Transfer Projects From One pc to Another

[Simon Silverstein]

I have a number of PrE projects on my laptop. I also have the source media on the laptop. I would like to transfer both the projects and the source materials to my desktop. What would be the best way to accomplish these two tasks?

[Peru]

Copy to a flash drive or an external drive and then copy to the desktop.

[Steve Grisetti]

To add to Peru's suggestion, go to Premiere Elements' File menu and select Project Archiver. This will copy the project file and all of the project's media to your external drive.

[Simon Silverstein]

Sorry, but simply transferring the project via USB to the new desktop wont work, as the project's source materials remain behind in the old computer, so, when you open the project in the new pc, all you get are those nasty frames telling you it can't find the media. You get the project, but not the source materials. So that idea won't solve the problem.

Also the second part of the question is how to transfer your media files from the old pc to the target pc so they will remain in the same order that would facilitate the transferred projects on the new pc picking them up. I don't even know if this procedure is possible.

[Simon Silverstein]

Steve, I'll try using the Archiver. I just looked it up online and it should work. Thanks for this idea.
Now, if I want to transfer the remainder of my media files (mostly photos) that relate to an unfinished segment of the project I haven't assembled yet to the new computer so they are easily accessed by PrE, is there any special way to proceed or any special place to put them.? I have the PrE program on an SSD drive and the projects on another internal HD.

[Steve Grisetti]

As long as media is all in the same folder, reconnecting to it when you open a project file in a new location should be pretty simple.

[Peru]

Sorry, but simply transferring the project via USB to the new desktop wont work, as the project's source materials remain behind in the old computer

What I meant was to copy the project files and the media.

[Simon Silverstein]

Thanks, Peru, for your clarification. Since my original post, I've been doing some experimentation with transferring files. What I found was that if I rendered projects into avi,on the old pc, and then copied those rendered files onto an external HD, then I transferred the avi files on the HD to the target pc, I could open them up in the target pc. I think this works even if you render them to avi if they were created in another program such as Sony Vegas, and then open them in PrE as avi files. The only problem with this is that your project is one, long clip. You can, of course snip the clip in segments if needed. I have to do some more experimenting to see if this method is consistent.

Thanks to you, Steve, as well for setting me on the right path.

[pch008]

Wow! Project Archiver! I had never tried that before! When I do a project, there are usually LOTS of pictures and video segments and music I don't end up using. I am always nervous about deleting them because I am not sure, exactly, which ones they are. In the Project Archiver you have the option of saving ONLY the items used in the video or everything. If you choose the first, default option Premiere even trims the videos the way you trimmed them for the project. Now I can safely delete the original folder! Thanks! That was new to me!