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ElzaKov
Participant
October 7, 2026
Open for Voting

After Effects 26.5 hangs or takes extremely long to open projects containing offline network-linked files

After updating to After Effects 26.5, I encountered a serious issue when opening older AEP projects.

The problem occurs when the project contains a file that was originally linked from a network/server location that no longer exists. This is not a typical "Missing Footage" situation.

In these projects, After Effects 26.3 did not classify the file as missing footage. Instead, it generated a different error related to the unavailable source. Despite the error, the project could still be opened normally.

After updating to version 26.5, projects containing such references either:

  • do not open at all, or
  • take an extremely long time to open.

For example, a project that previously opened in about 1 minute can now take 20+ minutes to load.

Expected result:

After Effects should detect the source as offline or missing and allow the project to open normally, similar to previous versions.

Actual result:

After Effects becomes unresponsive during project loading or takes an extremely long time to open the project.

Additional information:

  • Issue started after updating to After Effects 26.5.
  • The affected file is not handled as standard missing footage.
  • The same project behavior was not observed in After Effects 26.3.
  • The problem appears specifically related to references pointing to network locations that no longer exist.

      4 replies

      Nishu Kushwaha
      Community Manager
      Nishu KushwahaCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      October 7, 2026

      Hi, thanks for the report. A few things to help narrow this down:

      1. Can you try importing the problematic project into a new blank project and see if it still hangs?

      2. Is it happening with a specific project, or any project?

      3. Any error messages that appear during the long load?

      4. If you can, reinstall AE 26.3 (via Creative Cloud > three dots next to After Effects > Other versions) and test the same project on 26.3 to confirm the behavior is specific to 26.5.

      Let me know what you find.


      Thanks,
      Nishu

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      ElzaKovAuthor
      Participant
      October 8, 2026

      Hi, first of all, thank you for looking into this so quickly. I did some additional testing and here are the results:

      1. Importing the project into a blank project

      The behavior is exactly the same as when opening the project directly.

      If I import the problematic AEP into a new blank project, the import takes an extremely long time, eventually reaches 99-100%, and then nothing happens. The process becomes effectively stuck and cannot be cancelled. Even clicking Stop does not help, and the only way out is to force-close After Effects via Task Manager.

      2. Is it project-specific?

      It appears to affect any project that contains this specific type of reference to a file located on a server/network location that is no longer available.

      3. Error messages

      No error message appears.

      The project simply stops progressing during loading. It usually reaches a very high percentage (99% or 100%) and then stays there indefinitely.

      4. Testing with AE 26.3

      We performed several tests with different installations.

      What makes this especially strange is that everything appears to work normally until AE 26.5 is installed on the machine.

      Once AE 26.5 has been installed, the issue persists even if AE 26.3 is reinstalled afterward.

      We also tried removing all After Effects components and then installing only AE 26.3, but the issue was still present.

      Additional comparison

      We tested the same project in two versions:

      • Project containing the problematic footage references: after approximately 20 minutes, the import dialog shows 100% complete, but the project never finishes importing.
      • Same project with the problematic footage removed: imports successfully in about 30 seconds.

      Based on these tests, the issue seems to be directly related to these specific offline network references rather than the project itself.

      Please let me know if there are any logs, diagnostics, or additional information that would help investigate this further.

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      Nishu Kushwaha
      Community Manager
      Nishu KushwahaCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      October 12, 2026

      Thanks for getting back. What type of file is it, and what's the format? Is it an image, video, or anything else? Is it happening with a specific location also, or is it happening only with the server location? It could be a permission-related issue. You might need to get it checked with your IT team.

      Let me know how it goes.


      Thanks,
      Nishu

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