After Effects project (.aep) file is being deleted on Save

Report · Aug 31, 2023

Mac M2 Max

Memory 96GB

Ventura 13.5.1

After Effects v 23.6.0
Premiere Pro v23.6.0
I am working a project which is adding some title/graphics cards and lower thirds to a Premiere Pro project via dynamic link. I am also working with someone else using a windows machine, swapping a removable hard drive back and forth, but we are both on the latest version of all Adobe programs.

If I open the .aep from Premiere (Edit Original) to make an edit, and hit save, the entire After Effects project file disappears. It does not go to the trash, it is not in the folder where the file was created, it seems to be completely gone. My workaround for the moment when this happens is to do a "Save As" and put the file back where it belongs, but there is high risk I will slip up and wipe out a project completely by absentmindedly hitting save and forgetting to put it back in it's path.

Report · Feb 20, 2025

I'm revisting this issue once again. From the responses here, I think it may be helpful to add a few more details.
1. SSD type. I am using Samsung T7 Shields for the external hard drive. I can try others, but am curious if this might be part of the problem.
2. The SSD is ExFAT formatted
3. If I I save the After Effects file, it disappears. But "save as" does allow a file to be kept on the hard drive.
4, To clarify, the "disappeared" After Effects file ceases to exist, it is not misplaced (like I can search and find it at some odd location), it is gone
If anyone else has details they think are relevant from their experiences, please respond. It's been over a year with no real solution offered.

Report · Mar 03, 2025

Here's a screencast:

Report · Apr 11, 2025

I'm having the same problem. My projects disappear. It's happened twice so far. I recently migrated from Windows and use an external SSD for work. The 2 lost projects were created in Windows. A very unpleasant situation. A considerable loss of time and rework.

Report · May 01, 2025

I'm running into the same issue. Upon saving and closing, After Effects deletes its own project file in addition to all Auto Save files - no trace of the AE project remains. It doesn't make it to the trash, it's just gone. It should be impossible and the consequences of this happening on a big job are terrifying. If anyone from Adobe visits these forms, please make this a priority, this is as serious as it gets.

DETAILS: As others have experienced, I created the project file on PC through dynamic-link and then opened it through Premiere (via "edit original") on a Mac. The specific task was using Rotobrush 3. It happened in 2024. I run both 24 and 25 on the same machine. I was editing off a T7 on M2 Max, Ventura 13.5.

QUETIONS:

-- Has anyone experienced this problem outside of this specific scenario?

-- Does it delete versioned files too?

-- Do we have a confirmed deletion in AE 2025?

MY TEMP SOLUTIONS: Obviously, I'm going to stop using dynamic-link until this is sorted out. I'm going to back up my versioned AE files on disconnected hard drives. Hopefully that's enough.

In 15 years of working with Adobe, this is by far the worst, most catastrophic bug I've experienced, and that's saying something.

Report · Jun 05, 2025

I came to this forum to try to troubleshoot this exact same problem.

Mac M3 Ultra

96 GB

Sequoia 15.3

AE 25.2.2 (Build 2)

PR 25.2.3 (Build 4)

I'm experiencing this after transitioning to Mac from PC so all my projects (as of now) were created in the windows ecosystem. I did use dynamic link.

After relinking and opening on the new Mac, the AEP file disappears from the drive within like, 5 or 10 minutes of working.

I use a NAS.

So far the only workaround that's worked is re-saving the AE projects to the local drive. But for several reasons this isn't ideal.

This seems like a huge bug, i"m shocked there's been no response from Adobe or surefire solve in this thread for nearly 2 years.