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Gottskálk Dað274208788olt
Gottskálk Dað274208788olt
Participant
Sep 10, 2026 1:16 PM UTC
Investigating

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

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:

  1. Use macOS Golden Gate beta.
  2. Mount an SMB network volume.
  3. Navigate to a folder path containing Icelandic characters.
  4. Import a PNG or other media file from that location into After Effects.
  5. Observe the (3 :: 0) error.
  6. Copy the same file to the local Desktop and import it successfully.
  7. 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.

      16 replies

      eugenioc36926372
      Participant
      Oct 29, 2026 2:49 PM UTC

      I can reproduce this issue with After Effects 26.5.0 (Build 89) on macOS Golden Gate 27.2, accessing files on a NAS.

      Projects that worked before the macOS update now display these errors for many assets:

      • “Project XMP data could not be read: OpenFile returned false” (109).

      • “File exists but couldn't be open for reading” (3 :: 0).

      • “Unable to open file”, suggesting the file might be open in another application.

      My tests isolate the problem to accented characters in the NAS folder path:

      1. An Illustrator file fails to load in After Effects when its NAS path includes folder names such as “Doméstico”, “Paraíso”, “Producción” and “Diseño”.

      2. Copying that same file to a folder on the same NAS whose full path contains no accented characters allows After Effects to import it successfully.

      3. Copying the assets to the Mac’s internal drive also works.

      4. Other Adobe applications I use can access the files in the original NAS location without this problem.

      The issue therefore appears specific to After Effects accessing these NAS paths after the macOS update. It still occurs on macOS 27.2.

      Our production workflow relies on shared NAS storage, so moving assets locally or renaming existing shared folders is disruptive.

      Is there a confirmed workaround that preserves the current folder structure, or a planned After Effects fix? I can provide screenshots of the errors.

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      Community Manager
      jenkmeister17177426Community Manager
      Oct 29, 2026 3:31 PM UTC

      Potential Workaround: Now that you’re on MacOS 27.2, go into AE → Preferences → Disk → Conformed Media Cache → Clean Database & Cache. Then try importing the content from the share again. 

      • This will help if you’ve tried to import content previously into AE while on MacOS 27.0 and the bad import was stored into the media cache. 
      • If you have directly updated from MacOS 26.* directly to MacOS 27.2, then you could still try the Clean Database & Cache step to see if that helps.

      Planned After Effects Fix: Given this was a change in MacOS that we believe is an Apple bug, we are trying to understand what Apple’s plans are. We are working based on that information to adjust the AE code to adapt to Apple’s plans.

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      eugenioc36926372
      Participant
      Oct 29, 2026 3:44 PM UTC

      Thank you for the suggested workaround. I tried Clean Database & Cache and restarted After Effects, but unfortunately the issue persists on macOS 27.2 with AE 26.5.0.

      The same Illustrator file imports successfully from the same NAS when its folder path contains no accented characters or “ñ”, but fails from the original path. Other Adobe applications can access the original location without issues.

      I appreciate the team investigating this and working on a fix. Please let me know if any additional information or testing from my side would help.

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      Jace.kim24888104cjit
      Participant
      Oct 28, 2026 5:39 AM UTC

      I'm experiencing the exact same issue in the same environment, and it's been really frustrating.

      Has anyone found a solution or workaround yet?

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      Community Manager
      jenkmeister17177426Community Manager
      Oct 28, 2026 2:45 PM UTC

      “Same environment”? What MacOS version are you on? Have you tried MacOS 27.2 RC or GM build? 

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      Community Manager
      jenkmeister17177426Community Manager
      Oct 27, 2026 11:22 PM UTC

      So it looks like the MacOS 27.2 RC that is now available has improved the situation here. You will likely first need to clear your Conformed Media Cache, restart AE and then try your import again. 

       

      Let us know if that works for you. We will look at other fixes in AE itself for a future release if this isn’t fully resolved by Apple’s changes. 

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      Community Manager
      jenkmeister17177426Community Manager
      Oct 17, 2026 1:01 AM UTC

      A quick update here. This appears to be a change in MacOS 27. The OS is no longer returning the file names or paths with diacritic paths the same way as every other version of MacOS before now. Feedback to Apple has been submitted and there are other reports to Apple about this. In the meantime, we are investigating if there are things After Effects can do to workaround this, besides the ASCII only folder suggestions mentioned above.  

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      funny_glamoura65a
      Participant
      Oct 14, 2026 7:17 AM UTC

      Same issue here on the release version, macOS 27.0.1 (26A434), with Turkish characters (ş, ç, ğ, ö, ü) in the path.

      - After Effects 2026 (26.5.0), clean reinstall did not help
      - NAS mounted via SMB 3.1.1 (signing required)
      - Errors: "File exists but couldn't be open for reading (3 :: 0)" and "Project XMP data could not be read: OpenFile returned false (109)", mostly when switching back to After Effects from another app
      - At the moment of the error, the same file can be read from Terminal (cat) and lsof shows no process holding it
      - The same project works fine from the local disk
      - Renaming all folders in the path to ASCII-only names fixes it completely

      Problem started right after upgrading from macOS 26.5.2 to 27.0.1.

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      Uio_Kakaoi5074
      Participant
      Sep 27, 2026 1:20 PM UTC

      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.

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      curious_enthusiast7d03
      Participant
      Sep 24, 2026 12:10 PM UTC

      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.

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      Gottskálk Dað274208788olt
      Gottskálk Dað274208788oltAuthor
      Participant
      Sep 16, 2026 12:48 PM UTC

      This is still an issue on v26.5.

      For reference, here are the three error messages I get when trying to open/work in an affected project.

       

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      JohnColombo17100380
      Community Manager
      JohnColombo17100380Community Manager
      Community Manager
      Sep 10, 2026 3:43 PM UTC

      Hi ​@Gottskálk Dað274208788olt,

      Thank you for reporting this issue. We are also able to reproduce this on the macOS 2027 Beta and now have a ticket open to investigate.

      Thanks again for reporting this,

      - John, After Effects Engineering Team  

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        Gottskálk Dað274208788olt
        Gottskálk Dað274208788oltAuthor
        Participant
        Sep 10, 2026 3:45 PM UTC

        Wow I did not expect a reply so soon! Well done guys and thank you for opening a ticket for this rather localized issue 🙏

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        Gottskálk Dað274208788olt
        Gottskálk Dað274208788oltAuthor
        Participant
        Sep 10, 2026 3:47 PM UTC

        Oh and it might be good to add that I also sent this feedback to Apple via the Feedback Assistant, since I figured the issue might be on their end.

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