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DemolitionCraft
Participant
Aug 18, 2021 3:53 PM UTC
Answered

After Effects 2021 can't save my project file

I've been using these After Effects the whole day from the morning till now. 

 

The program worked fine and everything went well. However, when I wanted to save my project file or import or save as. I've clicked everything but nothing happened. I don't really know what to do. And I have to hand in some files today and it seems it won't help...

 

I bought the whole adobe package and this little issue really frustrated me.

Please let me know if you guys had the same problem or solved the problem! It would be really helpful for me and for everyone!

 

Thank you 😄

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    Rameez_Khan
    Rameez_KhanCorrect answer
    Legend
    Aug 29, 2022 1:04 PM UTC

    Hi all, 

     

    This issue has been resolved in the latest After Effects release (v22.6).

    After Effects 22.6 is now live!

     

    Thank you all for your patience!
    Rameez

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    53 replies

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    default4tbu0f5vz503
    Participant
    Jul 14, 2022 9:33 PM UTC

    This is the best solution I've found so far. Worked for me. Posting here for posterity. 

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcQ5kNSGwYA

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      Paul98A1
      Paul98A1
      Inspiring
      Jul 13, 2022 3:45 PM UTC

      Yesterday I genuinely thought emptying the cache solve the problem. But the problems still exists today!

      Driving me nuts!

       

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      G25180465mrot
      Participant
      Jul 8, 2022 11:30 PM UTC

      I am also experiencing the same issue. Unable to save, autosave or export videos without using media encoder. Basically anything that uses the Mac OS file dialogue just stops working after 5 minutes of use. The 'resolve font' box will trigger this to happen immediately. 

       

      Brand new Macbook Pro with a M1 Pro chip running Monterey. It occurs on 21 and 22. Full permissions given. Same problem online and offline. Same problem with and without external display. Same problem with and without rosetta. Cleared cache and preferences. Premiere Pro and Photoshop working great on the same machine. So I don't understand why After Effects is behaving like this?

       

      Is anyone from Adobe actually looking into this issue? Seems like this is going to be a big issue as more people upgrade to M1 chips and upgrade to Monterey.

       

      Has anyone tried installing the 2020 version to see if that works?

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      Paul98A1
      Paul98A1
      Inspiring
      Jun 25, 2022 11:03 AM UTC

      Possibly have a soution, I've been plagued with this on and off since working on my MacoBook Pro M1 Max. 

       

      Tried all the above fixes, the only thing that seems to make a difference is switching tyhe colour depth from 16 bit to 8 bit. (Edit - Project Settings - Colour)

       

      Or in a real emergency export the secquence to Media Encoder as it will then automatically save a project of that timeline next to the project file (in folder ending _AME). Sadly this wont save the entire contents of the project, it's more of a Reduce Project version. 

       

      Frikkin annoying!

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        BrigitteRoars2
        BrigitteRoars2
        Participating Frequently
        Jun 27, 2022 12:45 PM UTC

        Since speaking with Adobe, and updating After Effects to 22.5 (Build 53) this issue remains >.< Unfortunately changing colour depth did not work for me, but thank you for the tip.

         

        I'm having to restart AE as soon I notice it's not saving anymore, anywhere from 5-10 minutes from opening it.

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          Paul98A1
          Paul98A1
          Inspiring
          Jul 12, 2022 10:41 AM UTC

          Yeah, my 16 bit to 8 bit solution no longer seems to work for me either.

          Iive even resorted to uninstalling without saving any preferences, reinstalling fresh and guess what! It saves for about 5 minutes then stops saving. That's without even working on anything.

           

          I even tried working on my desktop incase it was the raid drive screwing things up. Version 2021 used to be OK but that now does the same thing as 2022.

           

          Completely out of ideas, other than digging an old non M1 Max macbook out.

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          BrigitteRoars2
          BrigitteRoars2
          Participating Frequently
          Jun 9, 2022 8:42 AM UTC

          I have been on the phone with Adobe support today. First they cleared caches, reset workspace and launched Adobe using Terminal. This did not work so I called them back. This time they launched AE using Rosetta (get info, check "Open using Rosetta"). I can now save. He also suggested using Mercury Software Only as the renderer if there were any playback problems.

           

          For the record I also have to run Photoshop in Rosetta for the Timelord plugin to work. Basically Adobe After Effects and Photoshop do not appear to be completely M1-ready yet. I hope this helps folks!

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          BrigitteRoars2
          BrigitteRoars2
          Participating Frequently
          Jun 1, 2022 8:17 PM UTC

          Any solutions for this yet? I have tried:

           

          Clearing Adobe After Effects Preferences

          Go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Full Disk Access > *ensure your Adobe software is ticked*

          Setting permissions on Adobe After Effects folder to Read & Write

           

          It started working for a few hours, now I can't save again so have also tried:

          Switch main monitor to computer instead of external display. System Prefs > Displays. 

           

          Menu items including the all important Save and Save as... are greyed out so I'm about to try a reinstall for the second time this week.

           

          I'm on a Macbook M1 Max with After Effects 22.4.0 and an external Cintiq 24 as my main monitor. I've had to reinstall AE multiple times on this new computer to solve various problems and each time I reinstall a new problem seems to crop up. This is the worst so far, being able to save is *vital* so I hope Adobe comes back with a fix for this ASAP.

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            saragoehner
            Participant
            Jun 8, 2022 11:29 PM UTC

            This is truly awful. I have auto-save turned on but did not realize that it wasn't ACTUALLY saving ALL DAY. I also hit save and even increment and saved several times today but am just now realized that it never actually saved anywhere. I thought it was weird when I couldn't change the output destination of my render and that's when I started investigating. I've wasted an entire day's work. That's $800 down the tubes that I can not get back. I have to start over since there is no way to save and I have to restart AE to let it have full disk access. When was the disk access revoked I'm so shocked and stunned and panicked. This is really really bad.

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              Havana26123720k0jr
              Participant
              Sep 15, 2022 1:04 AM UTC

              I'm having this problem right now. I've been working for 3 hours and haven't noticed my project wasn't saving. Has anyone figured this out for macs yet on the 2022 update? 

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              The Red Bangle5C1F
              Participant
              Jan 17, 2022 7:42 AM UTC

              it was a fault with my system's permission settings for AE - somehow upon updating it took away the program's 'Write' permission, hence why I could open projects but not save - even though the option was available in AE.

              Fixed it by navigating to where the program was location - in Program Files - get to the program's (After effect) security properties - right click > properties > security. And then go through every single group or user names, hit edit on each, and select the write permission - the is an option to grant full control along with associated options, we hit every single one, hit apply

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              James22881057tlyr
              Participant
              May 17, 2022 9:03 AM UTC

              If you're having issues today, disconnecting your machine from the net might also help. I noticed last night that Creative Cloud app was having trouble syncing. This morning it just spins and can't connect to the Adobe servers. I'm guessing that as Adobe is providing the irritating option of cloud save nowadays, AE is trying desperately to connect to the servers and failing before it loads the save as dialogue box. I also noticed that Premiere isn't loading when connected. Killing my connection solved both issues... everything loads and saves lightning fast. Not great that a simple server outage has rendered Adobe apps unusable... come on Adobe!!!

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              Renée5CF4
              Participant
              Dec 24, 2021 1:42 PM UTC

              Hi everyone!

              I believe you need to give AE full disk access again after upgrading to the new installing Adobe AE 2021, because the 2020 version is seen as a different application so the settings and disk rights aren't transferred to the new app install (technically an update but you get the picture).

              To do this:
              Go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Full Disk Access > *ensure your Adobe software are ticked*

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              Johann Skirnir Gustavsson
              Participant
              Dec 15, 2021 11:24 AM UTC

              Same problem here. AE is not frozen, but I am unable to save or save as. No dialogue window appears. The application is responsive otherwise.

              I have tried After Effects CC Version 22.0.0, 22.0.1 and 22.1.1 - all with the same bad result.

               

              My specs:

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              Joost van der Hoeven
              Community Expert
              Joost van der HoevenCommunity Expert
              Community Expert
              Dec 15, 2021 9:13 PM UTC

              Have you tried clearing your preferences? 

              https://community.adobe.com/t5/after-effects-discussions/faq-how-to-reset-trash-preferences-in-after-effects/td-p/10634342

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              bob444t43
              Participant
              Mar 30, 2022 10:58 AM UTC

              Clearing my preferences just worked for me

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              anaism59153805
              anaism59153805
              Participant
              Dec 14, 2021 12:52 PM UTC

              Same issue, After Effects will not save or save as. The application isn't frozen, I can access the Preferences and click around but I can't select my sequences or playback. Autosave hasn't been saving either.

               

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              Joost van der Hoeven
              Community Expert
              Joost van der HoevenCommunity Expert
              Community Expert
              Dec 14, 2021 2:33 PM UTC

              @anaism59153805 update to 22.1.1. And note that M1 support is still "new".

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