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Participant
April 13, 2017
Answered

After effect not saving

  • April 13, 2017
  • 11 replies
  • 42971 views

I have been using after effects all day and its been fine, saving was fine.

but now all of a sudden the application wont save, i go to file save, click on save and nothing happens.

same with save as, once i click the option the menu just disappears and nothing happens.

I have restarted my machine and switched between apps and nothing is working, i have even started a new after effects document and it will just not save.

Correct answer defaultaluo06h321d3

This happened to me. I'd open it and do a little thing and try and save and it would work, but then I would do a bunch of stuff and all File > things like save, import etc stopped working. Reset my computer etc etc and would start working again and same thing would happen. Redid the same thing 5 times. 

 

I fixed it by emptying my cache (which was full) 

😕😕

 

11 replies

defaultaluo06h321d3Correct answer
Participant
June 29, 2022

This happened to me. I'd open it and do a little thing and try and save and it would work, but then I would do a bunch of stuff and all File > things like save, import etc stopped working. Reset my computer etc etc and would start working again and same thing would happen. Redid the same thing 5 times. 

 

I fixed it by emptying my cache (which was full) 

😕😕

 

Participant
June 7, 2022

Had the same issue, randomly just stopped saving and I used the media encoder way to save my file before quitting and reopening. Saving worked on restart and the only difference was that I tried to run FX console as a script to see if it was working (it hasn't been updated for AE 2022's latest update). It didn't run as a script either and when I tried running it again on a dummy file, saving didn't work. Might be a safety feature to not let us save when running suspicious scripts, might be adobe bugs. Hope this helps in case anyone had the same issue.

WOLFman
Participant
May 18, 2022

Responding here so that my answer goes to the top.

 

I had the same issue, and I've spent the last couple of days trying everything from restarting my computer to purging my cache every five minutes.

 

Turns out all I had to do was update After Effects...

 

Silly mistake, and I'm kicking myself now - but I thought I'd share for anyone who, like me, didn't consider this 🙂

Participant
June 16, 2022

I'm glad this worked for you, but just wanted to update for Adobe records to note that CC says I'm all up to date but this issue is still happening to me.

Participant
February 1, 2022

CHECK THIS SOLUTION , please!

Hello everyone!

I was having the same problems, all of you described so well, over the last 3 months. I had technical remote assistance from the Adobe people, a couple of times, read just about every discussion there is in this support community, and just when i was at the verge of buying a new computer, i found a solution.

The new AE 2021 - 2022, which is technically an update of the previous After Effects, on some systems, is read as a "new program"; I believe you need to give AE full disk access again after installing Adobe AE 2021, because the AE 2020 is seen as a different application so the settings and disk rights aren't transferred to the new app install (which is technically an update, but you get the picture).

To do this:
Go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Full Disk Access > *ensure your Adobe software are ticked*

CHANGED MY LIFE! My Best to you all!

aaronc54326086
Participant
August 6, 2021

I had the same issue, and after i reboot my computer, cleared my media cache (it was 88.7GB), opened another project file to test "save as" and reopened my project file -- it worked.

 

I guessing it was the media cache.

 

Participant
June 14, 2021

I just had this issue - though I lost all my work I did find a solution sort of now. After trying to save anything for over two hours the thing that worked for me in the end was updating my after effects and making sure my adobe cloud file syncing was working. It wasn't connected and once I refreshed the connection it let me save. Hopefully this can help someone out.

Participant
January 4, 2021

Hi Guys, It's 2021 and I just had the same problem. I was working on my animation this morning and as soon as I tried to save the project nothing happens. I tried Save as copy and tried other different ways but nothing working anymore. Although AE working fine and other extensions too. It's just shortcuts are not working and I am not able to save anything.

I need to restart my mac now and lose all the work.

SUPER FRUSTRATING.

Ro Hackett
Inspiring
January 4, 2021

THIS MIGHT HELP AS A WORKAROUND!

If you are able to export to media encoder...

 

I exported an UNSAVED COMP to media encoder render queue.... this then made an After Effects project file in the temp folder 

 

(show hidden files first);

C:/Users/YOUR COMPUTER USERAME/APP DATA/LOCAL/TEMP 

(OR just type %appdata% into the file path bar)

 

You will find there a folder with AE project files ... but they will only contain the one comp being exported so export each comp you have through AME seperately to make sure they at least show up here esoecially if saveing is not working for now.

 

(If you had previously saved the project this temp file will show up beside that project file but media encoder shows a filepath to where it is)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Participant
January 11, 2021

THANK YOU so much. This workaround totally worked! You're a life saver!

Kevin-Monahan
Community Manager
Community Manager
May 23, 2017

Hi GregA,

Are you still facing this problem? If not, let us know how you solved it. If so, please let us know so we can assist you further.

Thanks,

Kevin

Kevin Monahan - Sr. Community and Engagement Strategist – Adobe Pro Video and Audio
Participating Frequently
July 30, 2020

I have been using AE for ages and this happened to me for the first time yesterday. I lost a week of work.

 

Today I just redid about half that work, and AE started going slow so I tried to save and quit but now it won't even SAVE, AND it won't quit unless I force quit. Incredibly disturbing that I could lose all this time and effort. I don't know how to fix it.

 

Help me someone please!

Participating Frequently
August 19, 2020

I'm having this problem as of today (Aug. 19th 2020) as well.  The project simply will not save.  I don't know what's going on.  It also will not let me close the program either.  I had to do a crappy, screen recording to get a "export" of my project so I don't completely loose proof everything I've created.  Adobe, what is wrong with your company??  I've never experienced as many insane issues with so many products from on paticular company as I have with Adobe software. 

Horshack
Legend
April 13, 2017

Are the Save and Save As... menu items greyed out or normal colored? That will help establish the troubleshooting path.

Participant
April 13, 2017

they are normal coloured, when i click it looks like it registers but just wont do anything.

even when i just cross the application off, it asks me to save. i then click save but the app closes without saving anything.

Horshack
Legend
April 13, 2017

Here is a script I just wrote for you which will try to save your project programmatically. Save the following text to a file with a .jsx extension, like "save.jsx". To execute the script, go to File -> Scripts -> Run Scripts File... and type the filename you saved the script as. If it works it'll save your project to a file named "testsave.aep", probably in the save directory as where you saved the script to. Please report whether or not it works.

{

var newFile = new File("testsave.aep");

app.project.save(newFile);

}

Participant
April 13, 2017

HI thanks for the reply.

its version 14.1.0.57

im on windows 10, i have not installed anything in a while.

like i said after effects has been running perfect all day until now.

when i choose to save as, it does not give me the option to choose where i want to save. as soon as i click on save or save as the options dissaper

Roei Tzoref
Legend
April 13, 2017

I would reset the preferences and if that does not help I would reinstall.

Participant
April 13, 2017

just reset and reinstalled, still the same.

if it does not fix im going to get my money back from adobe. not paying for broken software.