Autosave in Premiere Pro: Ultimate Guide.

You’ve been working on a project for hours, but you’ve forgotten to save it in a while – then the unthinkable happens. Your laptop crashes, and you’ve lost everything. That’s why you should always have autosave in Premiere Pro switched on. 

In today’s article, we explore autosave in Premiere Pro, how to set it up with the optimal settings, so you never lose a second of work ever again.

Does Premiere Pro save automatically?

Yes, it does. But it isn’t always set as its default setting. If you follow our instructions down below, this will help you set it up in Premiere Pro with the correct settings.

Where to find autosave in Premiere Pro

To find autosave in Premiere Pro, simply click Premiere Pro > Preferences > Autosave.

Next, we will look at how to set it up in Premiere Pro and our recommended settings.

How to set up autosave in Premiere Pro

As mentioned above, firstly locate autosave in Premiere Pro; simply navigate to Premiere Pro > Preferences > Autosave. Then the following pop up will appear. This is where you set your settings. 

Now we’ve located it; we need to set the following: 

• How many minutes an autosave should occur. 
• The maximum project versions. 
• Save a backup to Creative Cloud. 
• Autosave to save the current project? 

How many minutes an autosave should occur in Premiere Pro

Premiere Pro’s default setting is to save every 15 minutes. This is far too long, in our opinion. If you’re an efficient editor, you can get a lot done in 15 minutes, and that’s a lot of room for error if something does happen. 

We recommend setting this preference to every 4 minutes. You can’t risk losing your work, and 15 minutes of work is a lot.

The maximum project versions

This is set to a default by Premiere Pro as  20. This is far too little, especially if you’ve reduced the autosave by two thirds. Make this 100+ project versions. 

If it’s autosaving throughout the day and you want to revert to an older version, having 20 versions is far too little. 

Set it to 100-125, and you’ll be happy. 

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Do you save a backup to Creative Cloud? 

Absolutely yes! The reason for doing this is to have your files saved in more than one location. This will save you if your computer gets corrupted and you lose your files; you’ll have a backup in the Creative Cloud. 

It’s pretty inexpensive, but you can use other options like Amazons cloud storage or similar. Just ensure you have it backed up.

Autosave also saves the current project(s)?

This option asks you to save your current project to where you created the file. Or if you want to save the autosave in a separate location. 

We highly recommend saving your autosave files and original files in separate places. If something happens, you’ll lose absolutely everything – it would be a nightmare. 

Make sure you save it to a different location; you’ll thank yourself later!

Why not read this article on How to create a sequence in Premiere Pro [SIMPLE]

How to turn off autosave in Premiere Pro

To turn off autosave in Premiere Pro, simply click; 

Edit > Preferences > Autosave > Uncheck “Automatically save projects”. 

That’s it. You’ve successfully switched off autosave. We don’t think it’s the best idea as there’s a slight chance you may lose some work. But, if you want to switch it off, that’s how to do it.

Why not read: What’s the best export settings in Premiere Pro CC for YouTube?

Where are my autosave files located?

Your autosave files from Premiere Pro will be saved to the same folder as your project by default. This seems like a great place to store them, but there are a few issues. 

For instance, you have no backup if your hard drive to your computer. So your autosave must be saved to an external hard drive or a cloud drive of sorts. 

That way, if something happens to either option, you’ll always have a backup. 

We hope this article on autosaving in Premiere Pro was useful and answered your questions! Let us know below in the comments your thoughts, and feel free to give us any more ideas; we’d love to help.

Happy editing!