After Effects .mov export files are "not compatible" with QuickTime Player

[joell54279662]

I'm using a MacBook with Catalina 10.15 and the latest After Effects.

After rendering files, QuickTime can't open the file and notifies me that the file/media is not compatible with QuickTime Player. What do I need to do, to be able to open the files with QuickTime?

[Rick Gerard · Accepted solution]

The latest release of many Adobe products is not fully compatible with Catalina. OSX 10.15 completely dropped support for any 32-bit apps so Adobe is not the only casualty. Most of the components in most complex apps are now 64-bit apps, but all it takes is one block of code somewhere deep inside an app to kill the process. The problem with some forms of Quicktime is that Apple didn't exclude the QT player from the 64-bit spec so if you render to a codec that uses only 32-bit technology Catalina won't play it. It's that simple, and there is nothing that Adobe can do to change how QuickTime works. Your only option is to render to a compatible format. If you use a lot of 3rd party plug-ins and even scripts you will also have to wait for those to catch up to 64-bit. Don't count on everyone that has ever made a plug-in for AE to spend the money and time required to update their product to 64-bit.

Apple warned everybody that this change was coming and that you had to be careful. That's why I have not upgraded yet. I won't for a while. Just before I do I will make a mirror fresh backup (mirrored copy) of my boot drive so that if there are any apps critical to my business that stop working after the upgrade I can revert to the previously working OS in a matter of minutes. I do this automatically every 30 days with my machine all the time anyway. I have for years. I use a boot drive cloning app that I start on the last Saturday evening of the month so I am never without a way to boot to a backup that was working fine. My whole computer could burn down and I could buy a new one, turn it on, and boot to the cloned drive and be right back to where I started in just a little more time than it takes to turn on the machine. It's not a good idea for anyone that makes their living to update to the next generation of their OS without doing a lot of research. 

[soundboutique]

Could you share the Boot drive cloning app that youre using? I'm interested in preventing apple's future 'innovations' on my system. I too avoid any updates where ever possible, but not possible when purchasing a newer mac from apple. Although I might return this 16 inch Macbook pro as I'm upset on the daily with its issues.. like the .mov files not playing on quicktime. It's one of many so far. You know, usual annoying stuff.. uneeded touch bar, running super hot, battery seeming to drain quickly, powered by thunderbolt hence no signal that its charging on the outside, it also seems to press keys or the track pad when i dont want it. Disabled the deep 2nd click on the trackpad, you know.. usual apple stuff. But, I'm also getting a weird screen scramble when i apply too much glow effect in AE. 5 days into owning this and there's already several isses. Arg, apple. 

[Andrew Yoole]

Quicktime is in a weird halfway world at the moment, where it still deals with older legacy formats, but thewir more recent player doesn't cope with those formats well.  Prior to Catalina, you could still install the legacy Quicktime 7 player, which would play any old Quicktime file without argument.  But the player no longer works in Catalina.   Adobe apps still recognise most of them.

Apple is crazy to be abandoning so many codecs that are still used widely in production workflows, but I've given up trying to understand Apple's approach to professional users.  If they had opened up their codecs to multiplatform use years ago they would own the codec market today, but... Apple.

You can use free tools like MPEG Streamclip and VLC to view legacy Quicktime formats in real time.

Here's a rather convoluted but thorough article about which codecs to use in the future:

https://larryjordan.com/blog/important-dont-lose-access-to-older-media/

[marcosm30167058]

I found my way out by exporting .mov from after effects, taking it into premiere and exporting h264 (mp4). Because for some reason its not allowing me to export through Media Enconder when i try it in After effects. Crazy.

[luked72721404 · Accepted solution]

I was able to export the .mov and drag it into media encoder and re-export it.

[dvnxlc]

This worked like a charm, thank you.

[Sean in New York]

This worked for me too. Merci! Much appreciated.

[EricaDos]

Hey,

Could you explain a little more on how to do this, as i'm trying to export a video but it doesn't seem to be working

[karlp54126655]

Worked for me. Thanks! I'll now call you Exedrin as the headace is now gone!

[Iley5FC2]

Thank you soooo much! Worked perfectly.

[rudyt17583831]

thank you! it works!

[j2studio]

Thank you!

[calvin26]

I just export straight to media encoder from AE. works great!

[brooklyns24598425]

This was a lifesaver thankyou!

[DizGoalie30]

This worked for me as well.

[Monsieur Kerbo]

Putting the file into premier crashed the program. i dont know what sort of witchcraft is going on with this file.

[Bunky Boy]

Worked Thanks. A smart round about.

[Golden5C1E]

a life saverrrrrrrr!!!!!!

[Korda]

Or You can drag .mov file into Photoshop and then File -> Export -> Render video. Works every time (not like Media Encoder). Cheers!

[GrrScaryMonster]

So, it's not just me. Good (bad) to know. I use the VLC workaround, but I miss the ability to Quick View by pressing on the space bar in the Finder. Such is the Apple life.

[Diego_Disc]

I also can't understand when QuickView was usually the go-to for when something did not open...Now can't even save us from the process of having to import a file into a third-party tool just to preview a plain Animation (previously formatted with Quicktime7).

[Diego_Disc]

Hi,

I have not tried this solution yet but could be an answer...

https://community.avid.com/forums/t/136404.aspx

"Posting a little tip that corrects a little annoyance with Mavericks and Yosemite.  It is no longer possible to preview DNxHD Quicktimes (and all other QTs in codecs other than Prores or H264) with the space-bar.

It turns out that the old behavior can be recovered by "transplanting" the quicklook components that handle quicktime files from a copy of OS X 10.8.5.  It works fine - although you need to redo the steps when you update the OS, and you need access to a machine with 10.8.5 to grab the files."

[mattjamess · Accepted solution]

When rendering, I had to click 'lossless' and then click the format options and change the Video Codec to something else (e.g. Apple ProRes 422 HQ) and QuickTime played it fine. Apparently QuickTime just doesn't like when the it is set to Animation but obviously if you need to use that I'm not sure what the fix would be. Hope this helps 🙂

[erin0603]

THANK YOU THANK YOU I've been trying to resolve this issue for so long. I used your advice and it worked! Thank you so so much!