About offline files

An offline file is a placeholder for a source file that Premiere Elements cannot currently find on your hard drive. Offline files remember information about the missing source files they represent. If an offline file appears in the Quick view/Expert view timeline, a “Media Offline” message appears in the monitor and in the Quick view/Expert view timeline.

Edit an offline file

Replace an offline file with a file on your computer

Relinking and Locating Offline Files:

When an imported clip is moved, renamed, or deleted outside Premiere Elements, the clip becomes an offline clip. Offline clips are represented by the 'Offline Item' icon in the project panel, and “Media Offline” appears in the timeline sequence, Program Monitor, and elsewhere as follows:

Premiere Elements helps you locate and relink offline media by using the Locate Media and File dialog boxes. When you open a project containing offline media, the Locate Media workflow lets you locate and relink the offline media, bringing them back online for use in your project.

Locating and linking offline files

When you open a project with missing media files, the Locate Media dialog box gives you visibility into files that have broken links and helps you locate and link your files quickly.

The Locate Media dialog box displays the clip name used in the project, as well as the linked filename of the media. The Locate Media dialog box also displays the complete path of folders that stored the offline media.

For example, when you import a clip into a project for the first time, the clip uses the media filename by default. Later, even if you rename the clip, Premiere Elements can help you locate the clip even if the media file is offline. Depending on how you want to handle the offline files, you can specify the required search criteria and Match File properties.

Relocate Multiple Offline Files

If you don't want to link all of your media, do one of the following:

• Select some files and click Offline. Only the selected files are made offline.
• Click Offline All. All the files excluding the files that have already been located are made offline.
• Click Cancel. All the files listed in the Locate Media dialog are made offline.

At any point later, you can open the Locate Media dialog box and relink the offline clips in your project by doing one of the following:

• Select the offline clip in the Timeline, and select Clip > Locate Media.
• Right-click or Ctrl-click the clip in the Timeline, and select Locate Media from the context menu.

Manually locate and relink offline media

You can manually find and reconnect the media that Premiere Elements is unable to automatically relink. To do so, in the Locate Media dialog box, click the Locate button.

The Locate File dialog opens with the closest existing directory showing up to three levels. If no exact match is found, the directory is displayed considering where the file should have been, or the same directory location as the previous session.

The Locate File dialog displays the file directory listing using the Media Browser user interface by default.

You can manually search for a file within the Locate File dialog by clicking Search. Looking at the Last Path can help you locate the exact missing file easily and quickly.

To help you narrow down your search results, the Locate File dialog also provides you with advanced filter options, like displaying specific file types and selecting Display Only Exact name Matches. In addition, you can switch from a list view to a thumbnail view for a visual confirmation of a specific media file.