Double clicking on Project Panel Comp opens Footage layer

Yeah, it sounds like something in your prefs is causing the issue. You could go into your preferences location and try to temporarily remove or rename the general prefs called "Adobe After Effects 25.2 Prefs.txt"

You can reveal the prefs folder from the same location you enabled Safe Mode.

The benefit about just refreshing this file is that you can preserve KB shortcuts, workspaces, and other prefs that aren't saved into the main file, making this process a bit less painful.

Thanks,
- David, After Effects Engineering Team

Alright, seems like Safe Mode does fix it. So basically I need to trash preferences to fix it?

Will probably live with it until I can make sure to copy over some of my settings like color labels.

1) Mine is currently set to On Comp, open Source Comp Panels. Attached.
2) I did migrate from 25.1 to 25.2
3) Let me try safe mode before I nuke my preferences 🥲

Hi there @27464073f3n4 ,

You can send me a DM through the forums with a screen recording, and I'd be happy to take a look. A few of troubleshooting questions, though:

1. Can you check your Preferences > General tab to see what the "On Comp Layer Opens:" pref is set to? See the bottom of the screenshot for how what you're describing could be possible.
2. Did you migrate your preferences from 25.1 when you installed 25.2?
3. If your prefs don't match my screenshot, can you go to Preferences > Startup & Repair and start in Safe Mode? This will let you restart AE with a temporary set of fresh preferences. If the setting in the General tab is "Source Composition Panel," but restarting in Safe Mode does fix the issue, then trashing your preferences could be teh solution.
   

    

Thanks,
- David, After Effects Engineering Team