After Effects import creating duplicate empty layers, film & video preset document Ai 2025, 2026

[Andrew30188025xq1y]

HI,

I believe I've found a bug in the 2025 and 2026 releases when working in a film & video preset and importing into After Effects.

I'm seeing that when importing in to any recent version of After Effects the Illustrator files are being imported with dupicate empty layers. Is not an issue with 2024 release of Ai. I've made a video showing what is happening and a workaround. But the idea is to not have to do this silly workaround when past releases this wan't an issue.

Thanks!

Andy

[Ton Frederiks · Accepted solution]

It seems that the Preferences option "Save in Background" is causing this.

[Andrew30188025xq1y]

Oh yes, that seems to be it. Thank you! I wonder what the use case is for this to be enabled. It's interesting that in Ai 2025 the "Optimize Save for Performance" is the only one you actually need to uncheck to stop this. But in 2026 that option isn't linked to the "Save in Background" setting.