Watch folder not processing

[MASSIVENOSEDFREAK]

Hope someone can help, I am trying to create watch folders for Media Encoder. I follow the steps, but when I add a file absolutely nothing happens. The same file will manually process, but the watch folder ignore it. It will encode an MP4 file automatically but no After Effects or Premier Pro files. Is there something super obvious I am missing?

[davidarbor]

Watch folders only work with video files, not project files. In almost every case you wouldn't want it to work with a project file because it would encode every single comp or sequence you have, which would include pre-comps, nested sequences, old versions, etc.

[liamc77965848]

Thank you, but I keep seeing tutorials for using After Effects and Premier Pro project files with a watch folder?

[davidarbor]

My mistake, sorry for the bad information. I did some more digging into this and it's confusing to say the least. As I originally mentioned, it would be a bad idea  if AME automatically processed every single comp or timeline in a project so I thought maybe the ones you want to process need to be in the root (top-level) of your project. It turns out this is how it's supposed to work for Premiere, but not for After Effects. I found this older video that explains the process and the limitations: https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/how-to/render-video.html (the one at the very bottom).

It confirmed that Premiere sequences need to be in the root of your project to be recognized by a Watch Folder, but even when I tested that in CC 2019 it didn't work. After Effects operates differently and the video shows that you have to mark a comp in a way that doesn't even exist anymore. I'll ask around and see if I can get some answers here.

[MASSIVENOSEDFREAK]

Thank you so much for your time, I've been going around in circles feeling like I was going crazy!

[davidarbor]

Sorry for the delay, but I have some info. I've been told by some folks at Adobe that this feature should be working, and if it isn't there is a bug. You can file a bug on the UserVoice website where it can be seen by the AE team. https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects

It might be a good idea to file this on both the AE and PR UserVoice sites.

[davidarbor]

Have you tried the Watch Folder workflow in the 2020 versions of the apps? I just tried this and was able to successfully encode an After Effects project. Just like Premiere, it will only encode comps in the root level of the project; and while it did take longer to show up in the Queue panel than a regular would via a Watch Folder, it did show up and encode.