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Known Participant
Aug 21, 2025 10:35 AM UTC
Answered

Creative Cloud Auto Update: Transfer Render Settings and Output Modules

I have custom render settings and output modules, but Creative Cloud does not transfer them to updated AE versions. What can I do?

David.Arbor
David.ArborCorrect answer
Community Manager
Aug 21, 2025 1:40 PM UTC

If you migrate your preferences with the GUI once, then I believe they should be available to aender. Are you saying that you open the AE UI, migrate preferences, can see the Render Settings and Output Modules have migrated and show up in your Render Queue, but they still aren't available via aerender?

 

But either way, here are the location of your preferences:

 

  • Windows: \Users\[user_name]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\After Effects\[version]
  • macOS: /Users/[user_name]/Library/Preferences/Adobe/After Effects/[version]


Inside the folder of the version you want to migrate from, there will be two files that hold your Render Settings and Output modules. Copying those to your current version and renaming the file name to include the version number should do the trick. 
Adobe After Effects [version] Prefs-indep-output.txt

Adobe After Effects [version] Prefs-indep-render.txt

 

Thanks,
- David, After Effects Engineering Team

4 replies

Known Participant
Aug 21, 2025 12:43 PM UTC

Yes, I am prompted, but I need the presets available in command line rendering, so the GUI is never started.

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David.Arbor
Community Manager
David.ArborCommunity ManagerCorrect answer
Community Manager
Aug 21, 2025 1:40 PM UTC

If you migrate your preferences with the GUI once, then I believe they should be available to aender. Are you saying that you open the AE UI, migrate preferences, can see the Render Settings and Output Modules have migrated and show up in your Render Queue, but they still aren't available via aerender?

 

But either way, here are the location of your preferences:

 

  • Windows: \Users\[user_name]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\After Effects\[version]
  • macOS: /Users/[user_name]/Library/Preferences/Adobe/After Effects/[version]


Inside the folder of the version you want to migrate from, there will be two files that hold your Render Settings and Output modules. Copying those to your current version and renaming the file name to include the version number should do the trick. 
Adobe After Effects [version] Prefs-indep-output.txt

Adobe After Effects [version] Prefs-indep-render.txt

 

Thanks,
- David, After Effects Engineering Team

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Known Participant
Aug 25, 2025 7:40 AM UTC

I think the manual copying of the modules is the solution! Thank you for that!

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David.Arbor
Community Manager
Community Manager
Aug 21, 2025 12:34 PM UTC

Hi @spiegelball When you launched AE, you should have been prompted to migrate your settings from a previous version. Did you see that message? If not, go to Preferences > Startup & Repair > Migrate Previous Version Preferences...

 

See if that moves your Render Settings and Output Modules forward. If not, let me know, and I can tell you how to do it manually.

 

Thanks,
- David, After Effects Engineering Team

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