Can't import MP4 files.

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
January 7, 2023
3 replies
1453 views

Keep getting the following error on Win10 PC:

After Effects error: File “XXXXXXXX.mp4” cannot be opened, it may be in an unsupported format. ( 86 :: 1 )

Happens with all MP4s. Tried uninstalling everything and running the CC cleaner tool and even tried previous versions but still no go. Please help.

Error or problem

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ShiveringCactus

Community Expert

Do the MP4s import in Adobe Media Encoder? You could try re-exporting them from there if they do. I know in another post you say you have lots of MP4s needed but if they do convert in AME, you can set up a watch folder to do this automatically.

I'm going to guess if you have lots of problematic MP4s they have all come from the same camera or source. I know GoPro shared a codec to make their videos more accessible to editing programs. Maybe this is a similar issue.

Warren Heaton

Community Expert

Good suggestions. If the MP4 has trouble in After Effects, it may also have trouble in Media Encoder for the same reason, but it's worth a try.

GoPro provides the Cineform CODEC for transcoding the footage shot with GoPro cameras to a format that's good for editing and After Effects supports that (on the Mac side, I think the M1 users still need to run AE using Rosetta to import Cineform).

Mylenium

Legend

As a first, turn off hardware accelerated encoding in the preferences under Import. Other than that the usual steps apply: Check your system's CoDecs and remove and conspicuous ones introduced by fishy third-party media players or compression tools that promise the moon, reinstall AE with sufficient user privileges (again), update your graphics driver and configure it suitably, then check all the settings in AE. If you have an NVidia card, people suggest to use the 517.xx version as apparently there are issues with 527.xx and beyond.

Mylenium