Can't import After Effects Compositions

[Zondervan123]

Lately I haven't been able to import an After Effects comp into Premiere. After selecting the aep file, the dialog box for selecting a comp appears, but never loads the project contents.

I've also noticed that existing project files which contain After Effects comps show said comps as offline, unless the aep file is open in After Effects.

Anybody have any idea why Premiere can't see my After Effects files unless the files are already open? I've tried uninstalling all Adobe apps and the Creative Cloud desktop app, then reinstalling with the most recent versions, but no luck. I should add that I am on Windows 10.

[Michael Grenadier]

I have no idea what's going on, but...  I usually output from AfterEffects and import that file into Premiere and place it in the timeline on top of the AE comp...  Saves a great deal of time in rendering...  And I have seen this happening when I have too many comps in the AfterEffects project.  I was working on an extremely complex job where I was replacing a hell of a lot of clips in the timeline with AE comps.  At a certain point, the AE comps were going offline particularly if th AE project was not open at the same time.   

[Zondervan123]

That's probably what I should be doing for longer comps, or in this case I'm just doing cuts and audio mixing in PR of an AE-only project.

However, even when I try using a simpler AE project with one comp, it still goes offline as soon as I close the file in After Effects. This isn't ideal, especially if I'm working with live-text comps and multiple AE files that I don't want to double-encode.

[Ann Bens]

I don't want to double-encode.

Use an intermediate codec.

[Ann Bens]

I don't want to double-encode.

Use an intermediate codec.

[Zondervan123]

Thank you Ann, but that still doesn't really solve the problem that Dynamic Link is clearly not working the way it's meant to on my system.

[Ann Bens]

I know it does not solve the problem. I do not use comps from Ae either it often slows me down. I usually use Cineform or QT animation.

[Zondervan123 · Accepted solution]

I feel very silly, but the one thing I did not try was resetting my PR preferences - I kept them when uninstalling - and after doing that the Dynamic Link connections work fine, so I'm back in business.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions- I know I should do more pre-rendering or proxies because of the frustrating issues with Dynamic Link.