2 years later, I just ran into this bug in Premiere Pro version 15.1.0 (build 48). I haven't done any relinking. I had been working on one project while I collected footage of a second show. I created a new project and imported the footage for the second show in that project (in a completely new folder structure but on the same volume) so I could unload the footage from the SD cards. A few days later I went back to the first project to add chapter markers. I noticed that several clips were using audio from the second show.

I haven't moved any project media, and the video is correct; it's just the audio that is affected. I tried renaming the files for the second project, rendering, deleting render files, but that didn't change anything. FInally I deleted all the files in theMedia Cache, Media Cache FIles, and Peak FIles directories found at /Users/<your username>/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common and after a few hours of relinking, everything is working again. Bizarre and frustrating.

Thanks for the update. I appreciate you looking into it. I'm going to be giving my files unique names from now on no matter what folder they're in.

Hi Michelle,
Thanks so much for the project, it helped me understand that this is related to the relinking dialog. I have been able to replicate and think I understand what is happening. I have filed a bug, under our internal reference number that you can refer to when talking to us in the future about it: DVAPR-4225878

A workaround that might help you now would be to turn on the feature: “Preferences>Media>Write XMP ID to files on import…”
What this does it add metadata to your files on import that gives it a unique number that Premiere uses to relink. If that is off then Premiere relies on only file names and paths. When you have file names that match, but in separate folders, the relinking dialog can get confused and automatically link to a file based on just the filename and extension. This feature will alter your files metadata and timestamp, so if you use some sort of source control system they will be altered.

A second workaround is to not use the same file names for unique clips. I understand that some cameras make that difficult. The Premiere ingest workflow via the media browser can give clips unique names. If you are working with a specific camera that writes generic file names, you might want to look into this.

Explanation of the bug:
The bug seems to happen when you move a project or project media, and the application needs to relink. When you point to a single file in the relink dialog, Premiere attempt to figure out of it can use that file path to automatically relink the other files. This is a convince added to Premiere so you don’t have to manually relink every single clip. When you have a file “/Folder1/Foo.mp3” and “/Folder2/Foo.mp3”, Premieres auto relinking system seems to be looking for just “Foo.mp3”, finds it in folder 1, and relinks to it, even though it really needs to be linked to the “Foo.mp3” file in folder 2.
This seems to only happen when relinking after moving project media.

I'm not having any luck attaching the file here. I sent an email with the file attached.

Hi Michele,
I don't think the project was attached, I don't see it. The project will be helpful so I can see the exact properties of the clips and if there are additional details like speed changes or effects.

Can you attach the file again or send it to audbugs@adobe.com attention Matt.

Here is just the premiere pro file.

I don't think I can upload the folders they're rather large and the content is for the company I work for... I could upload just the premiere file but I'm not sure what good that would do on its own.

That's the thing about this error, everything worked fine for almost a year and then out of nowhere it started happening but not to every project and with no apparent order. It's the randomness that confuses me.

Could you provide a Project file so I could try to replicate this? I've tried some tests on my end but it works fine for me.

The files being switched are .mp3

What format is the footage that is having the issue?