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Flora5EDD
Participant
January 21, 2025

Audio files get automatically shortened when imported

  • January 21, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 337 views

I've been using After Effects 25.1 recently and noticed a recurring issue when importing .mp3 files—they often get automatically truncated. For instance, a 30-second audio file might only import the first 5 seconds. Even after clearing the cache or renaming the file and re-importing, the problem still occurs. To work around this, I’ve had to re-export the audio through Audition before importing it back into AE, which resolves the issue. Is this a known bug in this version?

    3 replies

    M
    MrSky
    Participating Frequently
    September 18, 2025

    Luckily I had WAV files for all of the ones that imported strange. I swapped the MP3s out for their respective WAVs and everything is fine now. That's a weird bug though. It only affected 6 out of 35 MP3s, not all of them, so I'm not even sure how to recreate the problem to show it to you.

    M
    MrSky
    Participating Frequently
    September 18, 2025

    Did you ever resolve this? I'm having the same issue. I've imported about twenty mp3 files which all worked fine at one point, but since reinstalling after effects (and opening the exact same project file while making no changes) it's like some of the mp3 files have suddenly been cut up and truncated. The general pattern seems to be a few seconds of audio at the beginning, the rest of it silence, and then a bit more audio at the end. And the audio that is there is not in the proper sequence. The audio files in Explorer are totally fine, however. It's only a problem in how After Effects interprets them.

    JohnColombo17100380
    Community Manager
    JohnColombo17100380Community Manager
    Community Manager
    January 21, 2025

    Hi @Flora5EDD,

    Thank you for reporting what you're seeing with MP3 files. It's not a known bug that we're aware of.

    • When you re-export the file with Audition, what format do you export?
    • What steps are you taking to clear the cache?
    • Are the MP3 files in a folder that is synced with Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, etc?

     

    Thank you again for reporting this and for any additional information you can offer,

    - John, After Effects Engineering Team 

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