Premiere just crashed and you’re not sure if your last hour of edits is gone. Don’t panic — Premiere creates auto-save files every few minutes by default. Here’s exactly where to find them and how to recover.
Short Answer: Premiere Pro auto-saves every 15 minutes by default to a folder called ‘Adobe Premiere Pro Auto-Save’ inside your project folder. Open Premiere, go to File → Open Recent, or browse to your project folder and look for the Auto-Save subfolder. Open the most recent .prproj file from that folder.
Step 1: Find the Auto-Save Folder
Premiere saves auto-backup copies to a folder inside wherever your project file is stored. Look here:
- Windows: Navigate to your project folder → find the subfolder called Adobe Premiere Pro Auto-Save
- Mac: Same — go to the folder where your .prproj file lives → Adobe Premiere Pro Auto-Save subfolder
Inside the folder you’ll see multiple .prproj files with timestamps in the name, like:
My Project (2026-05-23 14-30-00).prproj
Open the most recent one — it’s your last auto-saved version.
📸 SCREENSHOT NEEDED: Windows Explorer showing the Adobe Premiere Pro Auto-Save folder inside a project directory with timestamped .prproj files
Recovery steps:
Navigate to project folder → Adobe Premiere Pro Auto-Save → open the most recent .prproj file → File → Save As to save as a new main project file
Step 2: Check the Auto-Save Settings
Once recovered, check how often Premiere is auto-saving and increase it if needed:
- Go to Edit → Preferences → Auto Save (Windows) or Premiere Pro → Settings → Auto Save (Mac)
- Check Automatically Save Every — default is 15 minutes
- Consider reducing to 5 minutes if you work on long projects
- Increase Maximum Project Versions from 20 to 30–50 to keep more history
📸 SCREENSHOT NEEDED: Adobe Premiere Pro Auto Save preferences panel showing save frequency and maximum versions settings
Step 3: Recover from the Temp Folder (Last Resort)
If the auto-save folder doesn’t have a recent enough version, Premiere also creates temporary files:
Windows: C:Users[YourName]AppDataLocalTemp — look for files starting with “Adobe Premiere”
Mac: /private/var/folders/ — complex path, easier to use a file search for .prproj files modified today
These temp files aren’t guaranteed to be there and may be in an incomplete state, but they’re worth checking if auto-save doesn’t have what you need.
Preventing Future Losses
Enable Creative Cloud Auto-Sync
If you store your project in Creative Cloud Files (default location), Premiere syncs project files to the cloud automatically. Log in at creativecloud.adobe.com and browse the file version history if needed.
Use a Faster SSD
Many Premiere crashes are caused by running out of scratch disk space. Go to Edit → Preferences → Scratch Disks and make sure all scratch disk locations are on a drive with at least 20 GB free space.
Keep Media Files in One Place
Premiere projects break when media files move after the project is created. Keep all footage, audio, and graphics inside the same root folder as your .prproj file. This also ensures the auto-save copies can find the media when opened.
Warning: When opening an auto-save file, immediately do File → Save As and save it with a new name in your project folder. Opening and working directly from the Auto-Save folder can cause issues if Premiere overwrites the auto-save copies with new ones.
Quick checklist:
- ✅ Found the Auto-Save folder inside the project directory
- ✅ Opened the most recent .prproj auto-save file
- ✅ Did File → Save As immediately to create a new working copy
- ✅ Increased auto-save frequency to every 5 minutes in Preferences
- ✅ Checked scratch disk locations have enough free space to prevent future crashes
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is the auto-save folder if I can’t find it?
In Premiere, go to Edit → Preferences → Auto Save — the path shown under “Project Backup Location” tells you exactly where Premiere saves backups. If you’ve changed this setting before, it won’t be in the default location.
Premiere crashed before the first auto-save — is my work gone?
If the crash happened before the first auto-save interval, the work may be unrecoverable. Check the Temp folder (path above) for anything Premiere created mid-session. Going forward, save manually (Ctrl+S / Cmd+S) frequently in addition to relying on auto-save.
How many auto-save versions does Premiere keep?
By default, 20 versions. When the limit is reached, the oldest version is deleted. Increase this to 50 in Preferences → Auto Save → Maximum Project Versions to keep a longer history.
Does clearing Premiere’s cache fix crash issues?
Sometimes. Go to Edit → Preferences → Media Cache and click Delete to clear cached media files. This won’t recover lost work but can resolve crashes caused by a corrupted cache.
Conclusion
The auto-save folder inside your project directory is almost always the answer — Premiere’s 15-minute auto-save covers most crash scenarios. Open the most recent .prproj from that folder, immediately save a copy, and you should have everything up to the last save point.
For more video editing help, see our guides on the best video editing apps and the best free software for Windows.