Premiere Pro CC Projects Will Not Be Backward Compatable

[Trevor.Dennis]

This may have been mentioned before, but I have looked through the first two pages without finding a reference.  I'm trawling through the CC FAQ, and find lots of answers to questions I was not sure about, but one of the questions is 'Which CC applications support export to CS6?'.  The short list of apps that follow does not include Premiere Pro.  It seems to me that that also means that if you try the CC for the discounted first year, and decide it isn't right for you, any projects you develop in Premiere Pro CC during that year, can not be taken back to Premiere Pro CS6 for further work.  I guess you can import the entire project exported from PP CC, and edit that, but that is not going to be convenient with a multi track, complex project.   Am I not thinking this through correctly?  (Sorry, the forum won't let me paste the link)

[Stan Jones]

I see the same information you cite.

See the Cloud FAQs:

http://www.adobe.com/products/creativecloud/faq.html

Look under Desktop Apps, "Which CC applications support export to CS6?"

Do I remember a post saying that Premiere CC will export to CS6?

Kevin , can you clarify?

[cvid01]

This may assist: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1206477?start=0&tstart=0

[Stan Jones]

This may assist: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1206477?start=0&tstart=0

It assists to the extent that it confirms that as it stands, Premiere is not in the group that will provide an "export to CS6" option. This thread was in the Cloud forum, and Premiere was mentioned only by a user who notes that it is not in the "export to CS6" group.

[Guest]

Do I remember a post saying that Premiere CC will export to CS6?

I don't recall any response aside from my own suggestion to test known trick of replacing Version="XX" expression in the fourth line with appropriate number prior to moving real life projects into a new release.

What actually surprises me, After Effects is not in the list as well... Hope, it's just a blunder...

[ProDesignTools]

Fuzzy Barsik wrote:

What actually surprises me, After Effects is not in the list as well... Hope, it's just a blunder...

It may have been, because note that After Effects has since been added to Adobe's list of applications that can officially export from CC to CS6:

The following applications support the ability to export to the CS6 version of the application:

• Photoshop
• InDesign®
• Illustrator
• Flash® Professional
• Dreamweaver®
• After Effects®

[Jim_Simon]

Generally speaking, projects can be opened in later versions, but not older versions.  It's been that way for a long time now, regardless of license.

[Stan Jones]

Generally speaking, projects can be opened in later versions, but not older versions.  It's been that way for a long time now, regardless of license.

True of Premiere. Illustrator, for example, allows saving to much early versions. After Effects CS6 allows saving as CS5.5.

[Trevor.Dennis]

I still have PP CS5 installed, so I just tried it with a recent project.  I got a panel telling me the project was created in a previous version, and asking if I'd like to 'Convert' it.  I obviously bailed out at that point, but it looked like it was going to work.

[shooternz]

FWIW. It is quite safe and simple when getting this message..

I got a panel telling me the project was created in a previous version, and asking if I'd like to 'Convert' it.  I obviously bailed out at that point, but it looked like it was going to work

...to do so.

It creates a new project file and does not overwrite the original one

[Guest]

I still have PP CS5 installed, so I just tried it with a recent project.  I got a panel telling me the project was created in a previous version, and asking if I'd like to 'Convert' it.  I obviously bailed out at that point, but it looked like it was going to work.

Now try to open test CS6 .prproj file in a script editor (e.g. in ExtendScript Toolkit) or in a text editor, find Version="25" in the fourth line of the XML code and replace it with Version="23". Then try to open it in PrPro CS5.

[Trevor.Dennis]

LOL It never ceases to amaze me how clever people can be with stuff like this.   In actual fact, I am looking forward to joining the CC.  I see the discounted first year as a nice bonus, but will be very happy to pay Oz$600/year there after.  Shooter, thanks for the tip.  I'd guess that you will be peased with the new deal as well?

[_r_Evolution]

To go backwards you will probably need to export an EDL which doesn't care what version created it or is opening it. You will probably lose most of your FX, Transitions, etc that are not supported in the earlier version that opens the EDL... but most everything else should be in tact.

[ProDesignTools]

That's right.  And Exporting to AAF (Advanced Authoring Format) is another option within Premiere Pro for saving back to older Adobe versions or to other editing tools, with the similar proviso that newer features may be ignored.

So there are ways to do it.

[Eberswalde]

I found the following work-around: not perfect, but quite good.

• Premiere 6.5 projects can be directly opened in CS6 or earlier just by changing the extension from .ppj to .prproj

• Make a copy of the original .prproj file and name it Name_audio-only.prproj
•  
• Export sequence(s) as FCP XML from CC - multiple sequences can be selected OR select Project Panel to export entire project (Attention: Most video - even intrinsic ones like motion, opacity etc. and audio effects are not correctly translated! Check beforehand that all 3rd party plugins are installed in all versions of PPro!)
•  
• Save a copy of the project as Name_video-only.prproj and delete all audio tracks or audio clips from all sequences that contain video effects
•  
• Close PPro CC project

• If the PPro CC project file is compressed, add .gz as extension and extract with 7zip
  • To disable compression in CC:
    • Mod note: This text was removed as it is against community guidelines to condone the use of internal debug tools. Please avoid this in the future. Thanks.
• Open in Notepad++

• Edit version number change (4th line) from 26 to 23 or 24 and open the project in PPro CS5.0.3 or PPro 5.5.2 and save it.
•  
• If there should be a color picker dialogue box while opening click Cancel (as this is most probably for Adjustment Layer which are not supported in CS5.5)
•  
• If PPro CS5.5 shows a Log of non-translated effects etc., copy and paste them into a text file with the project name for later reference. 
  • PPro Version numbers:
    • 23>CS5
    •  
    • 24>CS5.5
    •  
    • 25>CS6
    •  
    • 26>CC
    •  
    • 27>CC 2014
  • A simple change to 23 and opening it directly in Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 does not work! (Liegt wahrscheinlich an den Audiotracks, da Projekte mit Sequenzen, die nur Video enthalten, teilw. geöffnet werden können.)
  •  
  • It is possible to open a PPro CS6 project directly in CS5.5 by editing the version number from 25 to 24.

• Open this project Name_video-only.prproj in Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 and convert it to CS6 project - now you have all the sequences with the supported video effects
•  
• Import FCP XML project file(s) into PPro CS6 and copy the audio tracks from the corresponding sequences (or vice versa: copy video tracks so they align synchronously again)

• Gotcha’s:
  • Through Edits, Adjustment Layers, Time Remapping, 3rd party filters, plugins, transitions may not be correctly translated!

PRPROJ File Associations

After installing an update to PPro, Windows will change the default program to the latest program version, e.g. CC. If you want to revert those to CS6, you cannot simply do it with Rightclick>Open with>C hange default program..

There is a way to change the setting in the Windows Registry:

Open regedit.exe as Administrtor

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Adobe.Premiere.Pro.Project. >  shell/open/command and change the path in “” to the correct program version.

You can also do a search in the section of HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Adobe.Premiere.(with various endings following the word "Premiere") and change all remaining instances.