app.preferences.reload() not reloading after changing prefs file contents?

[sophiapreymaker]

Not sure if this is a bug or there's something missing, but we are trying to copy over a premade preferences file into a user's directory on New Project action to match the template that also loads on New Project action, (because it would be far more complex to try and add these custom preferences via scripting), and according to the docs, app.preferences.reload should be "[reloading] the preferences file manually." However, this does not appear to be true. We can't copy the file over prior to launch either, as that would overwrite a user's settings without them necessarily opening a new project. The preferences file in question is the output preferences, stored in:

Adobe After Effects 23.2 Prefs-indep-output.txt

Does anyone know if there is another file that needs to be brought over as well for this to work? Do we need to copy every single preference file for reload to work? Scripting this seems like it would be a huge pain, and for our pipeline to run smoothly this would be important.

Any information is appreciated!

[Justin Taylor-Hyper Brew]

Not every preference can be reloaded, you need to test each one. If you're only changing a few properties, then it's best to update them with the preferences module directly. If it's a lot of preferences, then you'll probably need to replace files, and restart AE to see the changes reflected.

[sophiapreymaker]

Currently when I replace the file and then close the session, the file is being overwritten back to the settings I am trying to replace, so I don't think restarting works - it's a wide enough range of changes that I would really prefer not to set them via scripting if avoidable but if the reload function is useless then I guess I may have to.

[Justin Taylor-Hyper Brew]

After Effects' default behavior is to save preferences to disk on closing, so unless you can find a way to override that, you're going to need to change the file when AE is closed.