Adobe After Effects Must be installed to import this file

[lesliek1]

When trying to "replace with After Effects composition" I get the error message above.  I have seen many others with the same issue and logged out and rebooted as suggested and it still doesn't work.  I am using version 17.0.1 of After Effects and 14.0 of Premiere Pro.  What do I need to do to get this functionality to work?  Seems it's going on for years...?

[Jordan.jpg]

@Sergio-CS and btw, the "adobe bridge" error is due to the fact that i tried browsing for effects on ae

[Sergio-CS]

Hey @Jordan.jpg 

This is more of a Registry problem with Windows, rather than Adobe.

I made a quick search and it seems that you might have a different problem.

Did you ever try to reinstall Windows?

[Jordan.jpg]

@Sergio-CS , yk...im not gonna lie, the thought that it might not be a problem on adobe did in fact cross my mind but I wasn't entirely sure if that was the case. I think you might be 100% correct. But im gonna keep it real, im no computer geek 🤣🤣😭 i suck at these things and my pc isn't the greatest of PC's either 💀 ill tell you why. So basically i have windows 10 enterprise. And i can't activate windows because i need the product key to activate windows which im trying to get from the owner i got the pc from. If i ever get it, you'll be the first to know. And also, another thing to mention real quick... I've used ae for over a year and a half without windows ever being activated. It worked perfectly fine till those errors started showing up 2 months ago when i stopped editing for a while and i found out about it after i went onto ae after that two months went by and started seeing those errors pop up, so yea. Ill keep you posted on the activation and see what happens

[Sergio-CS]

Try Windows troubleshooting; this might get you going.

And the reinstall of Windows without deleting the files and applications...hopefully, you can do that and get back on track.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for ya.

[Jordan.jpg]

You're gonna think this is the worst problems ever if i mention this to you rn but...i actually tried resetting my pc without removing the personal files etc. but guess what? It said "failed to reset pc" 💀😭 i youtubed the problem and many people have faced the same issue. Ill try getting the pc to reset as well somehow if i dont get the product key to activate windows and get the error fixed. But on that note, thank you for all the helpful tips you provided for me and tried to help me with, seriously, i cant thank you enough, god bless you man for real. Like i said, i will get back to you if its sorted and share the full solution as to how i fixed it when i do right here as well. Thanks again man, god bless 💙

[anton_3721]

Hi Sergio, how do you 'open all AE files" once re-installed? I have followed your steps so far.

[Sergio-CS]

Hey @anton_3721 

I have all the AE files in folders. The best thing is to keep everything as neat as possible when working with many files.

I make sure that Premierefolders and the File Folders match so when I need to find all files of a certain nature

Example: Audio files for Voice Over, or Descriptive Video, I know where to find them in one shot. AE files and animations are in another folder. Music in another folder, SFX in another folder, etc etc..you get it.

If you don't have them collected in folders, you can search for them. Once all the AE files are found, select all and open all. 

NOTE:
If a new version creates a new file with the [converted] in the name, you will have to rename each file and save it without the [converted] part.

WHY:

1. Premiere communicates with AE
2. AE and Pr will lose something when AE is updated (this is why this problem occurs)
3. Pr will have to relink the files that you converted to the new version of AE, and you have removed [converted] from the name. If the name is different Pr only relink the exact file name that is present in the timeline.

Everything should work by simply opening the file in Pr. No additional work is needed...or maybe I was lucky? But this happens quite often and the solution is always the same for me.

Let me know if this works for you

[davidp158]

I just received two AE template files that won't import into Premiere Pro. I get the message "After Effects must be installed to import this file". I am able to open the file in AE 2020 (v17.0.6), and I am using the current version (14.1) of Premiere Pro. I'm working on an iMac Pro with OS High Sierra 10.13.6.

[Stauffer Studios]

I am having the exact same thing.  I had it working but once i took the latest updates (14.2 & 17.1) it stopped working.  Is there any update on when this will be fixed?

[Stauffer Studios]

I also tried saving as a 16 and it also didn't work.  To make matters worse, when i try exporting a simple title with some basic animations, after affects throws an exception and gives me the "send report" dialog so i can't even import the mp4.  I was trying to use Media Encoder.  I finally just did the old school, "add to render queue" and was able to export it from AE as an avi.  what a pain.  This suite is much too expensive to have this many issues.

[eka nekko]

Experiencing the same problem on OS Premiere Pro 2019, AE 2020

[davidp158]

Dynamic Link, and copying between Premiere Pro and After Effects, require that PP and AE be the same versions to work. I stopped using Dynamic Link a few years ago, as it became exceedingly unreliable. Even with the same versions of AE and PP, I occassionally get "could not find Dynamic Link project" error message in PP if I copy and paste from Premiere to After Effects. Dynamic Link has also become very buggy with projects that have Warp Stabilizer applied, even if there is no Dynamic Link process involved at all. AE remains fairly reliable for me, but PP continues to catch new bugs with every release.

[adamtharper]

I am still having this same issue and i just updated to the 2021 update. Premiere is now 15.0 and AE is 18.0. Still no fix like wtf.

[marya31391609]

SAME!! This is so irritating that every time I allow an update of one of these apps to run, something goes wrong! Adobe, PLEASE test this stuff before you release updates! You design these apps to work together. Make sure they continue to work together. I've updated both PP and AE to the most recent versions, and I still can't get PP to import my AE comps or re-link my comps. This is wasting so much of my time, it's ridiculous. I have a change to make to a video that should take me about 5 minutes, and I've spent 2 hours already updating and trying to get these 2 apps to talk to each other.

[marya31391609]

Also, if I have to revert to previous versions because the most current version of each product is incompatible, how the heck do I find out which prior versions ARE compatible? Adobe updates drive me insane. The updates really shouldn't break more than they fix this often, and when I search this error message, the threads go back YEARS. How is it that Adobe hasn't yet figured out that they need to test this before releasing new versions?

[Madison5E40]

Did you ever get a solution? having the same problem with a really important file and want to tear my hair out.

we pay so much for this stupid software and they treat us as customers like trash honestly 

[marya31391609]

No real solution, @Madison5E40 . I just reverted to different versions until I found compatible versions. There isn't an indication of which versions will actually be compatible, so it's an exercise in throwing darts while blindfolded. I just got a new laptop a couple of weeks ago (about a week after I posted my frustrations here), and I haven't worked in any of my videos with dynamic links yet on the new machine. 

[Sergio-CS]

same problem on a show with thousands of clips, and AE animations are all requesting AE2023 to be installed which it is...but no solution yet...this is gonna cost me a big client...they really don't care about technical problems.

[michaelw52181270]

Also having the same problem. I have the same versions of premiere in after effects installed. I was using dynamic link for hours, took a break to eat dinner, and when I come back to my computer now all of a sudden it's not working. 

[Jeanette5CFC]

I have the same problem as well. Both Premiere and After Effects is installed in the newest version and it still says "Adove After Effects 2021 needs to be installed to import this file". I tried to uninstall and reinstall, but it didn´t work. I need help! 

[jacobp23645444 · Accepted solution]

I found a solution that worked for me on a Mac and I assume a similar solution would work on Windows. It was an issue with permissions. I went to my security & privacy settings and allowed the adobe products (Premiere, Audition, After Effects and Creative Cloud) full disc access and make sure they had any other requested permissions. After that, I closed out of each program and when I reopened it things started working on Windows, I would try running each as an administrator. Hope this helps!

[davidlarocque]

What other permissions did you give? I tried giving AE21 and PP21 full disk access, no dice.

[BerkGokcen]

Had the same problem, I did exactly what @jacobp23645444  said, plus allowed incoming connections for both Premiere and After Effects and it worked. worth giving it a try if you haven't yet. 

[oce-btp]

This also worked for me after then restarting my computer. Thank you all!

[Joel35515668hb1f]

This worked for me, too - THANK YOU!