AE 24.4.1 resets keyboard shortcuts on quit

[Kes Akalaonu]

Ever since I updated to After Effects 24.4.1, my keyboard shortcuts keep getting reset to the default whenever I quit the program. I migrated my settings when I ran the update and placed my .kys files in the 24.4 folder in the aeks folder on my Mac. I can't seem to resolve this bug so I'm wondering if anyone has any tips

Additional info

Mac OS Sonoma 14.5

2020 5K Intel iMac

AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT 8 GB

64 GB of RAM

CPU 3.8 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i7

[RobShultz]

Until you find a permanent solution you may want to sync settings before shut down to save your shortcuts to the cloud.

[JohnColombo]

Hi @Kes Akalaonu,

Thank you for reporting this issue. What is the name of your custom keyboard shortcut file? And does the "Preset" dropdown menu in the Keyboard Shortcuts reset to "After Effects Default.txt" on each launch, or does it maintain your custom mapping and overwrite the shortcuts within it?

Thanks very much for any additional details,

- John, After Effects Engineering Team 

[Kes Akalaonu]

Hi @JohnColombo 

So I named the custom keyboard shortcuts to "OMG 2023.txt". It'll maintain that preset in the preset dropdown but changes to "After Effects Default.txt" on launching it again without any custom mapping or overwriting the shortcuts.

I recorded a screen recording here: https://share.cleanshot.com/LJN8DDLh

[JohnColombo]

Thank you for the screen recording, @Kes Akalaonu! So, if I'm understanding the recording correctly, it only requires that you close and reopen the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog for the Preset to be reset to "After Effects Default.txt"?

My suspicion is that there is something incompatible about the shortcuts. Would you able to share the custom shortcut .txt file so we can see about reproducing the bug on our side?

A potential fix may be to use "Migrate Previous Version Preferences" under Prefs > Startup and Repair to re-migrate your previous preferences to the new version. You also might try a "Save As" for the 2023 shortcuts, which might also fix up the file so that AE doesn't reset it.

Cheers,

- John, After Effects Engineering Team 

[JohnColombo]

@RobShultz Sync Settings has been removed as of After Effects 24.3. See details here: https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/using/sync-settings.html 

[Kes Akalaonu]

Here's the text file here: https://we.tl/t-c3IgaSVFs7

Tried the Migration to Previous Preference but the problem persisted even after trying to save a new preset.

[JohnColombo]

Thank you, @Kes Akalaonu. The .txt file doesn't exhibit the issue for me on 24.4, so the cause must be different.

If you open up the Adobe After Effects 24.4 Prefs.txt file in ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe/After Effects/24.4, look for the "["General Section"]" with a line labeled "Shortcut File Location". Before editing that file:

1. What is shown there for you?
2. What if you modify the file name as I have shown below and relaunch After Effects?

 

Cheers,

- John, After Effects Engineering Team 

[Kes Akalaonu]

@JohnColombo this is what it's showing on my end. What should I modify it to instead?

[JohnColombo]

@Kes Akalaonu Hmm, that's exactly what I would expect to be shown, so something else must be going on.

When you first updated to After Effects 24.4, did you see a prompt asking about assigning a shortcut to "Paste Reverse Keyframes"? Since you were using custom shortcuts, you should have. If you didn't, then something might have gone awry when your customer shortcut file was read into 24.4.

Do you still have your shortcut file from 24.3 or earlier? The one you sent had already been updated to 24.4, as indicated by the "major_version" = "107" in the file. If possible, I'd love to take a look at your previous one and see if maybe there's a clue as to why the updated version won't "stick" in 24.4.

Cheers,

- John, After Effects Engineering Team 

[Kes Akalaonu]

Here is the .txt file from 24.3: https://we.tl/t-Wl0OzzxP6x

I did get the pop-up originally for Paste Reverse Keyframes but I didn't set a keybind right away

[Kes Akalaonu · Accepted solution]

I was able to resolve the issue by uninstalling After Effects and removing all preferences. The reinstall seemed to fix the issue and we can mark this as solved now.

[JohnColombo]

Thanks @Kes Akalaonu! Sorry that we weren't able to find the root issue here. I've marked your post above as Correct for any other encountering this issue.

- John, After Effects Engineering Team 

[Kes Akalaonu]

No worries. Was prolly a random issue that a reinstall seemed to be the fix for. Thanks again for your assistance.

[kricou]

Hi, I have the exact same problem, but uninstalling AE did not resolve the issue.... 

[Paul Dumas]

I am having the same problem ever since installing AE 25, but reinstalling and resetting preferences hasn't fixed it.  I think I have isolated the issue down to having "Allow Scripts to Write Files and Access Network" on.   When I turn this off, the shortcuts don't reset when closing the application.  But I need that preference on.

[luk63620532]

Same issue here. Reinstalling and resetting preferences didn't work. Disabling "Allow Scripts to Write Files and Access Network" is a fix but causes problems with several addons.

[Paul Dumas]

What is finally working for me is not using a custom name for the custom shortcuts file.   It has to be left as Custom.txt and it sticks on application restart.  I was using a custom file name before.

[SiLi]

What worked for me is to just save the file again from the AE settings, so:
1. Name the file in ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe/After Effects/25.1/aeks to "Custom.txt" for example
2. Open AE and set "Custom.txt" as the Preset in the Shortcuts settings

3. "Save As..." and choose the name that you want to name it
4. Restart AE and it should keep the Preset that you chose

[defaultc6x8pu2jj2xl]

This solves the problem with me! Thank you so much ❤️

[luk63620532]

Thank you. I wanted to test the workaround and noticed that the custom shortcuts suddenly remained set as well. That wasn't the case last week. As far as I can see, there hasn't been an official update for After Effects in the meantime. Maybe the program was updated in the background.

I also upgraded from macOS Sonoma to macOS Sequoia yesterday. Maybe that solved the problem (?)

[Paul Dumas]

I'm up to date on everything and a custom file name for the custom shortcuts still won't stick for me.  I have to use Custom.txt. 

[luk63620532]

I was wrong 🙂 In the end, I also had to use a file named Custom.txt. Thanks for the fix, it was really frustrating.