After effects not letting me import videos

[107am]

whenever i try to import a video/mp4 file to after effects these errors pops up "After Effects: AEPG Plugin PNGIO Support: Input file doesn't seem to be a png file" and "After Effects warning: Unable to import file as project (bad format or not readable)" after effects is only letting me import pictures/pngs and when i open older project files with videos, they come up as missing files. i already closed after effects, restarted my laptop cleared my cache, redownload the vids, multiple times and it didn't work. how do i fix this?

[Mylenium]

I think this is a known issue on M1 based Macs. Try and trash the prefs, clean out the caches, check your hardware acceleration settings.

Mylenium

[107am]

i tried that but it didnt work, thank you though!

[ShiveringCactus]

If you go to File > Project Settings and set the renderer to Software Only, does that allow for the PNGs to import?  Can you try opening in Photoshop and saving them as new PNG files?