Why is the output destination not saved in aep?

You can create destination templates for renders.

1. Save your project. Some people love to spend hours animating and never do this…
2. Add your comp the queue.
3. Click the dropdown triangle button in between the “Output To:” label and the file name, and choose Custom… at the bottom.
4. Here, you can create tokenized folder paths and file names. In your case, to render next to your project file, you can build a path using the Add Property… dropdown or enter this:
        [projectFolder]/[compName].[fileExtension]
5. Then click the folded paper icon to save this template and then enable the Default checkbox.

Now any new render item will default to output next to your aep.

Bonus round: If you want to save to a folder named “Renders” next to your project folder, use a path like

[projectFolder]/../Renders/[compName].[fileExtension]

Edit: My folder paths used “/” forward slashes because I’m on macOS. Change those to “\” backwards slashes if you’re on Windows.