Hide After Effects failing on Mac OS Ventura

[SteveKirby]

I've been seeing issues with Cmd-H ever since upgrading to Ventura, but unlike the Save As… dialog cursor bug, I haven't seen this one mentioned elsewhere. AE often fails to hide when I use Cmd-H. The UI focus shifts to the Finder, but the AE window remains visible. If I minimize AE, undocked panels remain visible and cause issues. Using the menu command After Effects > Hide After Effects seems to work more consistently than the keyboard shortcut, though that may be coincidence. The problem as a whole is intermittent, not constant, so it's hard to test and provide specific detailed descriptions.

[ryanbutterworth]

Ever since I upgraded to Ventura, when I hide after effects, it stays open on the desktop instead of hiding. I can still click on the UI elements but it doesnt reactivate in the menu bar unless I cmd-tab back to AE.

[JohnColombo]

Hi @SteveKirby,

Thanks very much for reporting this issue. When you're in the state where After Effects does not hide correctly, try clicking on the After Effects icon in the Dock. Does it hide as expected after that? It sounds like After Effects might be in a "half-focused" state to start with and clicking the Dock icon might fully focus it so that it can be properly hidden/defocused.

Additionally, what is "Use System Shortcuts" set to in Preferences > General?

Thanks for reporting this issue and for any further information you can provide, 

- John, After Effects Engineering Team 

[nishu_kush]

Hi ryanbutterworth,

Thanks for writing in.

I haven't seen this issue before. Is it happening only with After Effects?

Let us know.

Thanks,

Nishu

[ryanbutterworth]

Yep. I've not experienced it in photoshop or illustrator. It's complete random too. Sometimes hide works, but most of the time it doesnt. I'm on the latest versions of all the apps.

[SteveKirby]

Hey @JohnColombo thanks for responding. You are correct - clicking on AE in the dock did make it possible to Hide it as expected. My 'Use System Shortcuts' is checked on.

[RyanSWarnick]

Same issue on two different Macs. Command + H doesn't hide AE, it keeps the AE interface just as it was, but makes it inactive. So the inactive AE interface is then covering up the OS desktop. Yes, it works to right + click on the Mnemonic icon in the dock and select "Hide", but command + H produces this strange behavior.

[SteveKirby]

I just had the same issue again, but this time I had to click on the app icon in the dock twice. The first time I did so, AE came back into focus but still did not disappear when I hit Cmd-H (it just shifted focus to another app but the AE UI remained in place). 

[BrianLevin]

Having the same issue on two different computers. M1 Ultra Mac Studio and M1 Max MacBook Pro, both on Ventura 13.1 and After Effects 23.1. Re-calling AE from the dock doesn't always work but constantly hiding and calling it back from the dock eventually lets you hide it. But yeah, happening on two machines over here. Also noting that Use System Shortcuts is checked on my end.

[Penny Zee]

Same issue. But clicking on it in the dock doesn't help at all.

MacBook Pro 14" M1 Max

[Stephen Barrante]

Same issue here, and stopped by this site to report. Since updating to Ventura I'm seeing that I can no longer hide AE unless I use the same technique by going to the dock and selecting "Hide". I use all of the other Adobe production apps and they seem to be OK so far (Premiere, Audition, as well as Photoshop and Illustrator). 

Per your note @SteveKirby, "Use System Shortcuts" is checked. I tried un-checking to see if that made any difference, fwiw.

Will stay tuned for a patch.

[SteveKirby]

This was happening so much that I've been forced to change my AE pref to not 'use system shortcuts' and adapt my aging muscle memory to use the default Ctrl+Cmd+H. If only Illustrator could use the same combination (which Photoshop also defaults to)… (seems like AI can't acces the Mac ctrl key for some reason).

[greg vannoy]

Same issue here. imac 3.6, 8-core, i9, 72GB RAM, 13.1 Ventura. Command + H not working, right clicking AE in the dock and selecting "hide" works about 40% of the time. "Use System Shortcuts" is checked in Preferences. To finally get it to hide, I have to try hiding about three times before it will actually hide it. Please, please fix. This is super annoying. I hide AE dozens of times a day.

[sarahb78823801]

I have continued to have this problem as well since updating to Ventura. Currently on Ventura 13.1, AE 23.1. "Use System Shortcuts" is checked on.

Sometimes it hides when I click the icon to refocus, sometimes I have to click it twice, and sometimes nothing works. I have trouble hiding it all ways: command + H, option + clicking dock icon, and right-clicking dock icon > Hide

[SteveKirby]

Yes, same. I thought that 'use system shortcuts' had fixed it but no, it still happens with the default Ctrl+Cmd+H to Hide (maybe slightly less often).

[WShawn]

After Effects 22.6.0 and 23.1.0 Mac Studio, OS 13.1.

I go up to the menu bar and select Hide After Effects but the application remains 100% visible. If there's a finder window or Safari window behind my AE interface that will come forward, but AE continues to cover the desktop.

Sometimes selecting Hide from the AE icon in the dock WILL hide the app, but most of the time it doesn't.

This is happening after wiping my system drive and installing everything from scratch to correct the "Unable to connect to dynamic link server" issue.

I'm not seeing this behavior on a separate OS 12.6 system I'm using for testing. AE DOES hide properly on that.

[Rick Gerard]

Command + h works just fine on my Mac. 

[WShawn]

On my setup the shortcut to hide AE is Control-Command-H, and all that does is push AE below whatever other windows might be open. It still covers the desktop. All of my other Adobe apps hide as they should.

[B2820080660b0]

I am having exactly the same problem.  I recently upgraded to a new Mac Studio and the latest MacOS and whenever I hit command h After Effects goes no where.  Same if I manually click hide from the menu bar.  It's really annoying.  Didn't use to be this way.  No I have to click the little minimize - yellow circle to fake hide the application.  Would love some help too from anyone that knows whats going on.

[WShawn]

Glad to know it's not just me. For the people for whom After Effects DOES hide properly, are you running OS 13.1 Ventura?

[SteveKirby]

This seems to have got worse and worse, I am now able to hide AE about 1 time in every 6 attempts. And it happens even when I invoke Hide from the menu bar, nothing to do with keyboard shortcuts (that may have always been the case…). 

[Jack27620519ti0a]

I am having the exact same problem.

It started when I upgraded to Ventura.

I erased my entire disk and settings to purge all possible issues, and still I cannot hide my after effects.

I can hide photoshop, illustrater, and all others...but when I tell After Effects to hide...it just sits there like a dead fish.  This is devastating to my working flow. 

[Jack27620519ti0a]

i reset my drive to remove all variables...and I still can't fix it.

Something about AE 23+ and Ventura just bamboozles the hide function.

I can't easily re install the older macOS...

pain leads to suffering.

[WShawn]

Rick-Are you running Ventura on your system?

[Jack27620519ti0a]

probably not.  If I hit command H enough times...eventually it does hide.

I reclick on the software window after every attempt...

sometimes it's as many as 7 attempts.

The pain.

[BrianLevin]

Just noting that I updated to 23.2 yesterday but this hiding bug is still present in that version of After Effects.