Move or clean the Media Cache Database

When Premiere Pro imports video and audio in some formats, it processes and caches versions of these items that it can readily access when generating previews. The media cache greatly improves performance for previews, because the video and audio items do not need to be reprocessed for each preview.
Note: When you first import a file, you may experience a slight delay while the media are being processed and cached.

A media cache database retains links to each of the conformed audio files, PEK files, and index files used in Premiere Pro projects. By default, Premiere Pro installs the media cache database in the folder where the application itself is installed. However, you can move the media cache database to any location of your choosing. Also, you can clean the database of all of the support files that are not in use.

Premiere Pro shares the media cache database with After Effects, Adobe Encore, and Adobe Soundbooth, so each of these applications can each read from and write to the same set of cached media files. If you change the location of the database from within any of these applications, the location is updated for the other applications, too. Each application can use its own cache folder, but the same database keeps track of them all.

Move the Media Cache Database

  1. Select Edit >Preferences > Media (Windows), or Premiere Pro > Preferences > Media (Mac OS).
  2. Click Browse, browse to a new destination folder, and click OK.
  3. To close the Preferences dialog box, click OK again.

Clean the Media Cache Database

Cleaning the media cache database removes only files associated with footage items for which the source file is no longer available.

Important: Before cleaning the media cache database, make sure that any storage devices containing your active source media are connected to your computer. If footage is determined to be missing because the storage device on which it is located is not connected, the associated files in the media cache will be removed. This removal results in the need to reconform or re-index the footage when you attempt to use the footage later.
  1. Select Edit >Preferences > Media (Windows), or Premiere Pro > Preferences > Media (Mac OS).
  2. Click Clean.
  3. Click OK.
  4. To close the Preferences dialog box, click OK again.
Note: Cleaning the Media Cache Database with the Clean button does not remove files that are associated with clips. To manually remove conformed files and index files, navigate to the media cache folder and delete the files. The location of the media cache folder is shown in the Media view of the Preferences dialog box. If the path is truncated, let your cursor hover over the path to show the full path.