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renenijman
Participating Frequently
Jan 27, 2022 11:14 PM UTC
Answered

aerender SYNTAX ERROR: Illegal argument flag: -reuse

When doing renders from the command line it seems that I can not get the -reuse flag to work anymore after After Effects version 2021.

Is this functionality no longer supported? Or am I doing something wrong?

 

It works when I have an instsance open of After effects 2021 or earlier and use this command:

"/Applications/Adobe After Effects 2021/aerender" -project "/Users/macbook/test.aep" -comp "main_comp" -OMtemplate "h264mp4"  -output "/Users/macbook/test.mp4" -reuse

 

But when I try this with After Effects 2022 or the llatest beta version:

"/Applications/Adobe After Effects 2022/aerender" -project "/Users/macbook/test.aep" -comp "main_comp" -OMtemplate "h264mp4"  -output "/Users/macbook/test.mp4" -reuse

 

It doesn't render and gives me this error:

"aerender SYNTAX ERROR: Illegal argument flag: -reuse"

 

Any help would be greatly appeciated.

 

JohnColombo17100380
JohnColombo17100380Correct answer
Community Manager
Oct 28, 2022 1:11 AM UTC

Hi @renenijman,

This issue has been fixed in After Effects 22.6 and later versions. If you continue to encounter an error when using the "-reuse" flag, please follow the instructions I posted here to reset the Apple Event permissions for the Terminal.

 

Cheers,

- John, After Effects Engineering Team 

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7 replies

JohnColombo17100380
Community Manager
JohnColombo17100380Community ManagerCorrect answer
Community Manager
Oct 28, 2022 1:11 AM UTC

Hi @renenijman,

This issue has been fixed in After Effects 22.6 and later versions. If you continue to encounter an error when using the "-reuse" flag, please follow the instructions I posted here to reset the Apple Event permissions for the Terminal.

 

Cheers,

- John, After Effects Engineering Team 

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mustage_8565
Participant
Nov 11, 2025 6:21 PM UTC

still seeing this problem on the newer versions.

PROGRESS: Launching After Effects...
aerender SYNTAX ERROR: Illegal argument flag: -reuse

C:\Users\Administrator>"C:/Program Files/Adobe/Adobe After Effects 2025/Support Files/aerender.exe" -version
aerender version 25.5x4

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nishu_kush
nishu_kush
Legend
Nov 12, 2025 3:51 PM UTC

Hi there, sorry to hear about the issue.

What's the exact version of After Effects that you are using? Have you tried the steps suggested by John Colombo?

Let us know.


Thanks,
Nishu

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renenijmanAuthor
Participating Frequently
Feb 28, 2022 10:39 AM UTC

A temporary workaround for me seems to be that I can have the terminal script use an older version of aerender (in my case 2019) with the -reuse flag and if I then have an instance of 2022 open, it will reuse that instance.

I fear feel this might not always work down the road, so a fix would be highly appreciated.

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renenijmanAuthor
Participating Frequently
Apr 30, 2022 1:05 PM UTC

Is there any official update on this? The latest stable and beta releases still seem to not recognize the "-reuse" flag anymore.

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Sumukh21792231cod3
Participant
Feb 14, 2022 10:17 AM UTC

Hi,

 

I am seeing the same error. Any help on this? Is this happening only on Mac M1 machines?
There seems to be no reference to this online. 

I am running the latest version of AE `aerender version 22.2x120`

 

Thanks

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    RONAN5C7C
    Participant
    Feb 7, 2022 8:45 AM UTC

    Same issue. Mac OS Big Sur 11.4

    aerender version 22.1.1x74

    PROGRESS: Launching After Effects...

    aerender SYNTAX ERROR: Illegal argument flag: -reuse

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