An ALE file normally refers to an Avid Log Exchange file used in film/TV post to move metadata—not the media itself—between systems, including clip names, scene/take details, camera and sound rolls, notes, and especially reel/tape names with timecode in/out, allowing editors to bring footage in already organized and letting the system reconnect media later via reel name and timecode.
To determine whether an .ALE is the Avid type, just open it in Notepad: if the content appears as organized readable text with "Heading," "Column," and "Data" sections and tab-separated rows, it’s almost certainly an Avid Log Exchange file; if it instead contains garbled nonsense, it’s likely from another application, making the folder context important, and since Avid ALEs are small metadata files, a large file typically rules out the Avid format.
If you only need to read the data, opening the ALE in Excel or Google Sheets using tab-delimited settings will present the columns clearly, though you must watch for spreadsheets changing timecodes or leading zeros, and in Avid the proper workflow is to import the ALE so it makes a bin of clips with metadata that you then link or relink via reel/tape names and timecode, with the most common issues coming from inconsistent reel naming or timecode/frame-rate mismatches.
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ALE file support please visit the web site. In most workflows, an ALE refers to an Avid Log Exchange file, serving as a tab-delimited clip sheet that works like a text-mode spreadsheet tailored for editing systems, holding clip names, scene/take data, camera and sound roll tags, notes, and vital reel/tape and timecode in/out info, and its plain-text nature allows logging apps, dailies processes, or assistants to create it and deliver it so editors can import organized metadata efficiently.
What makes an ALE especially powerful is that it bridges unorganized media with a structured editing project; when loaded into Avid Media Composer, it generates clips carrying proper logging details so editors avoid tedious labeling, and the same metadata—
chiefly reel/tape plus timecode—serves as a reliable identifier for relinking, so the ALE itself is context, telling the system what each shot is and where the original lives.
Although "ALE" usually denotes an Avid Log Exchange file, the extension isn’t globally locked to that meaning, so the easiest identification method is to view it in a text editor and see whether it reads like a structured clip log with columns for clips, reels, and timecode; if yes, it’s likely the Avid style, and if no, it’s probably another software’s format and must be identified by its source.