.psd not loading in after effects

Question

I'm trying to import a .psd file into after effects and it just loads indefinitely. I've done this many times before, but suddenly it isn't working. Also, the color space is NOT the problem. My file is already in RGB. Does anyone know what the problem my be. If the file is corrupted, how can I determine this?

justlearn · Accepted Answer

@samuel_7129 File Corrupted? This is a good place to start, as a truly corrupted file won't open anywhere properly. I would make sure it opens in Photoshop. If it does, then you know it isn't a corrupted file! The issue is more likely with After Effects or its interaction with the file's content.

How complex is this Photoshop file? If it has many layers, a video timeline, lots of layer styles or smart objects, vector masks that might be the cause of it.

I would chck the media cache. Since After Effects stores cached media, the cache might have been corrupted, which can lead to import issues. Or maybe After Effects' preferences files are corrupted and cause unexpected behavior?!

proxdigitalagency · Answer

Had this exact issue a while back. Since you've already verified RGB, it’s almost never a total file corruption if Photoshop still opens it fine without an "unexpected end of file" error, it usually means After Effects is getting stuck parsing a specific layer. The most common culprits are cloud-linked smart objects,

unsupported layer styles, or 32-bit color depth (make sure it's set to 8-bit or 16-bit under Image > Mode). Try opening the PSD in Photoshop, rasterizing or embedding any smart objects, and doing a fresh File > Save As to a new location on your local drive to clear out any bad cached metadata.

Importing it as Composition - Retain Layer Sizes into AE right after usually resolves the infinite freeze.

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