How To Fix Missing Media In Premiere Pro

In today'south post, I'll walk you lot through exactly how easy it is to reconnect missing media files in Premiere Pro.

The dreaded missing media 'red screen' happens to the best of u.s.a., so don't sweat it. Lucky for us, Premiere Pro has made information technology fairly quick and elementary to reconnect multiple files at once so yous can get back to editing in no time.

Understanding How Premiere Pro Works

Here'southward a brief explanation for why yous are getting the missing media notification in your project.

When you drag or import footage and other media files into your project console inside Premiere Pro, y'all need to know that the actual file itself hasn't moved from its original location.

Premiere Pro simply creates a blueprint or a map of where that file lives and points dorsum to the source of the file any time y'all use that file in your project.

For example, permit'southward say you lot've dragged in a file named 'sunset' from an external difficult bulldoze named 'vacation videos' that is located in a folder named 'footage'.

The breakdown might await something like this:

Vacation Videos (External Difficult Drive) -> Footage (Folder Proper noun) -> Dusk (File Name)

This is where Premiere Pro volition get to find this file anytime that you open your project.

However, if you lot move the file to a different binder OR if you rename and function of that equation (the hard bulldoze, the folder, or the file itself) and then Premiere Pro is going to exist confused.

You changed the design without letting Premiere Pro know.

This is why yous'll become the missing media link in your project.

If ever you movement or rename a file, you have to redirect Premiere Pro to the new location of your file or files.

How to Relink Missing Media Files

First, call up through what may have acquired the broken link.

Did y'all move a folder or a file to a new location?

Did your hard drive get disconnected?

Did yous rename whatsoever folders or files associated with your projection?

If your difficult drive was disconnected, you need to make certain that it is correctly connected earlier moving on to the next pace.

Scenario ane: If you lot moved a folder or file to a new location.

Let's walk through step past stride the most mutual scenario – you moved a folder or file to a new location.

When yous first open your project, you lot'll see this 'link media' window pop open, letting you know exactly which files are missing.

If you don't meet this window, simply correct click on a clip that is unlinked and cull 'Link Media'.

For this scenario, you lot can leave all the default settings at the bottom every bit is.

Select the top clip name and and so hit the 'Locate' button in the bottom right corner.

In this next window, yous'll run into at the very top, the last place that Premiere Pro was able to locate your file, also every bit the proper noun of the file you are looking to connect.

On the left side, yous will use this window to navigate to the new location of your footage. When you select a folder, it's contents will announced in the principal portion of the window.

If y'all find your clip right away, then you can select that single prune and hit 'OK' in the lower right hand corner.

If you tin can't observe your clip and aren't sure where it is on your figurer, then yous can hitting the 'search' push.

Lastly, if your clip is hard to find but you know you're in the right folder (say the file has a long numerical name or you have tons of clips to sort through), you can click the option 'Brandish Only Exact Name Matches' to aid narrow down your search.

Note: this merely works if you lot haven't changed the name or extension of your file.

Hitting 'OK' and Premiere Pro will now reconnect and relink your media automatically.

Bold you haven't moved individual files into all dissimilar folders, Premiere Pro volition be able to locate multiple files all at one time.

For case, if you've moved an entire project folder from 1 drive to some other, but haven't changed the inner structure of that binder, Premiere Pro will exist able to locate all the files at once.

Scenario 2: If you renamed a file or converted to a unlike extension.

If you take changed the name of a folder or a file inside your project then y'all will follow near of the same steps above, merely offset yous need to make sure you uncheck the 'File Name' default option nether 'Match File Backdrop'.

check 'file extension' in link media window

You also need to uncheck the 2d choice for 'File Extension' if you've converted a file (from .MOV to .MP4, for example) from i format to another.

Now when you striking 'Locate', you'll navigate to the newly named file, select it and hitting 'OK' to reconnect your footage.

The Importance of File Organization

Now that y'all know why this mistake may have happened to you, you lot'll empathize much better why information technology'south so critical to be organized with your projection from the start.

Whatever time that you make a single change to your folder construction or the files inside them, you'll have to reconnect those files again.

I have a specific folder structure that I use for all my video projects, which makes it very piece of cake someday I showtime a new project.

Information technology looks like this:

Equally you lot can see, I have a separate folder for the about mutual types of files that I'll have inside my video projects.

I simply re-create and paste this structure each and every time that I commencement a new project.

Feel free to copy my layout or create your own in a fashion that makes sense for y'all.

The betoken is to have a structure in place that allows y'all to go on your files organized from the outset so you lot never stop up moving them halfway through your edit.