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Alba27699334tz3u
Participating Frequently
March 4, 2026

After Effects 2025 & 2026 ERROR with imported mp4, mov and swf files

  • March 4, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 23 views

Dear Adobe Team,

I'm writing to report an ongoing issue that's frustrating many motion designers, including myself.I originally reported a similar problem back in 2023 (

), and unfortunately, it was never fully resolved. I managed to work around it by juggling older versions, installing and uninstalling as needed, but it's unbelievable that we face these kinds of problems with such an expensive Creative Cloud subscription.

 

The situation has become much worse with the latest 2025 and 2026 updates.I regularly work on large projects with 500+ assets (PNG, JPG, SWF, audio, video files, etc.). I collect files properly, start working, and everything seems fine at first. But the next day, or after a few days, when I reopen the project, many MP4 and SWF files appear as "missing," show compatibility errors, or fail to display correctly.

 

This isn't a one-time or occasional glitch; it's now my standard workflow. I've wasted countless hours reinstalling software, restarting, and even re-rendering files just to relink them.This is severely impacting productivity and causing major frustration across the community. I've spoken with other designers experiencing the exact same recurring problems, and it seems to be getting worse with each update.Here are the most common issues we're facing right now:

  • Files are not damaged before importing. They usually work perfectly on first import and for several days, then suddenly "crash" or become missing — almost as if the software itself is corrupting or breaking the links.
  • SWF files: same problem as with the videos, they work correctly for a certain period of time and suddenly crash, showed as missing and when I try to relink there is a compatibility problem - sometimes I had to transform my swf in image sequences in Animate to be able to import my animations
  • Imported MP4 files sometimes glitch, play incorrectly, or render as a completely black layer.

Please prioritize fixing these issues as soon as possible.

We're running out of patience with a tool we rely on professionally every day. Thank you for your attention. I hope to hear back soon.

 

Best regards,

Alba

1 reply

JohnColombo17100380
Community Manager
JohnColombo17100380Community Manager
Community Manager
March 4, 2026

Hi ​@Alba27699334tz3u,

Thank you for the follow-up on this issue. Looking at the linked thread, we haven’t been able to reproduce the failure when using the same files, which makes it difficult to make any fix for the issue.

The failures you’ve described seem very similar to others we’ve seen when cloud-synced media files are being used (e.g. files in Dropbox, Google Drive, etc). Is this true in your case?

 

To help us investigate further, a log file from After Effects on your machine would be helpful so we can see a bit more information beyond the errors. When you have a project with assets that go missing, please follow these steps:

  1. Select Help > Enable Logging (this will prompt to restart After Effects)
  2. Re-open the project with affected media
  3. Quit After Effects
  4. Share the After Effects Log.txt file located at /Users/<yourUserName>/Library/Preferences/Adobe/After Effects/26.0/logs

Thank you again for reporting this issue and for your patience,

- John, After Effects Engineering Team 

A
Alba27699334tz3uAuthor
Participating Frequently
March 4, 2026

All my files are stored locally, either on my laptop's internal drive or directly from an external disk (no network drives, cloud sync, or anything like that).

I 've tried restarting After Effects, the computer, and even the basics (chair and table included ) multiple times but nothing resolves it permanently.The only reliable workaround right now is uninstalling the current version and installing an older one (I'm currently on 25.0, which works... for an unpredictable amount of time before the same issues return).What could be causing this behavior? It seems like After Effects is somehow losing or corrupting the file links over time, even though:

  • The files themselves aren't moved, renamed, or damaged.
  • Everything works perfectly on initial import and for days/weeks.
  • The problem suddenly appears on reopen (missing footage, compatibility errors, black layers for MP4/MOV, no audio or blank for SWF).

I'm definitely not alone, I've spoken with several colleagues experiencing the exact same recurring issues in AE 2025 and 2026. It's severely disrupting our workflows, wasting hours on relinking/re-rendering, and honestly pushing many of us to explore alternative software for better reliability and efficiency.

Any insights from the team on why links break like this after a while? Or known bugs/fixes in progress? I'd really appreciate any guidance or escalation, this has been ongoing since at least 2023 for SWF imports (Error 86 :: 1), and it's only gotten worse with recent updates.

Thanks in advance!

Best,

Alba

JohnColombo17100380
Community Manager
JohnColombo17100380Community Manager
Community Manager
March 4, 2026

Thank you for those additional details! I’m not aware of any ongoing bugs that would cause references to media to break or go missing in the way you’ve described. Providing the logs I mentioned above would give us potential clues to the root cause, but even those might only show that files cannot be found without further insights as to why they cannot be found.

Presuming from your screenshot that you are using macOS, what other file management software or security software might be running on the system used by yourself and your colleagues?

An additional route you might try is manually clearing out the Media Cache folders. With AE closed, delete the contents of these folders:

  • /Users/<yourUseName>/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/Media Cache
  • /Users/<yourUseName>/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/Media Cache Files

These will be rebuilt when relaunching AE and reopening the projects.

Cheers,

- John, After Effects Engineering Team 

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