Files that won’t import, fixed
The error your editing application showed, what it actually means, and the conversion that gets the file in. Every fix runs in your browser; files never leave your machine.
Adobe Premiere Pro
“Unsupported format or damaged file”
Why Premiere Pro rejects a subtitle file with "Unsupported format or damaged file", which caption formats it actually reads, and how to convert VTT, ASS, SBV or JSON to SRT in your browser.
See the fix→Adobe Premiere Pro
Premiere Pro won’t import VTT
Premiere Pro does not read WebVTT. Convert the .vtt to SRT in your browser, keep the timing, and import it as a caption track in one step.
See the fix→Adobe Premiere Pro
Premiere Pro won’t import .ass subtitles
Advanced SubStation Alpha files are not a Premiere Pro caption format. Convert .ass or .ssa to SRT in your browser with the timing and line breaks intact.
See the fix→YouTube Studio export
SBV file won’t import into Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve
YouTube Studio downloads captions as .sbv, a format Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve and Final Cut Pro do not read. Convert SBV to SRT in your browser and import it in seconds.
See the fix→Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, YouTube
Transcript JSON won’t import as captions
Whisper, AssemblyAI, Deepgram, Rev.ai and YouTube timed-text JSON are not caption formats. Convert the JSON to SRT or VTT in your browser with word timing intact.
See the fix→DaVinci Resolve
DaVinci Resolve won’t import SRT
The five reasons a subtitle file fails in DaVinci Resolve’s Import Subtitle: wrong format under an .srt name, VTT dots, encoding, malformed cues, and the wrong import path. Fix each one in your browser.
See the fix→Avid Media Composer
Avid SubCap Import Caption Data won’t open an SRT
Media Composer’s SubCap effect imports Avid DS caption .txt files, not SRT. Convert SRT to frame-accurate Avid caption TXT in your browser at your timeline’s frame rate.
See the fix→Final Cut Pro
Final Cut Pro won’t import VTT captions
Final Cut Pro imports captions as SRT, iTT or SCC only. Convert WebVTT to SRT, or to iTT for styled captions, in your browser and import with File > Import > Captions.
See the fix→Adobe Premiere Pro
“This project was saved in a newer version of Adobe Premiere Pro and cannot be opened in this version of Adobe Premiere Pro.”
Premiere Pro refuses to open a .prproj from a newer release. Extract the sequences as Final Cut Pro 7 XML in your browser and import them into the version you have, or into Resolve.
See the fix→Adobe Premiere Pro
Premiere Pro won’t open a .drp file
A .drp is a DaVinci Resolve project archive, not something Premiere reads. Extract its timelines as Final Cut Pro 7 XML in your browser and import them into Premiere.
See the fix→CutConvert AAF converter
“Not a Compound File — this does not look like an AAF.”
An AAF is a Microsoft Compound File container. When the converter cannot find that structure, the file is something else under an .aaf name, was truncated in transfer, or is the folder half of an export. How to tell and what to do.
See the fix→CutConvert Premiere transcript converter
“File is not valid JSON. Export a Premiere static transcript (.prtranscript).”
Premiere Pro’s .prtranscript is a binary FlatBuffers file, not JSON. Why the JSON path rejects it, how to tell the two transcript exports apart, and the converter that decodes the binary directly in your browser.
See the fix→CutConvert TXT to SRT converter
“No timestamped transcript cues were found.”
A transcript can only become subtitles if it carries timing. Which TXT layouts the converter reads (Rev, Otter, Word, Avid captions), why plain prose cannot be timed, and where to get a timed transcript.
See the fix→CutConvert CSV to SRT converter
“No timed rows were found. The CSV needs a header with start-time and text columns.”
What the CSV to SRT converter needs from a spreadsheet: a start-time column and a text column it can identify, the time formats it reads, and the layouts that trip it up.
See the fix→CutConvert EDL to CSV converter
“No CMX-style EDL events were found.”
What a CMX3600 event line looks like, why an export can be an EDL in name only (XML, AAF, the wrong EDL dialect, UTF-16 text), and how to export one that converts.
See the fix→Any text editor, YouTube, Premiere Pro
SCC caption file shows hex codes instead of text
Scenarist SCC stores CEA-608 captions as hex byte pairs, so a text editor shows 94ae 9420 instead of words. Decode it to readable SRT in your browser with timing kept at 29.97 fps.
See the fix→Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, text editors
STL subtitle file won’t open or imports blank
Two unrelated subtitle formats share the .stl extension: Spruce STL (plain text, from DVD Studio Pro) and EBU-STL (binary, the European broadcast standard). Tell them apart and convert either to SRT in your browser.
See the fix→CutConvert Word converters
“This browser cannot read compressed DOCX files.”
Word files are zip archives, and the converter unzips them with the browser’s built-in decompression. Older browsers lack it. Which versions work, and the two quick workarounds.
See the fix→CutConvert Word converters
“Legacy .doc files are not supported yet. Save the transcript as .docx or .txt.”
The Word 97–2003 .doc format is a binary container the browser converters do not parse. Save the transcript as .docx or .txt in Word, LibreOffice or Google Docs and convert it in seconds.
See the fix→