Known issues in After Effects

December 2022 Release (Version 23.1)

Export issue for H.264 with After Effects 23.1 

Issue: An issue affecting H.264 exports on Windows with After Effects 23.1.

The issue impacts H.264 exports to folders with names that use double-byte characters, such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or extended ASCII characters, like accents and umlauts.

Affected users will see this message: "After Effects warning: Failed to write XMP metadata."

Workaround: We'll let you know when a fix is available. But if you're experiencing this issue, use one of these options:

• Choose an export destination folder that uses only single-byte ASCII English characters (no accents, umlauts, etc.) 
• Export to a different format, such as Apple ProRes. 
• For H.264 exports only: Disable hardware accelerated encoding by going to the Render Queue > Output Module Settings > Main Options tab > Format Options > Video tab > Performance > Software Encoding.

ISSUE WITH IME-GENERATED CHARACTERS ON WINDOWS DEVICES

Issue: After Effects 23.0 and 23.1 unexpectedly quit on Windows devices when you use the backspace keys to delete typed Chinese or other languages utilizing IME in a Text layer and try entering new characters.

Workaround: Complete text editing that includes Chinese or other IME-generated characters before bringing them into After Effects, or you can use After Effects 22.x.

October 2022 Release (Version 23.0)

Unable to use Cinema 4D when installed as an Add-on from the Creative Cloud desktop app. 

You may get one of the following errors: 

• "Cinema 4D must be installed in order to use the Cinema 4D renderer" while creating a new Cinema 4D file.
• "This version of AE requires an installation of Cinema 4D R25 (25.015 or later)" while adding a Cineware effect.
• "After Effects error: Cinema 4D: Render Failed" while previewing compositions with Cineware effect.

Workaround: If you get any of these errors, do the following:

Unable to select Video Rendering and Effects options on Windows devices with Intel GPU and NVIDIA Graphic cards

Issue: You are unable to select from the Use options from the Video Rendering and Effects dropdown because it is greyed out. Or, if you open any project that uses OpenCL or CUDA, you get an error message - "Mercury Playback Engine is not available."

Workaround: When OpenCL™ and OpenGL® Compatibility Pack is installed, it adds another implementation of OpenCL to the machine, along with one by Microsoft, and NVIDIA is by default chosen as an OpenCL device.

If OpenCL™ and OpenGL® Compatibility Pack is installed, we recommend you remove the compatibility pack. Go to Settings > Apps > Apps & features > OpenCL™ and OpenGL® Compatibility Pack > Uninstall.

The compatibility pack is a backup implementation designed for ARM devices, thus, should not impact other installed applications.

May 2022 (Version 22.4) release

• Issue: BorisFX Mocha cannot apply tracking data to layers with Separated Dimensions.
  Workaround: Disable Separated Dimensions on the Position property of the target layer before applying tracking data from BorisFX Mocha.

• Issue: Application Menus may not be enabled when starting After Effects on macOS 12.
  Workaround: In this state, select the After Effects icon in the Dock to restore the After Effects menus. 
• Issue: After Effects 22.3 and 22.4 crash on startup when running on macOS versions 10.15.0 through 10.15.3.
  Workaround: Upgrade macOS to 10.15.4 or above, or use After Effects 22.5 Beta, build 29 or above. For After Effects 22.5x29 and above, Transmit of DV video content over Firewire is unsupported on macOS 10.15.0 through 10.15.3.
• Issue: After Effects 22.3 and above may crash when run natively on Apple silicon hardware with Mercury Transmit enabled and Blackmagic Desktop Video version 12.1 (or earlier) installed.
  Workaround: Install Blackmagic Desktop Video version 12.3 or above. Version 12.1 and earlier are unsupported with Apple silicon hardware.
• Issue: After Effects throws an error message stating that the project is corrupt as the project has multiple cameras. It occurs when you open an .aep project created in version 22.2.1 in After
  Effects versions 22.3 or 22.4.
  Workaround: Open the project in After Effects version 22.2.1.

April 2022 (Version 22.3) release

• Issue: When you quit After Effects, changes you make to a workspace are automatically saved into the workspace instead of being remembered as a temporary state.
  

       Workaround: Use Reset ... to Saved Layout before each quit to ensure the saved state retains.

• Issue: In After Effects on M1 Pro, M1 Max, and M1 Ultra systems, the following error can occur when rendering to ProRes 4444 and ProRes 4444XQ codec variants with Alpha channel.

Workaround: In the Output preferences dialog (Preferences > Output):

1. Uncheck the option Enable ProRes hardware accelerated encoding, if available. It is checked by default.
2. Retry render.

• Issue: After Effects throws three different errors when you render PNG sequence with the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 color profile.

       Workaround: Try any of the following to make the render work:

• Change the Color Management in the Output Module settings from Embed Profile to Preserve RGB.
• Create an empty project and import the project with the error and render the same PNG.

• Issue: On macOS Monterey, After Effects menu bar and mouse right-click don't work. When you click again, it displays for a moment but disappears when you move the mouse to click a drop-down.

       Workaround: Click the After Effects icon in the Dock for the menus to work.

• Issue: Encounter stability problems while using After Effects 2022.1.1 MOGRTs with Cinema 4D R25, 

       Workaround: Use the following steps to resolve the issue:

1. Close any instance of After Effects, Cinema 4D R25, Premiere Pro or Adobe Media Encoder.
2. 1. Locate the Cinema 4D R25 config.cineware_dll.txt file which can be found in the following locations. Make a backup copy of the file in case you need to restore the previous configuration.
      
   2.    win:  C:\Program Files\Maxon Cinema 4D R25\resource
   3.    mac:  /Applications/Maxon\ Cinema\ 4D\ R25\resource
3. Under an administrator account, replace the existing config.cineware_dll.txt with the following one:

 4. Restart After Effects and Cinema 4D to work.

• Issue: After Effects and Adobe Media Encoder dynamic link issue - Multi-Frame rendering, aerendercore is not terminated if it is invoked via dynamic link.
  

       Workaround: Set Enable Multi-Frame Rendering to off.

• Issue: After Effects 22.0 crashed during launch due to third party AE Juice plugin on macOS 12.x.
  

       Workaround: Try any of the following workarounds:

a. Remove the AE Juice plug-in Install the newer version of the AE Juice plugin. Some of the plug-ins (not all) are stored in HD/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/Plugins/7.0/MediaCore. Move all the files and folders to the desktop (except dummy.txt).

b. Install the newer version of the plug-in to work with After Effects 22.0 using the following links:

Windows: https://aejuice.com/pack_manager/AEJuice_Pack_Manager.zip

macOS: https://aejuice.com/pack_manager/AEJuice_Pack_Manager_mac.zip

• Issue: On Windows, Adobe Media Encoder 2022 and Adobe Premiere Pro 2022 may hang when rendering a Cinema 4D-based After Effects 2022 composition, or a composition containing the Cineware effect using Dynamic Link.

       Workaround: Export the composition from the After Effects Render Queue using the new High Quality or High Quality with Alpha output module presets and import the resulting footage file into Media Encoder or Premiere Pro.

• Issue: Cineware Live Link fails to respond with Cinema 4D.
  

      Workaround: Live Link is not currently enabled with After Effects 2022. We hope to restore this functionality in a future update.

• Issue: Precomps that contain 3D layers and have both their Collapse Transform switch and their 3D Layer switch set to ON may have inaccurate Render Time values displayed for their layer.
  

       Workaround: Open the precomp’s timeline and note the Frame Render Time to get a more accurate measurement.

• Issue: When you paste text from another application into After Effects text layer, The Paste command in the Edit menu is unavailable, and nothing is pasted.

       Workaround: No known workaround yet.

• Issue: Preview glitches or crashes can occur when using After Effects 18.2 or Premiere Pro 15.2 on systems with Nvidia drivers if you have enabled Image Sharpening or Antialiasing - FXAA in Nvidia Control Panels.

       Resolution: For more information and a resolution to this issue, see Preview glitch or crash after resizing Preview panels.

• Issue: On Mac, aerender automation is failing everytime aerender is launched for the first time and it displays the Access Control dialog. Allowing control is providing access to documents and data in the app folder, and to perform actions within  that app. Upon ignoring the alert or clicking Don't Allow, aerender test fails and aerendercore remains in process  (activity monitor).

       Workaround: No known workaround yet.

• Issue: JPEG images in projects from previous versions cannot be read.
  

       Workaround: In the Project panel, select the JPG file, select File > Replace Footage > File and replace the JPG with itself. This changes the Type of the file in the Project panel from "JPEG" to "ImporterJPEG", which points to a possible failure to update from the legacy JPEG importer.

• Issue: H.264 (MP4) files import as green frames. Use the following workaround:
  • Go to Preferences > Import
  • Deselect “Enable hardware accelerated decoding” under Video Footage.
  • Then go to Preferences > Media & Disk Cache.
  • Click “Empty Disk Cache” and “Clean Database & Cache”.
  • Relaunch After Effects and import the files again.
• Issue: Can't disable multiple 3D views in Composition panel if 3D is disabled for all layers. No control exists that allows to change the view back to 1-up.
  

       Workaround: Re-enable 3D for the layer, change the view, then disable 3D.

• Issue: When Draft 3D is enabled, the camera does not render correctly in orthographic view such as Front view.

       Workaround: No known workaround yet.

February 2021 (Version 17.7) release

• Issue: Enabling “Use Legacy UI” in a ScriptUI panel will cause a crash. Opening a ScriptUI panel with this preference previously enabled or switching to a workspace containing a ScriptUI panel with this preference enabled will also cause a crash.

       Workaround: Use the following steps to troubleshoot the issue:

1. Inside After Effects, reveal the preferences folder with Preferences > General > Reveal Preferences in Finder/Explorer.
2. Close After Effects.
3. Open "Adobe After Effects 17.7 Prefs-indep-general.txt" in a text editor.
4. Search for “Pref_SUI_PANEL_USES_LEGACY_SKIN” in the text file.
5. Change each entry under the “Pref_SUI_PANEL_USES_LEGACY_SKIN” section to 00 instead of 01.
6. Save the text file.

Upon re-opening After Effects, all scripts will open with legacy mode disabled and avoid the crash.

• Issue: Custom UI in the Effect Controls panel is not displayed, which affects some third-party plug-ins.

       Workaround: Downgrade to After Effects version 17.5.

November 2020 (Version 17.5.1) release

Issue: Use Display Color Management is not enabled by default when setting Project Working Space.

Workaround: When you set up your Color Managed project, select Use Display Color Management to enable it. This sets the state for this project, which remains persistent. But you need to do this for every Color Managed project you create.

October 2020 (Version 17.5) release

• Issue: Holding the Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows) key while you click or click and drag with the Selection, Pen, Zoom, or other tools doesn't perform the expected action of that tool, but instead activates the Universal Camera Tool. This only occurs if there is a 3D layer in the composition. Examples of when holding the Opt/Alt key does not work as expected:
  • The Selection tool does not duplicate a shape or shape path when dragging that path.
  • The Pen tool does not activate the Convert Vertex tool when the mouse cursor is over a mask point or handle.
  • The Zoom tool does not change to zoom out.
    

Also, holding the Option/Alt key while dragging the current-time indicator in the Timeline panel does not prevent the Composition panel from updating while you drag, regardless of whether a 3D layer is in the composition.

       Workaround: Disable the Activate option - Left/Middle/Right Mouse Click For Camera Navigation option in Preferences > 3D.

• Issue: After Effects crashes on launch or throws a "File is not found" error message when opening images with Camera Raw 13.0. This is due to OS incompatibility of Adobe Camera Raw 13.0 with macOS 10.13.
  UPDATE: Camera RAW version 13.0.1 has been released which takes care of this issue. Please ensure that your Camera RAW is updated to 13.0.1 to solve this issue.

       Workaround: If you are facing this issue, rollback to Camera Raw version 12.x, see Camera Raw 12.x installer. To learn more on Camera Raw OS compatibility, see System Requirements. For more information, see this community post.

• Issue: (Win) aerender only works if you disable render license checks using "ae_render_only_node.txt" - usage of that file is documented here: Automated rendering and network rendering.

(Mac) aerender renders files without the "ae_render_only_node.txt" in place but ends up leaving an aerendercore process running.

        Workaround: It works properly when "ae_render_only_node.txt" is used.

September 2020 (Version 17.1.4) release

Issue: After Effects v17.1.4 crashes at random.

Workaround: Roll back to the previous version 17.1.3 of After Effects using the steps in this article. We are actively working to resolve this issue. 

August 2020 (Version 17.1.3) release

Issue: Removing an audio device while it is in use prevents preview playback.

June 2020 (Version 17.1.2) release

• Issue: After Effects displaying preview artifacts on Program monitor when using Lumetri on systems using NVIDIA GPUs with newer Studio/Game Ready drivers. The issue has been reported on multiple GPUs and GTX 1080 Ti running on latest Game Ready driver 451.48.

      Workaround: Upgrade to the NVIDIA studio driver v451.77.

• Issue: After Effects displays green horizontal lines in the Composition panel with Intel drivers 8280 and 8336.
  

      Workaround: Roll back to the older Intel drivers.

June 2020 (Version 17.1.1) release

• Issue: Markers cannot be referenced by name in the JavaScript expressions engine. 

     Workaround: Switch to the Legacy ExtendScript expression engine to view the correct value.

• Issue: There is unpredictable behavior with Adobe Stock media contained in shared Creative Cloud Libraries. Stock media that has been licensed and shared by a collaborator may not appear as licensed to fellow collaborators, it may appear as media offline, or it may not appear at all in the shared library or sequence when other collaborators open the project and the shared library.

      Workaround: Try closing and opening the project, or closing and relaunching After Effects.

May 2020 (Version 17.1) release

• Issue: The script method findMenuCommandId() no longer works in After Effects 17.0 or above running in Japanese.

      Workaround: No known workaround yet.

• Issue: When manually transforming layers, such as, position, scale, and rotation, color fringing may be seen on the edge of layer elements while the transform is in progress. Once the transform is complete, the fringing is no longer seen. This fringing does not occur during composition preview or export. This may occur when a project has both Linearize Working Space and Hardware Accelerate Composition, Layer, and Footage Panels enabled.

      Workaround: Disabling either Linearize Working Space or Hardware Accelerate Composition, Layer, and Footage Panels        stops the color fringing from appearing.

April 2020 (Version 17.0.6) release

• Issue: Closing Lumetri Scopes panel while playing back a preview may cause After Effects to crash.

       Workaround: Close the Scopes panel after stopping the preview.

• Issue: On macOS, changing the comp window using the tilde (~) may cause an aliased image to appear until you move your mouse over the comp.
• Issue: The filename displayed when using the Save/Open dialog may become illegible on Mac Touch bar laptops if the Escape key is pressed.

       Workaround: Upgrade to the latest version of macOS Catalina (version 10.15).

• Issue: After Effects may crash on startup if Red Giant Supercomp plugin is installed.

      Workaround: Uninstall Supercomp if it is not required for the project being opened. If it is required for the project, continue to      use After Effects 17.0.5.

March 2020 (Version 17.0.5) release

Issue: MP4 (H.264) files fail to import in After Effects version 17.0.5.

Workaround: 

1. Reinstall a previous version of After Effects.
2. Transcode files to a different file format.

For more infromation, see this community post. 

February 2020 (Version 17.0.4) release

• Issue: On Win, Double-clicking an .aep project file which in-turn causes After Effects to launch creates three subfolders (CIDFont, CMap, and Font) in the same folder as the .aep project.
  

       Workaround: Open the .aep project using File > Open Project after starting After Effects, or double-click the .aep project file once After Effects is open. It is safe to delete these three subfolders once After Effects is closed.

• Issue: Closing Lumetri Scopes panel while playing back a preview may cause After Effects to crash.

       Workaround: Close the Scopes panel after stopping the preview.

• Issue: On macOS, changing the comp window using the tilde (~) may cause an aliased image to appear until you move your mouse over the comp.
• Issue: The filename displayed when using the Save/Open dialog may become illegible on Mac Touch bar laptops if the Escape key is pressed.

       Workaround: Continue to enter the name to restore the filename being entered.

January 2020 (Version 17.0.2) and December 2019 (Version 17.0.1) releases

• Issue: In After Effects 17.0.2, when you create a composition from a .mov, the graphics get corrupt even during preview. This issue occurs on 16" MacBook Pro,  if you are using AMD Radeon Pro 5300M 4GB.

       Workaround: No workaround yet.

• Issue: Motion graphic templates do not render correctly in Premiere Pro 14.0 when After Effects 17.0.2 is installed.
  

      Workaround: Upgrade Premiere Pro to 14.0.1. Premiere Pro 14.0.1 requires After Effects 17.0.2 (and vice versa) for motion graphic template rendering.

• Issue: Closing Lumetri Scopes panel while playing back a preview may cause After Effects to crash.

       Workaround: Close the Scopes panel after stopping the preview.

• Issue: On macOS, changing the comp window using the tilde (~) may cause an aliased image to appear until you move your mouse over the comp. 
• Issue: Cinema 4D Lite may be removed or overwritten if the Cinema 4D Lite R21 trial or full installer is used.

       Workaround: Please reinstall After Effects if this occurs. 

• Issue: The filename displayed when using the Save/Open dialog may become illegible on Mac Touch bar laptops if the Escape key is pressed.

       Workaround: Continue to enter the name to restore the filename being entered.

November 2019 (Version 17.0) release

• Issue: The Dropdown Menu Control is a new feature in this release of After Effects. As this control is based on a pre-existing menu type, it appears in projects opened in previous versions of After Effects. Functionality is limited in these older releases, however, so creating menus with the intent to use in earlier releases is not recommended. Also, scripting for the Dropdown Menu Control is currently not supported.
• Issue: Colorama color picker may crash when using macOS 10.15.
• Issue: Closing Lumetri Scopes while playing back a preview may cause After Effects to crash. 

       Workaround: Close the scopes panel after stopping the preview.

• Issue: On MacOS 10.13 or 10.14, changing the comp window using the tilde (~) may cause an aliased image to appear until you move your mouse over the comp. This does not occur on macOS 10.15.
• Issue: Cinema 4D Lite may be removed or overwritten if the public R21 trial or full installer is used. Please reinstall After Effects if this occurs.
• Issue: 3D Camera Tracker target may display slower on Windows than on macOS.
• Issue: When changing zoom level while playing back a preview, the rendered frame may appear the incorrect size for a frame or two.
• Issue: In the Japanese version of AE, the filename displayed when using the Save Dialog may become illegible. The filename entered will be set correctly.
• Issue:If a project is created on a Windows machine and then opened on a macOS machine as the first project ever after AE install, the layer/footage panel may not show the content correctly. Restart AE to resolve this issue.
•  Issue: After Effects projects created in 17.0 can be opened in After Effects 16.1.. However there are two issues that may occur:
  • If the 17.0 project uses the new Dropdown Menu expression effect, the Dropdown Menu settings cannot be edited.
  • Projects using master properties may not load all keyframe data for those properties.

April 2019 (version 16.1) release

Issue: The Edit Original command does not launch the external application such as Photoshop, and Illustrator on macOS if the file path contains non-ASCII characters such as Japanese, Chinese, and Korean characters. Also, the Create Reference Frame button in the Content-Aware Fill panel does not automatically launch Photoshop.

Workaround: Use any of the following workarounds:

• Do not use non-ASCII characters in the file path or file names.
• Manually launch Photoshop or other external application and open the file manually.

Known issues with Content-Aware fill

Issue: On both Mac and Win, while generating a fill layer, CPU usage can exceed 100 percent.

Workaround: There is no known workaround for this issue.

Issue: When you have a team project open and you click the Generate Fill layer or Create Reference frame buttons, After Effects gives no results.

Workaround: Convert the team project to a local project, select Edit > Team Project > Convert Team Project to Project.

Known issues with Expression Editor

Issue: On Windows, the kerning and letter spacing visibly changes when the expression field is activated. When you open the Preferences > Scripting & Expressions, and set expression editor width to 2, and confirm Settings with OK ,the text kerning from the inactive state to the active state is very different and causes extra jump in the text placement. Also, the tab spacing in the inactive state appears to be between 6 and 8 spaces regardless of the Tab Width settings in the preferences.

Workaround: Set tab width between 6 and 8 to minimize jumping.

Known issue with Rotobrush on M1-based Apple computers with macOS 11

Issue: After Effects crashes when you use Rotobrush on an M1-based Apple computer running on macOS 11.

Workaround: Upgrade to macOS 12 to fix this issue.

If you run into any other issues, or you want to post, discuss, and be part of our knowledgeable community, visit the After Effects forums. To report suspected bugs or suggest modifications to existing features in an Adobe product, use the Feature request/bug report form.