menus do not work inside modal dialogs inside After Effects
Title: Context menus do not stay open inside modal dialogs (macOS)
Summary
On macOS, right-clicking inside any modal dialog in After Effects causes the context menu to appear and dismiss immediately, before an item can be selected. Context menus function normally everywhere else in the application — Timeline, Project panel, Composition panel, Effect Controls, docked and floating panels. The failure is specific to modal dialogs.
System
- Mac mini M4
- macOS 26.6.2 (25G83)
- After Effects 26.5.0 (Build 89)
- Also reproduces in the current After Effects Beta
Steps to reproduce
1. Open any composition.
2. Composition > Composition Settings.
3. Left-click the Preset field
4. The context menu flashes on screen and dismisses before an item can be chosen.
Same result in other modal dialogs, including Output Module Settings and Render Settings.
Expected result
The context menu opens and remains open until an item is selected or the menu is dismissed.
Actual result
The menu renders and disappears on the same click. Press-and-hold keeps the menu visible while the button is held and allows a root-level item to be selected by dragging, but sub-menus do not open. A normal click-and-release never leaves the menu open.
Troubleshooting already performed
- Reproduces with multiple input devices, including a wired mouse with no third-party driver installed.
- Preferences reset (Cmd+Opt+Shift on launch) — no change.
- Reproduces in a clean, newly created macOS user account.
- Window managers, input utilities and menu-bar apps quit and removed from Login Items — no change.
- "Displays have separate Spaces" disabled, window tiling disabled, Stage Manager off — no change.
- Workspace-switch and Dock-refocus workarounds from the earlier macOS menu-bar bug reports have no effect.
Key detail
This does not reproduce in any other Adobe apps.
