Repeated Crashes on Export to Media Encoder

Report · Jan 31, 2024

Hi there,

I have this issue with some frequency and it seems to happen across multiple machines at my company. We'll try to send something to media encoder and we'll get an error saying "could not rename file" immediately followed by "AE can't continue: DynamicLinkServer generated an unexpected exception" and then finally "before quitting you have one chance to save" before crashing AE entirely. For example, right now I'm going through a project with quite a number of comps and trying to build a queue of both multiple comps and multiple sections within those comps. Just tonight with over 70 comps I'm exporting I've had already 10-15 crashes.

This can happen on a comp once, but then on second try exports fine. This can be on comps that have plug-ins or comps that have none. It happens on various projects, not just a specific one. I've done restarts, cache clears, etc and the problem remains.

Currently I'm running AE 24.0.0. This is recent-ish issue. I can't remember if the issue originated in AE 2024 or whether it also ran through AE 2023 as well, (maybe) but I'm fairly certain it doesn't go back (for me) into 2022 and earlier than that.

Any thoughts?

Report · Feb 02, 2024

FYI - it does seem to happen more frequently (though not exclusively) when I select multiple comps and try to export them as a batch.

Also, I can add these comps individually to media encoder via the plus button within media encoder itself and navigating one by one to each comp, but it's a cumbersome process when you have dozens to export.

Report · Mar 10, 2024

I've had this on my machine. It doesn't always crash but crashes quite often when I export from AE to Media Encoder. I'm using dropbox. I've found if I pause syncing then the crash doesn't happen. It's been happening for a while thorugh recent versions. I am currently using 24.2.1

Report · Mar 11, 2024

Hi Ryan,

Happy to look into this. Do you see any error messages or crash reports? Are you on macOS or Windows? Which OS other machines are using? Are you exporting on a shared or external storage? Do you get this issue if you export to the internal drive?

Please consider Simon Payne's suggestion if you're exporting to Dropbox Box or any other folder that's synced with the cloud.

Let us know.

Note: Moving this thread from Bugs to Discussions.

Thanks,

Nishu

Report · Mar 12, 2024

Hmmm. I am using dropbox. I'd be surprised if that's causing the issue, but I guess it could be. I'll try to test next time it happens. Dropbox is on my internal drive though (it just syncs with the cloud back and forth) and when I send something to media encoder isn't the tmp file it creates somewhere in my program files or appdata and not within the files that are synching with dropbox? That's what would surprise me if it's related because I'm not sure what AE would be doing within dropbox during that export but I dunno. I'm on Windows 11.

I will also say that I'm not sure I've had this issue since updating to AE2024, though I am currently on 24.1.0

Report · Mar 13, 2024

When I export from AE to ME a temp project file is written to a folder with the same name with _AME appended to the end. This folder is saved next to the AE project. My project folder is on dropbox. But I don't know if this temp project file is the cause of the problem.

Report · Mar 13, 2024

Right. Fair point. Then maybe it is a dropbox issue...

Report · Mar 21, 2024

FYI -- just ran into the issue today. Tried to export 7 comps simultaneously to AME from AE and it crashed AE taking it fully down. Tried again, same issue. Third time I quit dropbox (and end task'ed any background processes as well) and when I exported the same 7 comps it worked fine.

So that's an argument for maybe it being a dropbox issue...

Report · Apr 16, 2024

Another test today -- two crashes back to back as I sent three comps to the media encoder. I quit dropbox and tried sending them again and this time they sent without issue. Sounds like maybe dropbox is the culprit...

Report · Oct 23, 2024

I have the same issue constantly and it also occurs in the latest update(2025).

It does feel like it's tied (more so at least) to the multiple exports, as you say. I find it safest to do comp by comp and wait for each to appear in ME before sending the next one but this is obviously time consuming.

I also often get issues saving files which definitely seems to be tied to dropbox and has happened to me and my team off and on for years. This is where the temp file created during a save, corrupts/can't write during the save process and then deletes itself. Annoyingly AE deletes the original save file too meaning if you don't instantly save again, you could lose your file completely.

I feel like the two issues have a common denominator and the link between Adobe and Dropbox needs looking at thoroughly... but I've mentioned this years ago so as always it's unlikely to happen.

Report · Oct 28, 2024

Yeah -- for reference, since my previous post any time I start running into the crashing issue I quit the dropbox app and try sending the stuff to media encoder again. I'm pretty sure any time I've quit dropbox, the files send to media encoder (single or multiple) without issue. Then I just need to remember to turn dropbox back on and everything works as normal. It's an annoyance for sure (and not an issue I'd ever run into for years), but the quitting dropbox temporarily when you want to send comps from AE to AME seems to solve the problem.

Report · Dec 10, 2024

I wanted to log my identical experience with Dropbox and AE. Crash on export to Media Encoder.

I have a similar problem with Blender, actually, and I am guessing that there is a conflict between Windows and Dropbox when they both are trying to do (something) to the same file at the same time. Blender creates a temporary file that gets deleted when you save. Sometimes, just sometimes, the save will begin to fail repeatedly due to (I believe) being unable to delete this temporary file, denoted with the @ symbol at the end of the extension ("filename.blend@")

My guess is that the file gets created and dropbox immediately starts trying to synch it. Then, when the application goes to delete it microseconds later, dropbox still has the file open and the operation fails. This happens repeatedly until I pause synch, then it works without error.

Pausing dropbox synch instantly lets AE do the save operation without failing (this save operation which happens during export to ME). It's annoying but I'm not sure how Windows, Adobe, and Dropbox could come to a solution unless it affected their bottom line.