What does unsupported compression type vp09 mean in Premiere Pro?

It means the file's video stream is VP9. vp09 is the four character code for VP9 in an MP4 container, and Premiere Pro has no VP9 decoder, so it refuses the file. The file is not corrupt.

How do I fix the vp09 error?

Re-encode the video to H.264: ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -preset slow -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a aac -b:a 192k output.mp4. Converting the audio to AAC at the same time avoids a second problem, because VP9 files often carry Opus audio which Premiere also handles poorly.

Will renaming the file extension fix it?

No. Renaming changes the container label, not the codec inside it. Premiere still cannot decode the VP9 video. You have to re-encode.

Runner / Fixes

Unsupported compression
type “vp09”.

Premiere is telling you the file's video is VP9. It is not a corrupt download and re-downloading it will not help. Here is what VP9 is, how to be sure that is your problem, and how to convert it.

Short answer

The file's video stream is VP9, which Adobe Premiere Pro cannot decode. vp09 is the four character code for VP9 inside an MP4 container, and the message is Premiere saying it has no decoder for it.

Convert the video to H.264 and it imports normally. The command is below.

Where VP9 files come from

Almost always the web. YouTube serves VP9 and AV1 rather than H.264 on a lot of downloads, and not only at 4K: plenty of 1080p videos have no H.264 version at all. Some screen recorders and browser based editors export VP9 too.

VP9 is a good delivery codec. It is a poor editing codec, and Premiere never added support for it in an MP4 container.

Confirm it in ten seconds

ffprobe -v error -select_streams v:0 -show_entries stream=codec_name -of csv=p=0 "yourfile.mp4"

If that prints vp9, this page is your problem. On Windows without ffmpeg, right click the file, open Properties › Details and read the video codec line.

A quick sanity check: if the file plays fine in VLC or a browser but Premiere rejects it, the file is healthy and the decoder is the problem. Downloading it again gets you the same file.

The fix

Re-encode the video to H.264. Convert the audio at the same time, because VP9 files usually carry Opus audio, which Premiere also handles badly.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -preset slow \
       -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a aac -b:a 192k output.mp4

-pix_fmt yuv420p matters. Without it you can end up with a file Premiere still refuses to open.

If the clip is going to be graded

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v dnxhd -profile:v dnxhr_hq \
       -pix_fmt yuv422p -c:a pcm_s16le output.mov

Much more robust through a grade, and much larger on disk.

Things that do not work

Renaming the file. Changing .webm to .mp4 relabels the container and leaves the VP9 video exactly where it was.
Remuxing. -c:v copy keeps the same video stream. You have to actually re-encode.
Making proxies. Premiere has to decode the source to build a proxy, and decoding is the step that fails.
Updating Premiere. This is not a bug that a newer version fixes.

Never see vp09 again

Runner is a Premiere Pro panel that checks the codec of everything it downloads and converts anything Premiere cannot read, before it reaches your timeline. Free while it is in beta, Windows only.

Download for Windows