An ALE file is mainly an Avid Log Exchange file used in film/TV post-production as a plain-text, tab-delimited way to pass clip metadata—no embedded footage—between systems, carrying details like clip names, scene/take, roll info, notes, and crucially reel/tape names plus timecode in/out, which helps editors import footage already organized and later conform media using identifiers such as reel name and timecode.

To quickly identify an Avid-type .ALE, open it in Notepad and see whether it contains easy-to-read information arranged in table-like form with “Heading,” “Column,” and “Data” sections plus tabbed rows; if instead you find scrambled symbols such as XML/JSON, it may belong to another application, so its source folder matters, and because Avid ALEs are small, a large file strongly suggests it’s not the Avid format.

If you simply want to inspect the file, importing it into Excel or Google Sheets as tab-delimited will display the metadata in columns you can filter or sort, but these apps can strip zeros unintentionally, and for Avid workflows the usual process is to import the ALE to build a metadata-filled bin and then link/relink the clips using reel/tape names and timecode, noting that relink failures often stem from reel-name mismatches or timecode/frame-rate discrepancies.

If you are you looking for more about ALE data file have a look at the page. Commonly, an ALE file means an Avid Log Exchange file—a compact text metadata carrier used in pro editing workflows, comparable to a spreadsheet in text form but built to communicate footage details such as clip names, scene/take notes, camera identifiers, audio roll references, set annotations, and the essential reel/tape and timecode in/out values, and since it’s plain text, tools or assistants can generate it and pass it to editors for consistent metadata loading.

The real value of an ALE comes from how it links raw media to an organized edit, since bringing it into Avid Media Composer creates bin clips already filled with proper labels, eliminating manual entry, and the reel/tape names with timecode then act like a unique ID that helps the system relink to the right source files, meaning an ALE provides context—telling the software what the footage is and how to match it—rather than actual content.

Despite “ALE” most often meaning an Avid Log Exchange file, the extension isn’t exclusive, so the straightforward way to identify yours is to view it in a text editor and check for a readable metadata layout with clip, reel, and timecode fields; if present, it’s almost certainly Avid-style, but if absent, then another application likely produced it and you must rely on its origin to determine what it is.