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lennart_1412
Participant
October 10, 2025

AE 2025 BUG: Dropdown Menu Control Breaks Cyrillic Text (Displays as '????')

  • October 10, 2025
  • 4 replies
  • 239 views

Hi everyone,

I've discovered a serious regression bug in After Effects 2025 (including the latest updates) affecting users who work with Cyrillic (Russian) or potentially other non-Latin characters.

The Dropdown Menu Control expression effect is failing to handle Cyrillic text in its menu items: any Russian text entered is immediately replaced with question marks (????).

Key Details:
Affected Control: Dropdown Menu Control only. Other expression controls (like Slider Control) are fine.

Version Status: This issue did not occur in After Effects 2024—it's a regression in AE 2025.

Platform Independent: The bug is reproducible on both Windows and macOS (M4), confirming it's an internal application issue, not an OS setting problem.

Workaround: The only way to use this control with Russian text is to rely on the numeric index (value) in expressions instead of the text string, and use a switch statement or array to map the number to the correct Cyrillic string.

Please submit a bug report to Adobe using the official form so this can be fixed quickly. This is critical for template creators and users working in non-Latin languages.

Thank you!

4 replies

JohnColombo17100380
Community Manager
JohnColombo17100380Community Manager
Community Manager
October 14, 2025

It's great to hear that the bug is not occurring in the Beta builds! Thank you, @lennart_1412. I'll mark this issue as Started to denote that the fix is available in the Beta builds.

 

There is not yet a scheduled release date for the work that includes this fix, as it is still in active Beta testing.

 

Thanks again,

- John, After Effects Engineering Team 

    L
    lennart_1412Author
    Participant
    October 11, 2025

    Hi John,

    I have completed the testing on the latest After Effects Beta build on both platforms (Windows and Mac).

    Excellent news: I can confirm that the issue with Cyrillic characters in the Dropdown Menu Control is FIXED in the Beta build on BOTH Windows and Mac.

    Thank you very much to the Engineering Team for resolving this regression so quickly!

    One quick note regarding the Beta: One of my existing projects failed to load completely, but I assume this is just a temporary instability of the Beta build. I will wait for the fix to be rolled out in the official public release.

    Could you please let me know when this fix is scheduled for the official release version of After Effects 2025?

    Best regards.

    L
    lennart_1412Author
    Participant
    October 10, 2025

    Hi John,

    Thank you for the quick response. I appreciate you looking into this.

    Here are the details you requested:

    After Effects Language Details
    Current Version (AE 2025): The issue occurs when AE is running in English.

    Previous Version (AE 2024): The feature worked correctly when AE was also running in English.

    The core problem seems to be an issue that has been introduced in the AE 2025 codebase, as the same Cyrillic project data, used within the same English-language AE interface, worked perfectly fine in the 2024 version.


    I understand there's a potential fix in the Public Beta builds. I will install the latest After Effects Beta build today and test the project. I will report back here immediately with the results (whether the fix is working or if the issue still occurs).

    Thanks again for the support.

    JohnColombo17100380
    Community Manager
    JohnColombo17100380Community Manager
    Community Manager
    October 10, 2025

    Hi @lennart_1412,
    Thank you for reporting this issue. We are aware of non-Latin characters being converted to "???" characters, but only when the display language of AE is using the Latin character set i.e. when AE is installed in English or another language that uses Latin characters.

    • When you encounter this issue, is AE running in English or Russian?
    • When this worked for you in 2024, what language was AE installed with?


    There is a potential fix for this issue in the public Beta builds. If possible, would you please install the latest After Effects (Beta) build and let us know if the bug also occurs?

    Thanks again for reporting this issue and for any additional information,

    - John, After Effects Engineering Team 

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