Unable to import FLA files into Ae

[defaultyrs80uzkvunk]

Hi, I'm using Ae version 23.2 and Animate version 23.0.1 (which I believe are the latest versions) however I am unable to import .FLA files into Ae. This appears to be a known issue in previous versions going back to threads in 2020 - surprised it's still an issue with the latest versions. In any case, can anyone help? 

I have restarted my machine and also uninstalled / reinstalled both apps. Same error which reads as follows 

'An error occured while importing this file. Please try again.'

Ae tries to import the .FLA file for around 30 seconds before bringing up a box with this error message every time. (I've attached a screen shot).

Please help 😉 

[Rick Gerard]

Flash is past the end of life. It was December 2020. I don't believe FLA files were ever supported. You should still be able to import SWF, FLV, and F4V files. Check the Supported File Types Help page.

[JQizzle]

No, sorry. I have many projects where I've imported Adobe Animate source  (.fla) directly into After Effects to do additional animation. As of the last version of AE v22 and Animate v22 - this worked. But now, even when I attempt to roll back to previous versions - it won't. 

In the most recent version of AE and Animate the error message is:
An error occurred while importing this file. Please try again.

After attempting to install the former version of AE and Animate, the error message is:
Adobe Animate is required to import a .fla file. To download it, go to https://creative.adobe.com/apps 

This despite the fact that Animate is of course installed. I've tried uninstalling/reinstalling both apps. Didn't work. Plus I'm having the same issue on two different machines. While I did all my trouble shooting on a 2019 Intel Mac Book Pro running Monterey 12.5.1 I've just confirmed the same issue (with the most up to date Adobe software) on another machine - a 2021 M1Max running Ventura 13.1.

Obviously this is a huge time sensitive problem for me or I wouldn't be here. I'm chasing my tail trying to find a workaround.

[esresrs]

..and in 23.2 I now get this error instead 'Animate is required to import a .fla file' when I have two versions of Animate installed. Amazing, thanks Adobe.. as if the first error wasn't enough to have to work around.

[JQizzle]

If helpful for anyone else who runs into this issue - I found this utility called Timelord that helped me get around it. Frankly, I'm always a little leery adding third party tools to my process - but in this case it actually offers a bit more flexibility than the .fla import Adobe is (supposedly) offering out of the box: https://www.battleaxe.co/timelord

It's not free, but was well worth it for me to not have to expot swfs one piece at a time for my needs.

[Audun28569451c2k7]

Hi!

I work in my own animation studio and we are currently developing a shortfilm. We are very dependant on the feature which allows us to import an animate file into After Effects with all it's layers seperated.

When we import the FLA. file into AE, it first shows a 'Not Responding' message, before giving the error message. We've tried going to older versions and they either give the same error or say we don't have an updated version of animate (Which we do, but this project was fixable before with updating to the newest version of after effects).

We need help on this immidietly. We pay alot for these progams and expect them to work, especially when it depends on our produciton flow inside our studio. Anyone know how to fix this?

[JohnColombo]

Hi all, 

Thank you for reporting this issue. We have opened a ticket to investigate this breakage in the .FLA import workflow. Once a fix is available to try in the Beta builds, we will update this thread.

Thanks again,

- John, After Effects Engineering Team 

[Peter0909]

When i try to import my Animate 2023 file on to After Effects 2023 it just says 'An error ocurred'... It used to work before. What happened? What can I do?

[JohnColombo]

Hi @Peter0909,

Thank you for reporting this issue. Our team is aware of this breakage and we are investigating a fix. I'll be merging your reporting into the existing thread we have tracking this issue.

Thanks again,

- John, After Effects Engineering Team 

[Hizkia28655513sbtb]

Can someone tell me, why i can't export my fla file after an update. I used to work with both animate and after effect for my animation production. But almost 2 months this pipeline Animate to after effect doesn't work anymore even i did a thousand updates. Did I make a mistake in the export? or is the problem with adobe itself?

[thepixelsmith]

I haven't been able to get .fla import to work in th elatest updates of AE & Animate either.

I've been using the Timelord plugin by Battelaxe.co for this workflow.

[benushersmith]

I'm having issues importing FLA files form Animate into After Effects. I'm on 23.2.1 for AE and 23.0.1 for Animate. I have tried recreating files, going through the settings turning all my background programs on my Mac off, removing all my plugins and extensions and no joy. I'm on MacOS Big Sur 11.7.4, but would prefer not to update my OS if possible.

I get the following error whether I go to 'File > Import' on the menu or try draging the FLA in from the Finder window.

"An error occured while importing this file. Please try again."

I'm not sure I can face exporting this project out of Animate into Illustrator and then back into After Effects!

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Ben

[JohnColombo]

Hi @benushersmith,

Thank you for reporting this issue. We are currently tracking it and investigating a fix. I'll be merging this report with an existing thread so that you are informed when a fix is available in the Beta builds.

Thanks again for reporting this issue,

- John, After Effects Engineering Team  

[benushersmith]

Hi @JohnColombo,

Thank you for the update. Hopefully it's something that can be fixed.

Best wishes,

Ben

[nishu_kush]

Hi Hizkia28655513sbtb,

Sorry to hear about that.

The team is aware of this issue and a fix is on its way. Thanks for reporting it. 

Moving this thread from Discussions to Bugs.

Feel free to reach out if there are any other questions.

Best,

Nishu

[Mohanaraj]

Hi @defaultyrs80uzkvunk @benushersmith @Audun28569451c2k7 @Peter0909 Can you please try updating Animate once again (there is a new update) or uninstall and re-install a fresh to resolve this issue?

Thanks!

Mohan

[thepixelsmith]

It's working now with the update I installed yesterday.

[JohnColombo]

Hi all,

Thank you again for reporting this issue. It turns out this was due to an Animate bug that has now been fixed in their latest 23.0.1 patch. If the update to Animate 23.0.1 does not restore the ability to import .FLA files into After Effects, please reboot your system for the fix to take effect.

Thanks again for reporting this issue,

- John, After Effects Engineering Team 

[leighw14213429]

Many thanks! The bug fix update worked!!!!

[Tantra]

Use Adobe animate and After effect 23.0 version.

First remove updated version, then install older version

[Zinco123]

Hi Tantra, I realise this thread is nearly a year old but I don't know where else to go. This bug has not been fixed at all. I am using AE 24.3.0 with Animate 24.0.1 and experiencing the same problem not being able to import files from Animate into AE and gettting the "There is a problem with this file" error message. Do you, (or anyone else) have any suggestions? Since this thread has been "solved" I thought you or anyone else might have an answer for this. Many thanks for your time.

Zinco123

[Yann Mapple]

15 months later!!!!!! still the same problem... it's incredible that such an important function for animation studios has still not been fixed with the very latest versions... we are really taken for fools!

[JohnColombo]

@Zinco123 @Yann Mapple 

Sorry to hear you are still experiencing problems with the AE/Animate interop. What are your system specs? And have you installed Animate and reinstalled it?

If you have uninstalled/reinstalled Animate and continue to see this issue, would you please create a new Bug thread here in the forum so that we can more deeply investigate the issue? This would help us to differentiate between the prior bug and the breakage you are continuing to experience.

Thanks very much,

- John, After Effects Engineering Team 

[juliec81153625]

I get all of Adobe for free from the University I work for. My IT department reloaded all of Adobe's applications--to include Animate and the problem still exists.

I am still getting the same response:

IT checked my computer system and said it should not have any trouble running Animate or any of the other Adobe applications:

[cocoua]

same here, this is a very old problem with Animate and After Effects, somehow the ability to import .fla is lost with the time, reinstalling both programs doesnt seem to fix it