None of the clips you bring into PD are ever copied or duplicated for normal editing, and none of the original source clips are changed in any way no matter what kinds of edits you perform in the editor.

The only way to have PD physically duplicate/copy your project's clips is if you explicitly choose to pack the project to save all related materials in a folder for use on another computer.

Otherwise, all your original clips will remain in their original folders. Please not that if you delete, rename or disconnect a file/folder for any reason and try to reopen the project, PD will prompt you to locate the missing files.

In older versions of PD, it was possible to physically delete any of your source clips from the Media Library by right-clicking on a clip in the Media Library and choosing Delete from disk.

However, as shown in the screen capture below, the latest subscription version (PD365 19.7.3115) no longer has that option so accidental deletion is prevented.



Finally, the import folder setting is one of conveneince, not necessity. You can drag and drop clips into PD from any folder, although if you use the File > Import method the starting point will be the import folder you've already specified.

Thank you very much for your reply. Very helpful. So I take it that really there's no need to have duplicates of the original clips?

Maybe for archival purposes, but there isn't any need to do so related to making videos.