Updating Drop Menu freezes AE - Can't Exit. Task Manager Can't End the App.

[Roland Kahlenberg]

This has been an issue for as long as the Drop Menu has been aroung - updating Menu Items is prone to lock up AE, amongst other strange happenings. On previous occasions, I could use Task Manager to Force Quite AE but this time, even this doesn't work and rebooting is the only option!!!

I've been using AE for over 25 years and have had to reboot due to a bug. This Drop Menu has been a constant horror show. Errors/Issues can easily occur if you copy/paste within the Input Field in the menu. And doing this while updating the items list is more likely to cause issues than when first adding actual item names. This is quite horrific.

UPDATE - restarted Task Manager and managed to Froce Quit AE. 

[Kevin-Monahan]

I will try and get a response for you, Roland. Sorry for the frustration.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Roland Kahlenberg]

Thanks Kevin.

[Roland Kahlenberg]

This issue continues. It's been 7 years IIRC. 

It's a bug that forces the user to FORCE EXIT AE - work is lost. It takes a lot of time recovering. 

It's really easy to repro - drop a drop menu into the EGP. Edit the Drop Menu in the Timeline and BAM!!! 
If the Drop Menu is first removed from the EGP, there is no issue AFAICR. But when the Drop Menu is in the EGP - it's a huge disaster. 

[nishu_kush]

Hi @Roland Kahlenberg ,

Do you mind sharing a project file with which we can reproduce the issue on our end?

Looking forward to your response.

Thanks,
Nishu

[Roland Kahlenberg]

Thanks for the reply Nishu, I can repro easily BUT it's got to be with a reasonably heavy/realworld project and this means no Magic AE Buttons. 

Once the project is quite set up, editing the Drop Menu in the EGP can lead to issues. Deleting a Drop Menu from the Timeline when it has been placed in the EGP has a very high chance to create major issues. And often, trying to add Drop Menu items results in a NoGo - it refuses to accept any input. 

It's been what? Over 7 years since its release and this is still happening?!!! 

I'm not upset with you but with those who actually built this thing and who are supposed to provide paid/professional development and support for this feature which supports a larger, more important feature; a seamless workflow between AE and PPro. 

When they were developing MoGRTs, I had about 15 years of AE Template Development experience. You would think they would have invited me onboard to help test BUT NO! Strange but it is what it is. 

I just like things to work as expected. 

Nishu, I'm quite deep in a few things but if I can set aside time for this AND if I thought it would actually bring some positive output then I would but I am very doubtful. There is something quite wrong at play and it's been going on for too long. I really can't rationalize spending more time in this area for bugifixing. It's a waste of time IMHO - it's all about developing buttons and basic media replacement as far as I see it. 

BUTT I'll give it one last shot IF I can set aside some time to send over an AEP/Composition where these issues can be repro-ed. 

Thanks for revisiting my issue. For now, maybe these issues only affect me.  😄