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O
Onchie
Inspiring
August 28, 2020
Answered

Horrendous keyboard input lag since AE 2020

  • August 28, 2020
  • 7 replies
  • 4485 views

Ever since my entire department at the office upgraded to After Effects CC 2020 on PC over a year ago, we have  experienced an unprecedented level of keyboard and mouse-click input lag of up to 4 seconds or more when using keyboard shortcuts, clicking dropdown menus, copying, pasting, almost everything. How can this be solved? I've experienced this in two different setups, on the HP Z840 Workstations at the office and on my Personal Computer at home, both running Windows 10. It's been like this for more than a year I think. It's quite debilitating when we can't work at the speed of thought anymore. Help?

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Correct answer Onchie

The problem is now 100% solved for me. After delving deeper into my findings from my previous post, i have discovered that the reason that the Photoshop files from our Creatives department were so laggy in After effects, was that they had accumulated about 80mb worth of troublesome metadata called Photoshop:DocumentAncestors. More on that here: https://prepression.blogspot.com/2017/06/metadata-bloat-photoshopdocumentancestors.html?m=1

 

And apparently After Effects doesn't work well if these tags are present in the PSD files it imports. It makes sense that these tags would bloat the PSD files since they actually keep adding up and getting transferred to the target file with every "Save As" operation done. So upon applying one of the Photoshop scripts available  in my link above to remove that specific metadata, the PSD finally works flawlessly in After Effects without any input lag no matter what I do.

7 replies

H
huda_8823
New Participant
November 15, 2024

Thanks for sharing it but people who are using non genuine, cracked or pirated operating system, Mostly facing problems and after the bogus updates their issues may become complex. I also used windows 11 pro trail with many issues on weekly basis but when I activated it there's no more issue found. To fix it, I purchased license key from odosta store which I think is a Microsoft product reseller.

O
OnchieAuthorCorrect answer
Inspiring
March 27, 2021

The problem is now 100% solved for me. After delving deeper into my findings from my previous post, i have discovered that the reason that the Photoshop files from our Creatives department were so laggy in After effects, was that they had accumulated about 80mb worth of troublesome metadata called Photoshop:DocumentAncestors. More on that here: https://prepression.blogspot.com/2017/06/metadata-bloat-photoshopdocumentancestors.html?m=1

 

And apparently After Effects doesn't work well if these tags are present in the PSD files it imports. It makes sense that these tags would bloat the PSD files since they actually keep adding up and getting transferred to the target file with every "Save As" operation done. So upon applying one of the Photoshop scripts available  in my link above to remove that specific metadata, the PSD finally works flawlessly in After Effects without any input lag no matter what I do.

O
OnchieAuthor
Inspiring
March 27, 2021

I may have some sort of a breakthrough, for me at least. I found out that the culprit that causes the input lag in my After Effects is actually the PSD files that we receive from our Creative department for us to animate. If I import them into After Effects and try to interact with any layer, it has to go through 6 seconds of lag before anything happens. This happens with all their files: any layer that hasn't been touched yet has to go through 6 seconds of lag on the first interaction with. Even if I delete all layers in Photoshop and just leave one simple flattened text layer, as soon a I import it into After Effects and try to nudge the layer using Shift + arrow keys, or try to to change the color of the layer, or really do anything with it, has to go through 6 seconds of lag before executing. After which i can do anything with the layer with no lag. it. A funny thing i discovered is that if I drag the layer with the mouse the first time, no lag happens. It's only when I try the keyboard commands that the lag happens.

Now on to the breakthrough, I discovered that if I take the PSD file from the Creatives department, copy all it's layers, and paste them into a new document with identical dimensions, and then save that out, I can import it into after effects and animate it all I want with absolutely NO LAG!!! 

I have a question for the community though. I could not for the life of me find any difference at all between the original PSD file from the Creatives dep't and the new file I created with the layers copied from their file. Not the dimensions, ppi, color profile. And they're both at RGB color at 8 bits/channel. The only difference was the size. Their file was 80mb while mine was just 5mb with identical layers. So I don't know why their file (which was created on a Mac, but "Saved As" again anyway on my PC) exhibits input lag in after effects, but my file doesn't encounter any lag. And why is their file 80mb but mine is just 5mb when there is no difference in their specifications. I already tried shuffling between the 2 files and looking for differences in the info window in photoshop but there really is nothing. Is there any hidden info or mode that gets stored in a photoshop file created in a Mac that cannot be read or accessed by a PC, that could be causing the lag in after effects? Another strange note, when I deleted all the layers from their multi-layered 80mb PSD file and just added one flattened text layer, the size did not get reduced when I saved it. Both files were literally still 80mb! What is taking up all that 80mb space? 

O
OnchieAuthor
Inspiring
September 19, 2020

I wish i had good news but I just tried uninstalling all Nvidia drivers and disabling my videocard from Device Manager and connecting my monitor directly to the onboard intel graphics on my motherboard. The input lag persists. I'm positive it's not an Nvidia hardrware or driver issue anymore. Nor is it an ECS issue because the Z840's at the office experience it. Must be some other variable.. Windows 10? But Microsoft together with Nvidia and Adobe seem to be collaborating and conforming to each other extensively for a problem to have lasted this long.

HawaiiHippie
HawaiiHippie
Known Participant
September 19, 2020

Not Windoze 10. I am having the same experience on a variety of Mac machines, both OS 10.14 and 10.15. It onset with CC 2020; that seems the most likely culprit.

    O
    OnchieAuthor
    Inspiring
    September 22, 2020

    Intereseting, to think that it's an isolated problem with AE itself. But why does the rest of the world not seem affected, after almost a year. Dare I just pray for a complete overhaul with the next version of AE? How long before we can expect CC 2021? 😄

    HawaiiHippie
    HawaiiHippie
    Known Participant
    September 14, 2020

    I recently "upgraded" my computer lab to CC 2020, and the keyboard lag is driving me nuts! It's particularly bad in Premiere. I started another post in the Premiere community, but no one has anything to offer.

    https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro/input-lag-keyboard-and-mouse/m-p/11422727?page=1#M298037

      Harold Silva
      Harold Silva
      Community Expert
      September 9, 2020

      Hello Jars i think you sould Reset the program 
      Ctrl + SHIFT + ALT while u strat the program.

      Harold Silva B.
      O
      OnchieAuthor
      Inspiring
      September 11, 2020

      Thanks for the suggestion. But I'm sad to report that it didn't get fixed after that workaround.

        Mylenium
        Mylenium
        Brainiac
        August 29, 2020

        Impossible to know. From generic graphics driver issues to specific HP-centric issues this could be anything. Start by kicking out all those crappy helper utilities OEM-branded machines often have and update the drivers - the regular way via device manager/ Windows Update, not HP's service manager. There may be a newer version of a driver that fixes the issue, they may just never show it because it isn't certified.

         

        Mylenium

          O
          OnchieAuthor
          Inspiring
          September 2, 2020

          The only constant factor between our workstations at the office and my PC at home is that both use video cards by Nvidia. Quadro at the office and Geforce GTX 1650 Super at home. Otherwise I use an assembled PC at home, ECS motherboard with an Intel Core i5 2300 processor while the office workstation is an HP Z840. After many iterations of the Nvidia Studio Drivers that get updated every 2 months or so I doubt it's a video card driver problem anymore. Especially given Adobe seems to recommend Nvidia and Intel machines when it come to compatibility.

          DigAdobe
          DigAdobe
          Participating Frequently
          September 8, 2020

          Amazing how "experts" disappear when you've done everything they suggest. I like you am experiencing this keyboard lag issue and it's with all of the Adobe apps I've used especially Premiere. Whether it's importing, dragging to the timeline, play/pause, effects controls etc., it makes for a horrendous experience. I've done everything I know of and online suggestions as well to no avail. I have no issues with my less than capable laptop. It's just my extremely capable desktop that has these issues as I stated before in ADOBE CC apps ONLY! If I come across a solution, will definitely hit you up via this board. Hope it works out for you sooner though.

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