Premiere or DaVinci Proxies Missing: Rebuild Them Before Data Recovery
If the original media and project still exist, usually no. Rebuild cache and proxy media instead of scanning the drive for disposable derivatives. In this r/premiere proxy case, the RED camera originals were still present, but proxy generation had not completed for every clip. That is a regeneration problem, not evidence of deleted source footage.
Treat Cache And Proxies As Rebuildable While Originals Survive
Use This Decision
- Premiere media cache is missing: Adobe states that deleted cache files are recreated when source media needs them, so clearing or losing cache is not normally a recovery case. See Adobe's media-cache guidance.
- Premiere proxy is missing but the original clip survives: regenerate the proxy from the camera original and relink it to the project.
- DaVinci Resolve proxy is missing but the source survives: Resolve can generate proxy media from source clips; the DaVinci Resolve Editor's Guide documents the Generate Proxy Media workflow.
Recover A Proxy Only If It Became The Last Surviving Copy
The exception is when the camera original is already lost or unusable and a proxy became the only remaining playable copy. If that proxy still exists, copy it to separate healthy storage immediately. If the proxy itself was then deleted from a stable, readable local drive and no backup exists, Recoverit File Recovery can be considered for the deleted local file.
Set The Expectation:
A recovered proxy is still a proxy. It cannot restore the resolution, codec data, or image quality that existed only in the missing camera original.