Participant

After Effects shortcuts stop working

Forum|Forum|4 months ago
September 23, 2025
3 replies
153 views

AE 2024.4

over a year ago, the shortcut CTRL+ SHIFT+X stoped working for triming comps.

Now all of a sudden, CTRL + SHIFT + C to precompose stopped working.

nothing changed on my system. no other new app that might use these shortcuts.

David.Arbor

Community Manager

Gotcha, thanks for the clarification. I believe you that you didn't install anything new, but lots of things can install or get updated in the background without your explicit permission. Even your keyboard might have special software that can hijack something (I know my Logitech keyboard has also done this in the past)

My suggestion would be to create a new test user account and see if the shortcuts work there. If they do, then something is running in the bg on your main user account.

Really, the best way to troubleshoot something like this is to close each app in your system tray one-by-one and try the shortcut again. If the shortcuts still don't work after you closed everything, then something in the Task Manager Processes tab is likely the culprit.

However, to be absolutely certain nothing is wrong with AE, you can also assign a second KB shortcut to either of your commands. If the commands work with your alternate shortcut, then it basically guarantees something running in the bg is causing the problem.

Thanks,
- David, After Effects Engineering Team

P

Pawel_Sobolewski9781Author

Participant

Hi @David.Arbor ,

sorry, yes it was AE 2025.4

The Shortcuts are linked in the manager.

I tried AE 2024 and same issue here.

So it looks like the shortcut is hijacked.

but i didnt install anzthing...

David.Arbor

Community Manager

Hi @Pawel_Sobolewski9781 can you open the Keyboard Shortcut Editor and see if these commands are still properly mapped to the expect shortcuts?
If so, can you try AE 2025 to see if the results are the same?

When something like this happens it is often another app that is running in the background taking over, and you might not even realize what's happening. For example, my password manager unexpectedly started hijacking an AE KB shortcut. It didn't popup any new windows, but it was running in the BG at a system level, so its use of those key commands took precedence.

Can you try closing all the apps in your Task Bar, even the ones hidden behind the arrow?

Thanks,
- David, After Effects Engineering Team

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