MOGRT media showing AE missing file bars in Premiere Pro - how to fix?

[MJustEm88]

Hi there,

I recently migrated all of my editing materials from one external hard drive to another. I opened up a Premiere Pro project that I had been working on recently but from the new drive. When I opened the project, all of my MOGRT media was either unlinked/red missing media screen or showing the missing media bars that one sees in After Effects (see attached image). 

I was able to relink the offline MOGRTS easily enough, but I am not sure how to relink the media the MOGRT thinks is missing when I can't open the .aegraphic file the MOGRT instance in my Premiere Pro project is using.

I have the following questions:
1) is there a way to open .aegraphic files and relink the media that way? I'm under the impression you cannot open .aegraphic files in AE though they are created by AE. 

2) Is there another fix for this? I have tried opening the parent AE file the MOGRT is based on and relinking media there but it has not worked. It is possible I tried that with the wrong version of the AE file, however. 

Thanks in advance!

[Multipasser]

Same!!!  why has almost nobody this problem? Drives me insane!!  Ive tested 2022 and 2023 on PC and MAC !!  50% of the time Videofiles embedded in mogrt DO NOT load in premiere!  But the AEgraphic is perfect when you extract and import in AE!! All files are present.  What is going on??

[Multipasser]

No support by Adobe! Shame!!!

[R Neil Haugen]

Yes you can open the aegraphic files in Ae ... in fact, you should do that regularly. As you can take any mogrt you get anywhere, open it in Ae, and dissect how it's been built. Reuse parts ... and learn from it.

Any 'added' files to a mogrt, such as pics or video ... need to live with that mogrt on 'local storage' if at all possible, or this happens. 

Remember, when you build a mogrt in Ae for deployment in Pr, you use 'spaceholder' images for where the Pr editor will add the content. So that content is tied to how the Pr editor attached it. Which is something that trips up a lot of users.

Neil

[Multipasser]

All known. 

I have now 3 different clients that experience coloredbar/missing file screens in the mogrts!

While the same mogrt works just fine on other PP setups. So the template is working, also when you extract it to AE, all files are present.

There is a bug, for sure!

[Richard van den Boogaard]

Does this tutorial help you in any way?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ag5QdkP9rA

[Multipasser]

Guys this is DRIVING me crazy!!!!!

Honestly!

I do 'collect files' in AE. Open up that project and export the MOGRT.
Yet when I extract that MOGRT and and see the .txt file AE made it still uses absolute PATHS!!!

why the hell?  That's why it's missing files maybe?

Drive my absolutely insane. Clients are complaining and I cant fix it!

I have AE 2022/2023/2024  tested on PC and MAC !!! 

All have the same issues!

[Multipasser]

So it works when you make a Mogrt on the PC and open that mogrrt on that PC!

because the absolute paths in the .AEP file that sits in the mogrt is working fine.

how the hell can you ever sent a mogrt to a client that way??

[Multipasser]

https://outline.aejuice.com/doc/premiere-pro-mogrt-media-offline-or-corrupt-error-on-windows-LlgulUN... could this be an issue still?

[dominik.el]

Hi,

Have you had any luck resolving this issue? I want to prepare universal and self-contained mogrts for my team but when I dissect the files I also see that audio and video assets are collected using absolute paths so there is no way that they will work on other systems 😕

[Multipasser]

NO!!!

Amazing nobody from ADOBE is even commenting on this.

it is clearly a BUG! You cannot make mogrts that contain .movs . They will NOT load!

HELP adobe!

[R Neil Haugen]

Actually, staffers have been on here numerous times over the years, and the process has been covered. Sadly, many users haven't seen the answers, and don't understand how that system is designed.

You cannot 'contain' video content in a mogrt, at least reliably ... yet. They're working on that, and there's some users that seem to be able to do so under some circumstances at this time.

So you need to use a "placeholder" still image in the mogrt. That clients then drag/drop a replacement video clip over in Premiere.

Unfortunately, many folks making mogrts think exporting a mogrt is like unto exporting an Ae comp ... and ... it ain't. There's a specific process for "creating" a mogrt that works as expected.

If you do follow "the rules" (hard to find as they can be, sadly) then ... you get expected and repeatable work. My partner does incredibly complex graphics out of Ae, and they just always work in our Premiere projects. He's in Cape Town and totally Mac, we're in Oregon and totally PC.

So across continents and platforms, his wondrous creations just ... are amazing.

It can be done. And ... it's frustrating that it takes such hard study at times to figure out.

Jarle's free ebook distributed by Adobe is a good place to check your work, as he does cover the basics of deploying mogrts well. Note: I was the English grammarian, spell-checker and main tester through the writing of that book. Jarle is Norwegian, but writes better English than most Americans I know ...

Jarle’s Making Mogrt’s ebook on Adobe blog

[Multipasser]

Imo not true! The MOGRTS work on the computer you create them on!

Because when you create a MOGRT it suddenly uses logical paths again.

So it references to /192.162.0.5/volume/work/.....   In stead of /footage/Video/....  like it does when you collect a file!

that is the ONLY problem! Because all mov's work in my mogrts. there is almost nothing a mogrt can't do because it's basicly AE running in the background.  Well what works fine is creating MP4's from the Alpha Prores's with Matte/fills. Those give less errors for some reason.

[R Neil Haugen]

Have you read Jarle's explanation of how to deply mogrts, including with placeholder media?

Have you read any of Dacia's or jstrawn ... both amazing staffers in graphics! ... several lengthy explanations on this forum of how the mogrt system works, and when you want to do X, do this ... and why?

If not, I'm not sure you actually know that much of how they are designed to function. Which isn't saying anything mean, just realistic. As the whole graphics thing is amazingly more complex than most users think.

It's in finally getting to understand it,  what it actually is and not what you assume it is, tthat you can produce and routinely deploy the amazing things that Jarle, my partner Mo, and many others do every day of the week in Ae to make complex mogrts.

There are many thousands of people making and deploying complex graphics daily ... so yes, it can work if you learn how. Which can be frustrating at times.

[Multipasser]

From Jarle pdf'!

Like I do. I know my stuff, been doing this for 15 years.

The mogrt as a limited format is not the issue. The location of the files in the project file is.

As Mogrts do not have the 'RELINK MEDIA' function. That would solve alot!

"Reduce the render time with pre-renders If you're creating backgrounds and textures with effects like Fractal Noise and Turbulent Displace, these effects will increase the complexity and affect the render time. There may be cases when they don't have to be adjustable in the MOGRT, and if that's the case, you should definitely consider pre-rendering them to a video file and using that in the MOGRT instead. This will increase the size of the MOGRT file, because it will have a video file embedded in it, but at least for shorter MOGRTs, that's not a problem. The speed improvement makes it worth using a few extra megabytes of disk space"

[R Neil Haugen]

Thanks for the post ... you have a lot more experience within this than many posting here do. Which is a good thing of course.

That limitation of the files contained within the mogrt is definitely an issue of heavy discussion. And I, like you probably, have been part of and an observer of many long detailed discussions of this, if not nearly the mogrt fiend that some of my friends and acquaintances are.

From spending time online and in person with several major graphics wonks, I know they pretty much treat mogrts somewhat like I do Lumetri.

Which is to say ... there are some nutso limitations, for various reasons (some sensible, some ... oh well ... ) but that said, give them a circumstance and they'll show you how to get the system, as it is, to do what you need.

Getting @Dacia Saenz or @jstrawn on to discuss this would be most excellent and ... we'll see.

[DaciaSaenz]

@R Neil Haugen thanks for looping me into the convo and for the record, this is not about media replacement.

This is not the way Mogrts work-- i.e. they do not use absolute paths. 

They are self-contained .aeps and related media. They are opened in folders deep in the private matrix of an OS where only the application and devs should really be digging around in and rendered by a Tiny Inception After

Effects inside of Premiere Pro called AELib. 

If the files are showing as missing, there could be a couple of things going on. Let's try to establish if the issue is with a file that can't read natively on that system, a missing codec, or a problem with the temporary folder I mentioned above. 

First of all, is the format of that file one that the other person's computer can read?

• Can your client import the .mov file directly into Premiere Pro? 

For instance, .avi files are typically a Windows format.

If you try to import an .avi file to Premiere Pro on a Mac, it won't work. 
In this screenshot, there are two things happening:
1. I tried to add a Mogrt to the timeline in Premiere on a Mac with an avi file in it. Notice the Color Bars / Missing Media 
2. I tried to import the .avi file directly into Premiere Pro and it won't import because that file format is not supported. I get a File Import Failure. 

So the question is... can your client successfully import the .mov files that are in your mogrt directly into Premiere Pro? 


If not, then I'd recommend using a file format that their system supports. Sometimes Quicktime files have problems on Windows machines. Not sure if that's the case, but as demonstrated in my .avi example, some formats are not cross-platform agnostic. There is a ton of info on the Internet about .mov files not working on Windows. This is an OS issue, not a Mogrt issue. 

If they can import the files directly into Premiere Pro without a problem, them my next test for them would be to open the Mogrt natively from After Effects to test if the .aep works in that context. 

The proper way to do this, is to 

1. open AE 

2. File > Open 

3. Select the Mogrt on Disk 

4. And then choose where you want the Mogrt "extracted to" -- this prompt will unpack the Mogrt into the folder of your choice, and then AE solves the issue of the file paths and knows where to look for the files. 

Are the files showing up as missing then? 

• If so, then again, you will need to choose a file format that can be used across platforms.

If not, then this points to an issue with the temp folder that AELib uses to "unpack" the Mogrt's .aep and related media. We have learned that there are some security systems on people's computers that delete these temp folders so then AELib can't find the files it needs. They are literally missing because they've been wiped away by some aggressive third-party security software. 

I would need to see what is going on on their system to validate this and would be happy to set up a time to meet. 


There may be a real bug here, but we need to know if the issue is with the file format first. 
Also if you can send me: 

• the specs for the computer where the Mogrts are failing
• the version number of Premiere that they are using
• And the Mogrts that are failing so we can try to reproduce the issue in-house that would be greatly appreciated.
  
  
  

Feel free to DM me if they have proprietary information

Thanks,

Dacia

[R Neil Haugen]

Thanks for popping in Dacia!

Lot of information there and especially a basis for user troubleshooting that's interesting.

[Multipasser]

I will. But for now the fast reply.

All .mov's used in the project are 4444 prores with alpha. They both work in the mac an pc.

They import in AE and in Premiere.

When I EXTRACT the mogrts (rename to .zip, extract, open the .aep) it is all FINE!

No missing files, no mising links. So the AE project inside the mogrt is working perfectly.

[DaciaSaenz]

It definitely sounds like an issue with the temp folder 😞 

I'd like to set up a time to talk to you and see what's going on, but also if you could send me the files I'd like to try and repro on my end. 

[DaciaSaenz]

OH! to follow up! 
Another reason media in a Mogrt will show up as missing on Windows (and not Mac) is if there are any "illegal" characters in the media file, project or comp name. 
Windows OS does not support the following characters 
< (less than)
> (greater than)
: (colon - sometimes works, but is actually NTFS Alternate Data Streams)
" (double quote)
/ (forward slash)
\ (backslash)
| (vertical bar or pipe)
? (question mark)
* (asterisk)

If any of these appear in the file, project, or comp name, then Windows OS will invalidate them and the media will show up as missing. 

Might this be the case? 

[Multipasser]

I've read about this, but it was only in the path name of the files?

Don't think I'm using of those. Anyhow the same mogrt also fails on Premiere in mac 🙂

[DaciaSaenz]

😭😭😭😭😭 

It definitely sounds like an issue with the temp folder 😞 

I'd like to set up a time to talk to you and see what's going on, but also if you could send me the files I'd like to try and repro on my end. 
Thanks so much! 

[Multipasser]

Hey Dacia

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/94n89jk2w11sxwj2jixpp/failing-mgrt.zip?rlkey=49df70fu3uev9x4mnbnj0kv5...

I created a quick nonsense AE project containing a photo/icon png with alpha. A quicktime background and a text animation with quicktime alpha 4444.

When I created the .mogrt on my mac (latest AE version) I'm getting missing 'alpha text.mov' in Premiere on my PC. (also latest version). 

Try loading the mogrt. When it also fails, try to extra the mogrt and you will see all files load fine in AE.

I added the AE project so you can also create your own mogrt, maybe I'm doing something wrong.

[DaciaSaenz]

Thank you @Multipasser 🙏🏽

I will check this out tomorrow and let you know if I can repro. Otherwise, I'll reach out via DM