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A
anouk_9443
Participant
October 29, 2025
Question

Bug After Effects

  • October 29, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 150 views

Hi! I have a weird problem with my After Effects. I've never used it before and I also tried downloading a bunch of different versions to see if it helps. But it didn't. 

The problem is that there is a rectangle within the bigger rectangle. I can't select anything on the bigger one and it will only show on the smaller one. That makes it very difficult to work with.
Let me know if there are more photos needed to explain what I mean!

I hope someone responds cuz I need after effects for school 😭

 

2 replies

nishu_kush
Community Manager
nishu_kushCommunity Manager
Community Manager
October 29, 2025

If it's not what OliviaHazel suggested, it appears to be a glitch to me. Does it happen in a specific project? Can you run After Effects in Safe Mode and test on a new project? In case it doesn't help, please share your system specifications (CPU, GPU, RAM, OS version).

Moving this thread from Bugs to Discussions for troubleshooting.


Thanks,
Nishu

A
anouk_9443Author
Participant
November 19, 2025

Hi, Safe mode also didn´t work. I had a teams meeting with an Adobe Employee and she used a Cleaner Tool to delete all my Adobe applications. That worked! BUT, i don´t think I closed it off good enough so sadly the same exact problem returned. And my Premiere Pro is also weird. I still have the cleaner tool and i think i can do it myself. But i just want to confirm that the cleaner tool doesn´t delete saved files or video´s I made with premiere pro. I only want to re download all the Adobe applications, because that worked last time. 
Thank you, Anouk 

O
OliviaHazel
Participating Frequently
October 29, 2025

Click inside the Composition Panel (the area where you see both rectangles).

Look at the bottom-left corner of that panel — you should see a drop-down that says something like:

1 View, 2 Views - Horizontal, or 2 Views - Vertical.Change it to “1 View”.

 

If for some reason the option doesn’t show up:

  • Make sure your Composition Panel is active (blue border around it).

  • You can also go to the View menu → Switch 3D View → 1 View.

 

Cuz After Effects lets you work with multiple camera or view angles (useful for 3D projects). But when it’s set to “2 Views,” it splits your composition preview area into two — one active and one secondary view. You can only interact with the active one (the smaller rectangle in your case).

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