jarle’s blog expansion of the pdf Multicam section: Premiere Pro Multicam

[GriffinLouis]

Thank you for your response. I chose a Team Project over a Production because the information I found said that a Team Projecft was better for remote collaboration, while a Production was better for multiple people sharing a single server. Can a Production also be used for remote collaboration? And is it possible to convert a Team Project into a Production?

[R Neil Haugen]

Anything, either a standard stand-alone or a Team project, can be turned into a Production. And Karl Soule has several wonderful YouTube vids on the setting up of and use of a Production. Productions workflows are used a ton by groups working with remote editors or VFX or audio ... or all of the above.

As I've stated, my partner is in Cape Town, SA, all  Mac, I'm in Oregon, all PC. Our Production and our media live on S3 servers in London, and we both work away in Premiere (primarily for me) and AfterEffects and Premiere (for him). Our media has been up through 4k stuff, even some 4.6k ProRese from my Ursa Mini Pro 4.6k G2.

And we've not had any issues. Neither our computers nor Premiere are aware the files aren't local, as LucidLInk's "virtual drive" and transfer tech are amazing. If you need, you can "pin" files and then L-L downloads the file physically to local storage, and uses it just like it was in the regular virtual drive.

Going from a TP, you'd make your Production and plan your organizational folder structure ... typically major subfolders within the Production for Media, Sequences, Sound libraries, and such.

Within each subfolder you either have further subs or start creating projects to hold stuff. Individual projects are more of an organizational thing, almost like bins in a stand-alone workflow.

So your Media subfolder of the Production would have say subfolders of Day 1 or January shoots or Arri, however you wanna organize by. And those would have suitable projects in them, such as say all stuff shot on day 1 in a project in the day 1 subfolder.

Your sequences would have another organizational setup ... a Sequences folder, with subs like Rushes or Stringouts, AE (ass. editor) Pass, or say by day or by scene. With projects inside them that fit the folder organizational use.

So you can sort out how you'd like your project organized, then build it ... then simply add your media. You can of course copy/paste or import sequences into those projects from another project, including a Team project.

[GriffinLouis]

Thank you for the very detailed replies, this is very helpful.

[GriffinLouis · Accepted solution]

I believe I have solved this - I'll come back in a few days and mark it solved if everything continues as planned.

For the Auto-Save issue, I had to change the Auto-Save directory in Edit > Preferences > Auto Save. I set the directory to a location on the shared server (in our case, Lucid Link). Previosuly it was set to a location on my personal machine instead of on the shared drive.

For the media linking issue, the team was trying to link media through the standard method of right click > Link Media. However, the correct way to do it is through Edit > Team Project > Media Management. Under the top drop-down option - Online: Local Media Mapping - click all the way down through your media folders until you reach individual clips. Select one, then click New Media Mapping. This should give you a chance to find your media again and select a new file path. I arrived at these answers through my own research, a ton of trial and error, and with the help of @R Neil Haugen 

[GriffinLouis]

The issues with linking footage continued even after this fix, but I think it was due to slow internet conections. Eventually people were able to get online at certain points and access the Team Project, but working offline ended up being the smoothest option.