How to Delete Projects in Premiere Pro (And What You're Actually Deleting)
Adobe Premiere Pro doesn't have a single "delete project" button — and that trips up a lot of editors. Understanding what a Premiere Pro project actually is helps explain why deletion works the way it does, and why the steps vary depending on what outcome you're after.
What a Premiere Pro Project File Actually Contains
A .prproj file is not your video footage. It's a reference file — a structured set of instructions that tells Premiere where your media lives, how your sequences are arranged, what effects you've applied, and how everything is organized in your bins.
This distinction matters enormously when you're thinking about deletion. Removing the project file doesn't remove your source footage. And removing your source footage doesn't remove the project file. They're separate things stored in separate locations.
How to Delete a Premiere Pro Project File
Premiere Pro doesn't include a native "delete project" option from inside the application. To delete a project, you do it at the operating system level.
On Windows:
- Close the project in Premiere Pro (or close the application entirely)
- Open File Explorer and navigate to the folder where the .prproj file is saved
- Right-click the file and select Delete, or select it and press the Delete key
- Empty the Recycle Bin if you want to permanently remove it
On macOS:
- Close the project in Premiere Pro
- Open Finder and locate the .prproj file
- Right-click and select Move to Trash, or drag it to the Trash
- Empty the Trash to permanently delete it
⚠️ If you try to delete a project file while it's open in Premiere, the OS will typically block the action or warn you — this is expected behavior.
Deleting Associated Media and Cache Files
If your goal is to fully clean up a project and free up disk space, deleting only the .prproj file won't do much. Most of your storage is tied up in:
- Source media files (your raw footage, audio, graphics)
- Preview files (rendered previews stored in a dedicated folder)
- Cache files (conforming audio, peak files, media cache database entries)
- Auto-save backups (stored in the Adobe Premiere Pro Auto-Save folder)
Removing Preview and Cache Files From Inside Premiere
Before closing a project, you can clean up render files from within the application:
- Go to Sequence > Delete Render Files to remove preview renders for that sequence
- Go to Edit > Preferences > Media Cache (Windows) or Premiere Pro > Preferences > Media Cache (macOS) to manage and delete cached media
Deleting cache files is generally safe — Premiere will regenerate them if you reopen the project or reimport the media. Preview files can be large, so removing them is a common way to recover disk space quickly.
Locating and Deleting Media Files
Source media files are wherever you put them — an external drive, a local folder, a network location. Premiere doesn't manage or move your original footage unless you explicitly use a feature like ingest or copy media during import. To delete source files, navigate to them directly in your file explorer and remove them manually.
Removing a Project From the Recent Projects List 🗂️
If you've deleted the project file but it still appears in Premiere's Recent Projects list (under File > Open Recent), you can remove those entries:
- In recent versions of Premiere Pro, right-click a project in the Home screen and look for a Remove from Recent or Clear option
- Alternatively, clearing the entire recent projects list is typically available through Edit > Preferences > General or directly from the Home screen menu
This doesn't delete anything — it just cleans up the UI reference.
What Varies Based on Your Setup
How cleanup plays out in practice depends on several factors:
| Variable | How It Affects Deletion |
|---|---|
| Storage location | Local vs. external vs. network drives changes where you need to navigate |
| Project organization | Well-organized projects with dedicated folders are faster and safer to clean up |
| Premiere version | UI options for cache and media management shift between versions |
| Auto-save settings | Multiple auto-save copies may exist and need manual cleanup |
| Shared projects | Team projects or shared network projects involve additional considerations |
Editors who keep all project assets — footage, project file, exports, cache — in a single organized folder can delete everything in one step. Those with media scattered across multiple locations need to track down each component separately.
The Auto-Save Folder Is Easy to Miss
Premiere Pro continuously creates backup copies of your project in an Adobe Premiere Pro Auto-Save folder, which is typically located inside your Documents folder unless you've changed it. When deleting a project, this folder is one of the most commonly overlooked sources of leftover files. Each auto-save generates a timestamped copy of the .prproj file, and these accumulate quickly on longer projects.
The path is usually something like: Documents > Adobe > Premiere Pro > [Version] > Adobe Premiere Pro Auto-Save
Whether a thorough cleanup — removing the project file, media, cache, previews, and auto-saves — makes sense depends on where you are in post-production, whether the project is archived elsewhere, and how your storage is structured across drives and folders.