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pixiez
Participant
July 23, 2022
Question

Can't Save Projects Without After Effects Breaking

  • July 23, 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 309 views

Pretty much what it says. I've Googled and searched around this forum, but to no avail--restarted Adobe, tried the whole Roaming file trick, all of it.

I'm trying to just make a simple lyric video, but every time I save and close After Effects, if I open it again, the composition screen is blank. The lyrics I put in are gone, and so is the background footage underneath it. The audio still plays, but all of my visual work has completely disappeared and no matter what I do, I can't access it again.

Please help. I've tried everything. I put hours into this silly little project for one of my songs, but it just doesn't want to work.

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3 replies

ShiveringCactus
Community Expert
ShiveringCactusCommunity Expert
Community Expert
July 24, 2022

It might not be connected but I had a terrible time yesterday due to Windows 11 constantly freezing whenever I even thought about nagivating to files.  I was worried it was After Effects until I started searching. Check for the latest Windows updates - that seemed to solve the problem for me.

Kyle Hamrick
Community Expert
Kyle HamrickCommunity Expert
Community Expert
July 23, 2022

Is this happening with every project, or just this specific one? 

Are you getting any specific error codes?

If possible, making a screen recording of this process (Loom is a good free option) seems like it could be helpful.

P
pixiezAuthor
Participant
July 23, 2022

I mean, this was my second try at this project--I hoped that if I started from scratch it wouldn't have the same issue, but alas. No error codes, either--just a blank screen.

I've attached a screenshot in another reply. Basically, the only times I've been able to avoid this is by using the increment and save option, but even that is risky, because it's always a different increment that works, and I have no idea how much progress I'll end up losing.

Kyle Hamrick
Community Expert
Kyle HamrickCommunity Expert
Community Expert
July 23, 2022

So, have you only experienced this in this one particular project... and each version you've attempted involves the same video file? If so, all my suspicion is pointing right there.

Try creating another project WITHOUT this video file - same issue? If not, we've found our culprit. 

If that's the issue, you could always try running it through Media Encoder and creating a different format. I'd recommend ProRes. 

 

Mylenium
Mylenium
Legend
July 23, 2022

Without any system info and specific details about teh project such as fonts usage, structure of the comps and so on we can't tell you much. Screenshots also would help a lot.

 

Mylenium

P
pixiezAuthor
Participant
July 23, 2022

Hi, sorry about the vagueness in the original post, it was pretty late when I made that and I was pretty tired. To be totally straightforward, there's barely anything on the project: the original video I'm putting the lyrics over, and the lyrics themselves. Sometimes, if I save in increments then earlier versions will work--this is actually an increment and eventually the video did load--but most of the time, it just freezes like this and refuses to work, and I have to go back to an older increment where less of the work is done. Basically, a "one step forward, two steps back" kind of approach. Sometimes the preview screen will become a light grey, and then completely freeze on me, but sometimes it's just this blank screen.

I might just use a different software, because it's incredibly frustrating.

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