Troubleshoot Adobe Premiere Pro MOV File Import Failure Error

This article shows you the best and easiest solution to troubleshoot Premiere Pro MOV file import failure. Plus, some possible reasons and solutions are also added to help you resolve the problem.

Many users are puzzeled by one thing that some files with MOV file extension can't be imported into Adobe Premiere Pro (Premiere Pro CC 2020/2019/2018 included). Although Adobe claims that Premiere Pro CS5 and above (Premiere CS6, CC) offer native support for MOV format, you may still meet the error messages like, "File format not supported", "Unsupported format or damaged file", "The file has no audio or video streams", "Codec missing or unavailable" and "32-bit QuickTime support ending". Or, Premiere Pro only import audio from MOV files for you.

MOV files, which may be from different sources, such as from some video editing software, or from different Nikon/Canon cameras, have different codec inside. If you are currently using an older version of the Adobe (for instance prior to Adobe version CS4, CS5), maybe an upgrade of the Adobe version could help. What if you still can't import your MOV files to Premiere Pro with many unsuccessful attempts? Don't worry! There is an easy solution to resolve the MOV and Adobe Premiere Pro importing problems - converting the problematic MOV to MOV H.264, MP4, MPEG-2, ProRes or something that Premiere Pro natively supports.

Why some MOV files can't be imported into Adobe Premiere Pro?

There are two possible reasons that may cause file import error: your MOV video file got problem, your Premiere Pro software got problem, or your computer got problem. To pin down what exactly goes wrong, you need to do the troubleshooting one by one.

Possible reason 1. Make sure you are not importing a corrupted MOV file to Premiere.

Can any other video player play your MOV file? If it could, then your file is not broken. If your MP4 file is not corrupt and the Premiere Pro can import any other MOV files except for the very one, your MOV file codec may not compatible with Adobe Premiere, you'll need to re-encode MOV file >

Possible reason 2. Wrong settings in Premiere Pro

If all files with .mov extension can't be imported into Premiere Pro, while all others in MP4, MKV, AVI, etc load correctly, there might be setting mistakes in your Premiere Pro. To fix the problem, try restart Premiere Pro, computer or renderer, or update Premiere Pro or Graphics Drive to have a try.

100% Working Solution to Fix "Premiere Pro MOV File Import Failure" Issue:

Transcode unrecognized MOV to Premiere supported MOV H.264, MP4, Apple ProRes, MPEG-2...

If you've tried lots of unsuccessful ways, it's probably caused by the MOV codec incompatibility or missing issues. And transcoding should be the most efficient yet easiest solution to fix "can't import MOV to Premiere" error. The process is fairly easy as long as you have such a easy-to-use yet powerful tool - EaseFab Video Converter. It is able to work with various MOV files, no matter what codecs are wrapped in and no matter what devices record.

With it, you can easily convert any Premiere incompatible media including but not limited to MOV, MKV, VOB to a format (e.g. MOV H.264, MP4, Apple ProRes) that that works natively within the latest Premiere Pro CC 2020 or lower version. The H.264 files can preserve image quality with the smallest file size. ProRes preserves the best image quality and provides better performance when editing in Adobe Premiere Pro, but creates much larger files that use more storage space than H.264 files use.

Codec correction (or conversion) is just the tip of the iceberg that it can handle. In terms of the compute-intensive 4K MOV files, it's also a decent performer, letting you downscale 4K to 1080p, lower 60FPS to 30FPS, adjust bit rate, etc. to better suit your computer hardware configurations and to ensure a smooth MOV importing and latter editing.

Step-by-step Guide: How to Re-encode MOV to Premiere Pro Supported Codec/Format

The below guide takes Video Converter for Windows screenshots for example.

Step 1. Download and launch EaseFab Video Converter on Windows PC or Mac. Click Add Video to import your MOV video. Dragging and droppping works too. (Note: batch conversion is supported, so you can several mov videos to the program to convert at a time.)

Step 2. Click the Profile bar at the bottom. Choose a format preset that Premiere Pro can support. And MOV (encoded by H264) from Editing Software category is recommended since the output MOV H.264 files can preserve image quality with the smallest file size. You can also choose MPEG-2 or WMV as the output file.

If you want to preserve the highest image quality, you can also select Final Cut Pro (Apple ProRes 422 encoded MOV file) as the output. The Apple ProRes files can make your editing process simpler and less resource-intensive but it typically need ten times as much storage.

Step 3. Hit Convert and it will begin fast video decoding, conversion and processing your MOV video at one go.

After the conversion is complete, get the resulted files via clicking the Open button and then you can import the result files to Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2020 OR lower version without any trouble.

Other Possible Solutions to Fix the Problem

When you failed to import an .mov file to Premiere Pro for edting, you can also check the problem by yourself. And below are several useful troubleshootings for you.