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Participant
March 4, 2019
Question

AE not responding and the video isn't saved

  • March 4, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 16193 views

Hi!

I've worked for hours and hours making a cool video in After Effects, but suddenly it stopped responding and I haven't saved since I started the project! I really wanna know if there is any way I could restore that composition. No, I don't have autosave on. I haven't closed After Effects because I'm too scared it will delete the video...

2 replies

denis-ish
Participant
February 5, 2024

hey, You can a trick from this video → link

works for me (on mac)
essentialy all you have to do is open terminal and close AE typing % kill -SEGV *NUM*

*NUM* 
is the process number (PID) of AE in activity monitor 

Participant
May 27, 2025

this was really helpful! thanks so much

dj.summitt
Inspiring
March 4, 2019

Nope, you could try to see if it will un-freeze but if you did not save, there is no way to recover. It's a good habit to start a project & the first thing you do is save the file - before you do anything else. Then at the very least let AutoSave take over.

Participant
March 4, 2019

I saved it a couple of times when I started the project... but that can't recover my progress now right?

Dave_LaRonde
Inspiring
March 5, 2019

redtechtigerr77610447  wrote

...that can't recover my progress now right?

I'm sorry, that's right.  Everyone gets burned at least once on getting so involved in AE to save.  But you'll soon save like the joke says people vote in Chicago -- early and often.