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robby999
robby999
Participating Frequently
Nov 2, 2026 11:24 PM UTC
Question

Anyone else seeing that AE is not deleting cache after the last update?

I have to manually delete the files from the directories listed on the Disk page in preferences in the Conformed Media Cache area in order to actually clear the cache. Kind of annoying every time an audio file update results in an increase in its length, I have to do this manually, or else AE cuts the audio at the previous end time (while playing the new audio 👏).

    4 replies

    robby999
    robby999Author
    Participating Frequently
    Nov 3, 2026 1:08 PM UTC

    AE version: 26.5.0 (build 89)

    Yes, it happens every time. Here, I’ll show you. Below are two screenshots of the timeline showing the scenario. The first features two files, one named “27” and another named “audio”. The “audio” file is a copy of another file called “9”. As you might guess, 27 and 9 refer to the audio length in the respective files. In this screenshot, you can see the waveform differs, because the files are different.

     

    Now here’s what happens when I replace “audio” with a copy of “27”:

     

    As you can see, the waveform in the top file has been replaced with data matching the bottom, because “audio” is now the same as 27. (Note, the waveform doesn’t always replace, but the audio always updates in playback.) This also means the audio file itself is 27 seconds long, unlike the layer shown here, which can’t be extended. Nor can the missing audio be heard by opening the item from the project. Also tried restarting AE, no dice. Also tried clearing cache, no dice. But if I delete these files, close the file and reopen… et voila, layer extendability city:

     

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    Community Manager
    Kevin-MonahanCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    Nov 3, 2026 12:37 AM UTC

    Hi robby,

    Thanks for the post. That sounds odd. Do you have the same issue in a new project? Let us know.

    Thanks,

    Kevin

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    robby999
    robby999Author
    Participating Frequently
    Nov 3, 2026 12:56 AM UTC

    Yeah, I sure do. Creating a new project doesn’t help the issue. Restarting AE doesn’t either, even with resetting the prefs. Tbh, I’ve noticed more difficulty in both AE and Premier getting them to update audio lengths when new files appear recently, although with Premier I’ve had success combining the user-facing cache clearing feature (in prefs) with manually removing the files from the project and re-importing. In AE, it requires the deep, manual, file system-based delete. It’s possible this is something to do with my install, as I’m on a work-provisioned laptop and I don’t have admin privileges. But I did look in the (mac, 27.2) system prefs and I confirmed that all disk and file access listing AE was enabled (it was already).

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    Community Manager
    Kevin-MonahanCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    Nov 3, 2026 1:14 AM UTC

    Hi Robby,

    Thanks for following up and testing this in a new project. That's helpful.

    Could you confirm your exact After Effects version and the format of the audio files you're replacing? Also, does this happen consistently when replacing an audio file with a longer version?

    If you can share a short screen recording showing the behavior, that would be helpful. This is starting to sound like something we should investigate further.

    Thanks,
    Kevin

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