Why does AE suggest "_mov.mov", "_mov.mov_1" as a file name?

[Averdahl]

I use Ae 24.5.0 (Build 52) on Windows 11 and have noticed a while that if i for example place 10 comps in the Render Queue and select "Output To" for the first item it gets the correct name, iow the name of the Composition. This is expected.

But, for some reason the rest are named "_mov.mov", "_mov_1.mov", "_mov_2.mov", etc, etc. You can see it on the screen dump and you can also see the name of the Comps. If i hit Enter to start the render the files are indeed named "_mov.mov", "_mov_1.mov", "_mov_2.mov", etc, etc and thats useless.

I have noticed that sometimes it happens, and sometimes all comps gets their correct names in one go without a glitch.

Is this a known issue?

[Warren Heaton]

What happens if you select all of the queued items and then set the "Output To" pop-up menu to "Comp Name"?

[Averdahl]

What happens if you select all of the queued items and then set the "Output To" pop-up menu to "Comp Name"?

By @Warren Heaton

At first it seemed to work without flaws but once i hit Render i get an error message. I got the same error yesterday and it got away if i renamed the export folder from Export to lets say EExport and choosed that folder instead.

EDIT: I just resetted the Prefs and nothing changed, i get the same issue.

[Warren Heaton]

In your screenshot, item #3 and item #4 are both Comp "03 - Test" with the Output To name set to "03 - Test.mov" for each.

Assuming you only want one render of Comp "03 - Test", select and delete either item #3 or item #4, save, and then click Render.

[Averdahl]

In your screenshot, item #3 and item #4 are both Comp "03 - Test" with the Output To name set to "03 - Test.mov" for each.

By @Warren Heaton

Good catch there! 🙂

But, all names were created by Ae, i did not manually rename "04 - Test" to "03 -Test". This is kind of the core of the issue, iow that the Render Queue has a life of it´s own and even rename outputs. This never happened some versions ago but has been happening for a while now.

The project shown here are created from scratch in Ae 24.5.0 (Build 52) and has only 10 comps with one text layer in each comp, so nothing fancy and complicated.

[Warren Heaton]

When you add Comps to the Render Queue, are you always getting the file path as part of the name?

I'm not sure what caused what we see in your first screenshot where we see the full path to the Exports folder on the Desktop of your C drive as part of the filename.  Had you continued, it looks like you would have wound up with a movie file for each Comp - just without the intended filename.

Selecting all of the items in the Render Queue and setting the Output To pop-up menu to Comp Name worked as expected.

[Averdahl]

When you add Comps to the Render Queue, are you always getting the file path as part of the name?

I'm not sure what caused what we see in your first screenshot where we see the full path to the Exports folder on the Desktop of your C drive as part of the filename.  Had you continued, it looks like you would have wound up with a movie file for each Comp - just without the intended filename.

Selecting all of the items in the Render Queue and setting the Output To pop-up menu to Comp Name worked as expected.

By @Warren Heaton

When i add comps to the Render Queue i never see the file path, just the names. Sometimes i just see "Not yet specified" and sometimes i see the comp names when i add the comps to the Queue. Everytime i see "Not yet specified" the output names always are auto-renamed to "_mov.mov" if i want QuickTime and if i use the default H.264 i get "_mp4.mp4". Sometimes when i change the path i get an error message when i hit Render that claims that the folder i choosed no longer exists, though it really do exist. (only internal disks here)

So it has a life of it´s own. The only pattern i have found is if i get the problems and delete everything in the Render Queue it seems to work as expected all subsequent tests in that session. If i now close Ae and reopen the project i get those issues i have wrote about 8 out of 10 times. It happens in every project.

I get the same issues if i export to another internal disk instead of a folder on my Desktop. 

I don´t use Ae on a daily basis these days and wonder if all users has abandoned the Render Queue in favour of Media Encoder?

[Warren Heaton]

I don't think anything unusual is happening.

If we add a Composition to the Render Queue and a Name and Location are not yet specified, Output To will display "Not yet specified".  We're likely to see this the first time that we add a Composition to the Render Queue in a new project.

If we add a Composition to the Render Queue and a Location has already been specified by a prior render item, we'll see the default file name template (this is Comp Name unless we've set something else as the default in the File Name and Location Template dialog box).

I didn't remember this earlier, but if we open a project with queued items in the Render Queue (we could also call these un-rendered items) and the Location has changed since the last time the project was open, then After Effects will display the file path for the Location at the time the project was last saved.

[Averdahl]

I don't think anything unusual is happening.

By @Warren Heaton

So what i see is expected to be normal and unusual? I kindly disagree on that statement. 🙂

I downloaded the beta today and now the Render Queue thinks that the first name should be the comp name (expected) but all subsequent outputs is named Path+wrapper, in my case i got nine items that AE gave the name D:\00-EXPORT-DELETEME.mov. Thats unusual. (See attahced image)

I have found that the key to reproduce it is to open AE and add the item to the RQ and then specify where to save files by clicking on "Not Yet Specified". All subsequent test in the open project seems to behave as it should. Close Ae and re-open it and try again will behave unusual and not in the way it did some version ago, aka normal.

[Warren Heaton]

If a Name hasn't been set prior to clicking "Not yet specified", it still needs to be set upon returning.

That it shows whatever we clicked on while picking a Location as the Name when we return to the Render Queue from the Save dialog box is an OS side issue where clicking a folder or file can set the Filename text field.