AE CC Mac: After Effects Collect Files not collecting some files, including project!

[PhantomLimb_Arber]

I need to send a client some collected projects, but the File > Dependencies > Collect Files command is not collecting some of the files (after the project has been reduced, so all the files in the project are required), including the project file!

I just end up with a collected folder containing a "Footage" folder that includes some of the files and not others. This is a nightmare!! There are hundreds of files that will take days I do not have to manually track each file down.

Any suggestions?

J

[Greg@Antifreeze Animation]

Nuts. I was hoping the 2015 release (using 13.5.1.48) would fix this issue, but I'm still getting it. Here's the info I gave the bug report:

Steps to Reproduce Bug:

1. Collect a project (using Selected Comps, Reduce)

2. Move the mouse during collection

Results:

An error occurs on the file it was currently copying, and all subsequent (I assume) files are not copied to the collection folder. AE does not throw missing footage errors when re-opened, because it retains original global links. Check "Show in Finder" on a footage piece to verify problem.

Expected Results:

Collect files (Selected Comps) should copy all associated files, removing ALL global links.

[Todd_Kopriva]

an update on this bug, with some history on this problem from our perspective:

This problem is new to Mac OS 10.9, or one of the 10.9.x updates. Which doesn’t seem new, but 10.9 is only a bit over 2 years old (For comparison, Windows 7 is 6 years old, Windows 8 is 3 years old.) We suspect that Apple changed something subtle in the mouse event handler code that causes After Effects to unintentionally interrupt the file copy messages it sends to the OS.

We started seeing reports of problems with Collect Files on Mac OS during the CC 2014 cycle, though the reports weren’t limited to CC 2014 versions. We investigated, but it’s not necessarily an easy problem to reproduce; another way to say that is that the failure conditions are more specific than simple repro steps will reveal. Thus, at that time the correlation between mouse movement and the Collect Files failures wasn’t obvious, so we spent a lot of time chasing potential problems with file copy processes. In fact, we found and fixed a bug in After Effects 13.1 with QuickTime file writes and crossed our fingers that it would address the issue, but it clearly did not.

Since then, the team has been heads-down on the architectural changes in After Effects 13.5. That work demanded all of the attention of the team, and many bugs like this one that existed in previous versions had to be put aside. The basic functionality of preview and other core features have taken higher priority over issues like this one that affect a smaller number of users, and even worse are platform specific.

That said, we recognize how frustrating this bug can be. Now that we’re past 13.5, and are working through the trail of bugs that it created, we are beginning to gain some time to look at other issues. Like this one.

Our apologies, and thanks for hanging in there with us.

[Greg@Antifreeze Animation]

Thanks for your attentiveness. I think one of the things that makes this such a "gotcha" for me is that when the Collection fails, it "looks" like links are there because all post-mouse-move items are still globally linked.  As an interim fix, maybe it would be helpful if the algorithm first destroyed all global links so that we would be well aware of the missing linkages when opening it back up*. As it is, it doesn't throw linking errors, because it simply doesn't attempt to finish the move. So, it's easy to accidentally think the Collection happened adequately, and very difficult to verify that it did. The folders are there, some of the assets have been moved, but depending on when the mouse moved, not ALL of the assets are moved. So it becomes impossible to even verify the links are now local to the folder, because there are no missing links!  Crazy. I wish we could put our finger on exactly what setup causes it, but for now all we know is that the mouse move triggers it.  Let us know if there is specific system build info we can provide. (Or maybe forward a report? Surely there's some software that could identify the common parameter or build, e.g. like we're all using a Kensington mouse or something.)

* I don't know if this has been changed, but it's also ridiculously awful in 2014.2 to have an individual error for every broken link on file open. It would be much more helpful to simply have a general error that says, "One or more files did not load or could not be found. Search for "Missing Footage" in the Project window for more information."  It's not elegant, but saves us from clicking through a hundred errors.

(Note: I also have a Wacom Tablet attached. I'll test it with it disconnected, as some later posts suggested)

[scott_hdz1]

This is frustrating. I just sat down at home to spend a couple hours working on a project and when i open my USB drive everything is there except the project.

[tstuderTOPIC]

We had this same problem. Disconnected tablets and it worked.

Thank You

[mimic8645457]

I don't know if this will work for others but I was experiencing the same symptoms as posted originally in this thread, however Wacom and mouse had nothing to do with it.

In the end I worked around it by:

• Selecting 'None (Project Only)' from the collect files menu
• Closed the auto-opened After Effects file
• Opened the file from the 'None (Project Only)' export location
• Run Collect files again and this time select All from the collect files menu

Hopefully this helps some of you

Mimi.

[steveo_tv]

Yeah, it blew me away that this worked for me too. I suspect there might be a connection to the dreaded wacom sticky cursor problem that some of us have had intermittently with intuos tablets for many years. Is everyone that is having this problem with a mouse using a wacom mouse, or are some of you mousers using apple mice?

[hqhempen]

I'm using a wireless Logitech mouse on 2014 iMac or whatever.  Definitely would only collect properly if wireless mouse was turned off, lol.

[MayDayMedia]

Using MacPro trashcan with wired apple keyboard, and wired macally mouse. It's not a peripheral problem, it's an Adobe problem.

[David Mudd Art]

I can confirm this work around.

A co-worker and myself have had the same issue.  We are both using Intous Pro 2 Tablets and when ever using the pen to consolidate footage it would get an error and only a handful of the files would collect.

**By unplugging the tablet and using a mouse everything worked just like it was supposed to.  It is a bug that has to do with the tablet. **

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014)

  Processor: Intel Core i7

  Processor Speed: 4 GHz

  Memory: 16 GB

[KGW_Graphics_1]

David, I use an Intuos 2 as well. You might be going to more trouble than you have to. I think the problem is that the slight quiver in your hand after you click the Save button is all it takes to throw this mouse movement error. It's very sensitive.

Instead, once you've hit the Collect button in the dialog and the "Collect files into folder" save dialog appears, put down your stylus (don't touch the tablet if touch areas are activated) and switch to the mouse or keyboard to confirm the save. During collect, treat everything on your desk like it's radioactive and you should be good

[allanwr]

This totally saved my sanity. Thank you!

[yoyopop.studio]

just to chime in here and say thanks to all for posting re the wacom collect files click problem, its being doing my nut in for ages now.

but simply hitting the return key its sorted and all collected perfectly

all the stuff making people to change folder structures and file names, big waste of time in the end

hopefully the issue re wacom and mouse clicking on this simple function gets sorted soon.

thanks all

[brandonmcfarland]

Glad I found this because this is still the solution for CC2015 13.7.

Mine could be related to the older Wacom drivers (6.3.8-2) that I installed in order to get rid of some other weird Wacom related bugs in Premiere and AE. I'd rather have to use my mouse when collecting files than get random layer selections that stick to my moving pen.

When is Adobe going to sort the Wacom bugs?

[morganed43545528]

Hey there,

I had the exact same problem, and it worked for me when I stopped moving the mouse of the computer...

Weird but true... Thanks for the tips!

Cheers

[mrepix]

Thank you, ebelharw​ , that totally worked.

[Greg@Antifreeze Animation]

Still fails in 2017.0   Dang.

I just tried it. Collection fails if I move my mouse during Collection!

(To adobe's credit, I actually get a failure notice, instead of the perception of success that we used to be plagued with!)

System:

Mid 2010

2 x 3.06 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon

Kensington Mouse

Wacom Tablet is plugged in

[stevenprobets]

Still an issue with me!

Using AE 2017!! Be Jesus?!!!

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015)

4GHz i7

32GB RAM DDR3

macOS 10.12.2

  Mode

[davidr13429266]

I had the same problem. It seemed to always be an Ai file that couldn't be found so I convertd all my Ai layers into 'creating shape layers out of Vector'... no fix.

After this I thought of just saving the collected Ae to my desktop... RESULT!

I'm not sure if this is the same for others but I was working in a file system that is linked to my Dropbox and thisis where I was trying to collect it. So that could be the issue?

Who F**kin knows!? Stupid F**kin Bug!