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HippieBoy Chris
HippieBoy Chris
Inspiring
April 21, 2017
Answered

AME cannot connect to Dynamic Link Server

  • April 21, 2017
  • 24 replies
  • 181534 views

Hello everyone!

The Problem:

I updated to the latest versions of Adobe CC products yesterday, only to find that I cannot render from After Effects as I normally did – when I go to "File > Export > Add to Adobe Media Encoder Queue" absolutely nothing happens. When I drag a comp from AE to AME, AME gets stuck on "Connecting to Dynamic Link Server..." and won't proceed.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what may have happened during the update to break AME's connection to the Dynamic Link Server?

My system:

27-inch, Mid 2011 iMac

2.7 GHz Intel Core i5

16GB RAM

Sierra 10.12.4

Software:

After Effects 2017.2 Release, Version 14.2.0.198

Adobe Media Encoder 2017.1 Release, Build 11.1.0.170

Troubleshooting Steps Taken:

1. As I mentioned, both After Effects and AME are the latest updates, I've checked several times. It's bothersome to me that I have the 2017.2 version of AE and the 2017.1 version of AME, but that appears to be the latest versions of both.

2. I uninstalled AME, manually moved the leftover preference files from previous installs out of the way, and reinstalled the software using the CC tool.

3. I verified that I can connect via Dynamic Link between After Effects and Premier Pro (which I rarely use).

4. I ran a static file through AME with no problems.

5. I tried dropping and dragging an AE comp to AME, but as mentioned above, the file gets stuck on "Connecting to Dynamic Link Server..." and refuses to budge.

Temporary Workaround

I have resorted to exporting my After Effects files using AE's native Render Queue using lossless settings, saving the resultant .mov file in a watch folder which AME then picks up and processes to our specifications. This works, obviously, but takes longer and interrupts the workflow a bit and simply isn't as convenient as being able to export directly to Adobe Media Encoder from AE.

In conclusion… I'm sure I'm missing something simple here. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions I'd greatly appreciate ay insight! This software is very complex, issues like this will happen from time to time - I'm just happy that Adobe usually responds fairly quickly and always finds a fix.

    Correct answer HippieBoy Chris

    To anyone interested in this thread, the Adobe team contacted me shortly after my original post and has worked with me several times since then to track down the issue. They truly are dedicated to fixing these sorts of errors.

    I had found a workaround, and deleting various preferences solved the issue for me, but the underlying cause remained a mystery... Today I received this message from the Adobe folks:

    I just want to give you a follow up.

    I looked into this further and find out this problem happens when the following conditions are both met.

    - AE Preferences > General > "Show Start Screen at Startup" is disabled

    - AE Preferences > New Project > "New Project loads template" is enabled

    We will look into why these settings are causing this issue.  Meantime, please avoid those setting combination.

    Hopefully this will help anyone else who has the same issue...

    24 replies

    Show previous replies
    gustavosimon
    gustavosimon
    New Participant
    September 29, 2017

    Hey people... I've been using AE for a week, learning basically on YouTube, so I really appreciate a pat in the back for what I just discovered. It's is a long post, so if you don’t want to read the whole story yo can skip to the conclusion.

    Discovery #1

    Whenever I imported a AE composition to PP, Dynamic Link was dead and it can only update by restarting PP,  so I did this:

    • In the Project panel, I used "New item" to create a "Color Matte".
    • Once created grabbed it and dropped where I wanted to have it in my time line and set its duration.
    • I opt-clicked and selected "Replace with After Effects Composition"
    • An AE project file was created containing all the compositions embedded in the original PP project.

    Discovery #2

    • DL was  working perfectly, then I mess something on the linked file and the Dynamic Link, so I deleted it and used "File> Adobe Dynamic LInk> Import AE Composition" and imported the composition from the previously generated AE project. It worked again, perfectly.

    Discovery #3

    Life was great, DL was working perfectly until I was trying to figure out masks and press who knows what and the file was unlinked. It was the third linked composition, so I did the same, erased and went to the Media Browser panel to locate the AE project, found the composition dragged and dropped it to the timeline and BAM!... nothing happened, DL was still dead. I erased and imported dropping it in the Project panel and trough File> Import. Since the other two compositions where updating normally I concluded this wasn't a bug nor a system failure.

    Then I re-discover my first discovery and used "File> Adobe Dynamic LInk> Import AE Composition" and again, it worked perfectly.

    Conclusion

    I don’t think this is a bug. I think there’s two ways to import AE content to PP:

    1. Importing it as any other kind of asset, which will bring a copy of the last saved instance of said asset.
    2. Through Dynamic Link, which will live update.

    It’s kind of the same difference between sending a rasterised file or an Smart Object from Bridge in Photoshop

    J
    Jadhav Chetan
    New Participant
    August 2, 2017

    Hi Everyone,

    If After Effects behaves as unexpected, you can reset AE Preferences, refer below link

    Reset After Effects Preferences

    Also important to note is Dynamic Link might not work if Firewall is enabled as it will block Dynamic Link feature between Premiere Pro & After Effects.

    Regards,

    Chetan Jadhav

    Lead Technical Support Consultant, Adobe

    ayuba63154593
    ayuba63154593
    Participating Frequently
    September 3, 2017

    Hi,

    Should i get the option to reset preference even if i am using a trial version. After effects is not responsive i.e i do not get the dialog box to confirm a reset despite me pressing the cmd+option+shift key combination on my mac when After effects starts.

    I am facing the same issue i.e. cannot export from Adobe After effects to Media encoder and cannot import from Media encoder as well. I am getting the error 'Could not connect to adobe after effects. Please verify that Adobe after effects and and Adobe dynamic link components are installed'.

    I am not facing this issue when i attempt to export from After effects to Adobe premiere pro. I am using CC 2017 version for all apps. No blocks on firewall and a reinstall of Media Encoder did not solve the issue.

    Appreciate your input.

    Regards

    Ayub

    HippieBoy Chris
    HippieBoy ChrisAuthorCorrect answer
    Inspiring
    June 9, 2017

    To anyone interested in this thread, the Adobe team contacted me shortly after my original post and has worked with me several times since then to track down the issue. They truly are dedicated to fixing these sorts of errors.

    I had found a workaround, and deleting various preferences solved the issue for me, but the underlying cause remained a mystery... Today I received this message from the Adobe folks:

    I just want to give you a follow up.

    I looked into this further and find out this problem happens when the following conditions are both met.

    - AE Preferences > General > "Show Start Screen at Startup" is disabled

    - AE Preferences > New Project > "New Project loads template" is enabled

    We will look into why these settings are causing this issue.  Meantime, please avoid those setting combination.

    Hopefully this will help anyone else who has the same issue...

      F
      friedpixels
      New Participant
      July 13, 2017

      This worked for me, after hours and days of wasting time and trying everyting. reinstalling, permissions.

        M
        Adobe Employee
        MMeguro
        Adobe Employee
        April 22, 2017

        Could you tell me which version of apps you were using before updating to the latest version?

        Was your AE project created with the previous version?  If you create a new project using the latest version, do you still see the same problem?  Can you send a encode job from Premiere Pro to AME?

        If you have some time, could you uninstall the latest version (both AME and AE) and install the previous version that was working properly and see if it still works there?  Please refer to this link how to install previous versions.  https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/help/download-install-app.html#Install_previous_versions_of_apps

        If you don’t see the issue there, could you update apps to the latest version again and could you retry?

        HippieBoy Chris
        HippieBoy ChrisAuthor
        Inspiring
        April 26, 2017

        Hello - not to be a pest, but I'm curious if anyone has had a moment to look into this issue by chance? This particular issue is slowing my workflow significantly, sadly, which means I've not had the time yet to shut down production in order to delete the current versions and re-install the previous versions to test them as you recommended - I'm sorta hoping someone will have a less time-consuming option I can try first...?

        Thank you - I appreciate your time!

        HippieBoy Chris
        HippieBoy ChrisAuthor
        Inspiring
        April 30, 2017

        I got some suggestions from another team member here and listed below.

        1. To start with, make sure all apps are in the default install location, and user hasn’t changed directory names.

        Default install location should be under /Applications folder.

        2. There is a know issue, that results in failure to connect to DL, if the comp has a 3rd party plugin, that is not installed on the users system.  We don’t open a warning dialog, it just keeps trying to make a connection.  So check that too.

        3. Also check to see if the AE comp has any C4D layers.  That can also result in the symptoms the user is experiencing.

        4. Check for 3rd party fonts, too.  That is another problematic area.

        Does any of those points apply to your project and system? If so, could you try removing those conditions and see if it resolves the problem?


        Thank you for taking the time to try to help me with this... Alas, nothing thus far has worked.

        When I check the Activity Monitor I see that two instances of dynamiclinkmanager are working.

        I checked the memory - my Mac will only handle 16 GB, 12 GB are dedicated to Adobe. Is that enough?

        I've restarted my computer like a zillion times, so that's not the issue... I just shared an AE project with you as you suggested. My apps are all in the default location.

        I deleted ALL my plugins, and I don't even know at a C4D layer is so I doubt that's the issue. After deleting all my plugins I uninstalled both After Effects and AME using the uninstaller, manually deleted the preference folders and whatnot, and reinstalled the software - but I STILL have the same issue. AME refuses to connect to the Dynamic Link Server.

        I have to admit, I'm getting a little frustrated - I have a TON of personal stuff going on, at least fifty commercials to design by the end of this week, a boss who takes deadlines seriously, and I just spent the last seven hours trying to fix this issue... What else can I try? Is there anyone I can call? What do I do? I appreciate your help a LOT, but this problem is driving me batty, and is adding extra steps and time to an already packed workload. Any suggestions are welcome! And again, I thank you for taking the time to help me with this!

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