pro res file opens as an audio clip

[bartonlew]

I'm starting a new project with a 22 GB pro res file stored on an external hard drive.  When I import it, it appears as what looks like an audio clip.  And there is no video track showing in the timeline.  What's going wrong here?  I know this file has video as I have accessed it in the past.  Thanks.

browsing to .mov file on hard drive

file comes in as audio only

no video in timeline

[bartonlew]

I get the error message below after awhile.  If there is more information I need to add about my file, please let me know.  I do not have the quicktime pro res codec downloaded to my current machine and i am not sure it is still supported by Apple.  So I'm not entirely sure how I would access information about or play this file. 

[Trent Happel]

The red triangle with ! in the very bottom right of the app is an indicator of an error. Click on the red triangle to open the Events panel (or go to Window menu > Events. The Events panel should list what the error is. Select the error and click Details... button to get more information.

Hope this helps.

[bartonlew]

I'm sorry, you're seeing a red triangle in the last screen shot I sent?  I'm looking everywhere for it and don't see it.  Can you send a screen shot back with it circled?  Sorry and thanks - but I've really looked hard for it.  Can't imagine how I'm missing it.

[Trent Happel]

Your second and third screenshots show this ("file comes in as audio only" and "no video in timeline"). You can also go to Window menu > Events to open this panel to see error information. If you Quit and relaunched Premiere, then this info will be lost. Import the file again to get the error again.

[bartonlew]

The red triangle does not show up when re-importing.  And the Events dialog box is empty.  Any ideas on how to proceed?  Thank you.

[Trent Happel]

Could you try: quit Premiere Pro, delete your Media Cache, Media Cache Files and Peak Files folders. More information can be found at: FAQ: How to clean (delete or trash) media cache files?

Then launch Premiere and import the file again.

[bartonlew]

Thank you.  After doing this and importing the file again, the red triangle appeared.  However, when clicking on it, an Events dialog box comes up with no reason provided for the error.  However, when the triangle initially appeared, a pop up window said "Unable to load video ... because file contains more than one image descriptor."  What does that mean?

[Trent Happel]

If you select the error in the Events panel, then you should see the Details button activate and clicking that will list the same error you saw with the pop-up. What this error means is that the file has been marked with more than one codec image descriptor, which can be confusing to Importers.

I believe that these type of files would open in earlier versions of Premiere Pro, such as 11.1.2 or 11.1.4, via the legacy QuickTime 7 era/QuickTime 32-bit. Recent versions of Premiere Pro dropped the legacy QuickTime support, so these file types are not currently supported with our native Importers. The error you see now is in place to inform that the Import failed and the reason why (which could be a bit more robust in the details).

A possible workaround is to open he ProRes files in Premiere Pro 11.1.4 and export them with the exact same Export Settings (choose Format: QuickTime and Preset: Match Source (Rewrap)), which should smart render. This exported file should then work in current versions of Premiere Pro.

Bit more information on smart render: Smart rendering in Premiere Pro

[bartonlew]

Thanks.  If by selecting you mean double click on it. I did and do see the error I saw before.  I guess I need to download that earlier version of Premiere (you are correct that the file opened fine in a prior version of Premiere).  I'll figure out where to do that and try what you suggest.  Thanks again.

[Trent Happel]

One more thing, in case the Match Source (Rewrap) preset does not work, you can just click the Match Source button under the Video tab > Basic Video Settings and then set your Video Codec to match your file.

[bartonlew]

Hi Trent.  At 7:05 pm there was a repost of your earlier message to delete the Media Cache, Media Cache Files and Peak Files folders.  I had done that yesterday but did it again and relaunched, and am still getting the file as an audio file only.  I will try and open the 11.1.2 version now and see what happens.

[bartonlew]

Well it looks like the next earlier version of PP before 11.1.4 is 7.0 and before that 6.0.  Should I try one of those or are their other options for my accessing the ProRes files?  I'm a bit surprised that I am having this problem.  I would think there are a lot of ProRes files out there, but I really don't know.  Thanks for your help.

[bartonlew]

Another thought I had was that my files are all on my hard drive (D drive) and program files are on my solid state drive (C drive).  I found the media cache folders in AppData on the C drive under Users.  I don't think those folders would also exist on my D drive and I looked and don't see them.  Just mentioning in case they could be in 2 places and I haven't deletd them on the D drive but I don't think they're there.

[Trent Happel]

That is odd. The ProRes files we have seen with multiple codec image descriptors were supported in Premiere Pro 11.1.x via the legacy QuickTime 7/32-bit. Do these files open in QuickTIme Player?

If these files do not import correctly in Premiere Pro 11.1.4, then they may have never been supported. You may need to convert them in another application that supports them. Sorry about that.

[bartonlew]

Come to think of it, I believe you are correct.  The film I was trying to import is from 2010; I only started using Premiere on more recent projects, in about 2017.  So I apologize for the confusion.  Can you possibly provide any direction on what I should do to import my 2010 film into Premiere?  I assume I would need to know at a minimum the codec for that film - which I thought was also ProRes; I do know for certain that these older files played on Quicktime Player.  Thank you for any guidance you can provide.

[Trent Happel]

If Premiere Pro never supported your files, then all that I can think of is that you will need to find another application that supports these files and then convert them. If they open in QuickTime Player, then the Inspector (CMD + I) should tell you the codec of the file.

[bartonlew]

Thank you.  I'll try to open them in QT.  Since I have no experience with programs other than Premiere, might you be able to suggest another application which would allow conversion as you suggest?  And what exactly am I converting to?  Thank you.

[bartonlew]

Thank you Trent.  I downloaded Premiere Pro 2017 and created the project anew and imported the file.  There is no difference from what I was experiencing with the current version of PP.  See screen shot below.  I guess the thing to do now is to download successively earlier versions and see if one of them imports it with video.  I guess there is nothing to do on the import side except browse to the file and import - no adjusting of settings etc. as I see no options for that that would affect the import.  I'll try the next earlier version. 

[GreenMachine-3000]

Hi,

I am having the same issue. Did you find a solution?

[carienhendriks1404]

I had the exact same problem with importing an MOV file into PP. What i did is I opened the file in quicktime, clicked on File then export as and choose which quality you want. When its done exporting from quicktime open the new exported file in PP then it works perfectly.  

[R Neil Haugen]

Second image of your first post ... the very lower right corner of Pr.

Neil

[defaultj3n3e44r5ydj]

I figured this out without having to export in quicktime or purchase compressor.

Put a blank gap in the very first part of the fcpx timeline. Or make sure it is black for a second or less. 

Premiere will then accept this.   That easy.

[Qinhan228488048r8d]

I use Windows OS, I had a same issue while importing file, it showed import fail "File contains more than one image descriptor".

I've tried re-encoding through Premiere pro, and Media Encoder, through native codec or 3rd party codec extension... None of them worked, Adobe can't import anything from the beginning.

I guess the 'inserting blank' while exporting from Mac - Final cut pro x, should avoid this issue, but i don't have a Mac.

Here I share my solution, it works for me, hope it can helps who ever reading this.

The software called handbreak it's clean and free. I use it to export .mp4 files, then import in premiere. Unfortunatly it only support h264 or MPEG for output, but at least I can read my files.

Cheers