Participant

After Effects cannot read SMB files when the path contains Icelandic characters on macOS Golden Gate beta

Forum|Forum|26 days ago
September 10, 2026
7 replies
202 views

I have found a reproducible After Effects file-import problem when using an SMB network volume on the macOS Golden Gate beta.

When I try to import a PNG file from a network path containing Icelandic characters, After Effects displays:

After Effects error: File exists but couldn't be open for reading (3 :: 0)

Example failing path:

/Volumes/markadsdeild/Markadsdeild/Sjónvarp/06 On-Air grafík/01 SÝN/Vatnsmerki/01 Renders/01 Taka 2/01 Hvítt/Syn-vatnsmerki-hvitt_00025.png

The file is visible in Finder and can be copied to my local Desktop. After copying it locally, After Effects imports it successfully.

I also tested the same file on the same network volume using an ASCII-only folder and filename:

/Volumes/markadsdeild/AE_test/test_00025.png

That version imports successfully into After Effects.

This suggests that After Effects may be encountering a path or Unicode-normalization problem when accessing files through an SMB volume. The problem appears to involve Icelandic characters such as í, ó, ý, and æ, rather than the file format itself.

I have granted After Effects Full Disk Access in macOS, but this did not resolve the issue. The issue may be related to the interaction between After Effects, the macOS Golden Gate beta, and SMB paths containing non-ASCII characters.

Steps to reproduce:

Use macOS Golden Gate beta.
Mount an SMB network volume.
Navigate to a folder path containing Icelandic characters.
Import a PNG or other media file from that location into After Effects.
Observe the (3 :: 0) error.
Copy the same file to the local Desktop and import it successfully.
Alternatively, copy it to an ASCII-only folder on the same network volume and import it successfully.

The same network location is accessible to coworkers using different macOS versions, so this may be specific to the current macOS beta, the After Effects beta, or their interaction.

System information:

Mac model: MacBook Pro 16” M3 Max 36 GB

macOS version/build: Version 27.0 Beta (26A5425a)

After Effects version/build: Version 26.3.0 (Build 87) Network protocol: SMB

Please investigate how After Effects resolves and opens media paths containing Unicode characters on SMB-mounted volumes.

U

Uio_Kakaoi5074

Participant

I’m also experiencing this with Korean folder names on an SMB-mounted network volume.

Environment
macOS 27.0 (26A428)
After Effects 26.5.0 (build 89)

Importing PNG files from a path containing Korean folder names fails. Renaming the affected folder to an English-only name allows the same files to import successfully, without modifying the files themselves.

Both PNGs were also checked separately: decoding and PNG chunk CRC checks passed.

This appears consistent with the non-ASCII SMB path issue reported here. Please include Korean/Hangul paths in the investigation and regression tests.

C

curious_enthusiast7d03

Participant

Same issue here, and it also affects saving, not only importing.

Setup:
- After Effects 26.5
- macOS 27.0 (26A428)
- MacBook Pro 14" M3, 16 GB
- NAS: TerraMaster F2-425, SMB 3.1.1, mounted via smb:// in Finder

Symptoms:
- On opening a project stored on the NAS: "Project XMP data unreadable: OpenFile returned false (109)"
- On saving (even a brand new empty project): "Unable to open file for writing (3 :: 0)"

The path contained a French accented character ("Vidéos"). It worked fine for a long time and started failing recently.

What I tested:
- Saving to the root of the same SMB share (ASCII only path): works
- Saving to the accented folder: fails every time
- Renaming the folder from "Vidéos" to "Videos": fixes it immediately
- Permissions, Full Disk Access, file locking and SMB settings all checked: not the cause

Using fs_usage, After Effects creates a temp file (name.XXXXX.XXXXXXX.aep) with open(O_CREAT | O_EXCL), and the call returns ENOENT (errno 2) in the accented folder, as if the folder did not exist. The exact same operation done from Python in that folder succeeds, with the path in both NFC and NFD form. So the share itself handles the accent fine; it looks like After Effects passes the path in a form the SMB client cannot resolve.

Workaround for now: no accented characters anywhere in the project path on network volumes.

Happy to provide the full fs_usage logs if useful.