Ingest and Proxy workflow

Understand the ingest and proxy workflows to manage and optimize your video editing projects, especially ones with high-resolution or complex footage.

Ingest workflow

Ingesting in Premiere Pro refers to the process of copying and transcoding media files from your source storage (such as memory cards, external hard drives, or network drives) to your project's local storage or designated media cache location.

The primary purpose of the ingest workflow is to ensure that you have optimized and consistent media files ready for editing. It helps preserve the original files while also creating working copies that may be more suitable for editing.

During the ingest process, you can choose to transcode your media into a more editable format, which may have a lower resolution or codec that's easier for your computer to handle. You can also consolidate media by copying it to your project's local storage, ensuring all necessary files are in one place. Premiere Pro verifies to ensure no data corruption or loss while copying media.

Proxy workflow

Proxy workflows in Premiere Pro involve creating lower-resolution, lightweight copies of your high-resolution video files. These lower-resolution copies, known as proxy files, are used for editing instead of the original high-res files.

The primary purpose of the proxy workflow is to make editing smoother and faster, especially when working with high-resolution or computationally intensive footage that can be taxing on your computer's hardware.

When working with proxies, you first create proxy files, edit these proxies, and then convert them to full-resolution media when you need the full-resolution files.

You can also work with proxies created outside of Premiere Pro (for example, proxies created using other applications or cameras). In this case, you must attach proxies to the full-resolution media files and start editing.

When to use each workflow

• Ingest workflow: Use the ingest workflow when you want to keep a copy of the original media in its highest quality but still need to optimize it for editing. This is helpful when storage space isn't a significant concern and you want a backup of your source footage.
• Proxy workflow: Use the proxy workflow when you need smoother playback and faster editing performance, especially when working with 4K or higher-resolution footage on less powerful hardware. It conserves storage space and speeds up the editing process. After editing is complete, you can switch back to the original media for final export.

You can also choose to choose to combine both workflows. You can ingest the original media for backup and create proxy files for smoother editing, so you have the flexibility to switch between the two as needed throughout the editing process.

Streamlined proxy creation

It's easier to create proxies that are exactly half or a quarter of your original frame size with new frame size selection and updated proxy presets.

We’ve streamlined the Create Proxies dialog by removing elements and revamping preset options to focus on format over resolution, including presets for:

Relationship between source footage and proxy dimensions

^{* Proxies of HDR footage set to these sizes will be created with a height of 720 and the width calculated accordingly based on the source aspect ratio.}

Unsupported features in proxy workflows

• The proxy functionality in Premiere Pro isn't compatible with the proxy functionality in After Effects.
• Dynamic Link isn't supported for After Effects compositions or projects. Editing audio in Adobe Audition is also not supported for proxy workflows.
• The option to modify audio channels and interpret footage isn't supported.