Premiere Pro/After Effects Integration Issue Solved!

[PJPJr10]

After a nightmarish day (with a robus computer and FULLY updated PP and AE and OSX) of trying to get a set of clips in PP timeline to port over to AE for some FX work, and getting nonstop errors ("After Effects 2021 must be installed on this system..." and other such errors), or having the "replace with After Effects" tool be greyed out for no obvious reason. After reading online that users have been having this issue for a number of years, I finally decided to look to Adobe tech's for help. I figured we pay for this subscription every month and if they have a glitch like this, it's up to Adobe to resolve it. I'm happy to report that they did. And the tech who finally resolved the issue suggested I share on here that they DO have a solution. It's a lengthy one and does require giving them control of your computer. But it finally got resolved.

My suggestion if you're having this issue is to get a Tier 2 level support or someone a bit higher up the food chain. My first tech rep was obviously reading from a script and didn't fully understand the issue. When he told me he couldn't help unless I disconnected my 2nd and 3rd monitors, and I pushed back a bit (that's a HUGE hassle on my system), a higher level tech QUICKLY jumped in to take over. It took him a good 30-40 minutes and LOT of adjustments on my system to get the two apps to integrate.

But it resolved the issue and I've been happily back to work all night with a fully functioning Adobe integration.

So, do yourself a favor. Find the link to online help and push through the virtual assistant and Tier 1 tech's and get someone who can resolve this issue. Like I said, it's a very involved fix and in watching them control my computer, I was glad I didn't have got resort to reading a slew of hacks online to hopefully recreate what the tech did.

[R Neil Haugen]

Thanks for reporting this here. The Adobe help system can be spotty, some get great help, some don't. You finally got one of the really good ones so hooray!

I know Product Support staffer @Kevin-Monahan always suggests any video user always ask immediately for the video que on getting either a live phone or chat helper. This gets you up and out of the generalist help staff at least. But going for a Tier 2 support staffer is another good thing to know to ask for.

Neil

[PJPJr10]

Of course, now that I'm moving on to a new episode in our Productions, PR and AE 2021 are crashing nonstop, so I've gone back to using the newest 2022, and it's forcing a convert of all projects within our Production, and nothing seems to be transferring over correctly. What a mess! Kills me that a promo that I worked on last week for HOURS and need to make minor changes to for this week, is suddenly a project that causes 2021 to crash, and 2022 to have ZERO idea where the assets are. 

I thought Adobe was supposed to make our lives easier and faster? Instead I'm spending HOURS trying to get 2021 and 2022 to interact with each other and no idea what's causing all the crashes. Not to mention that I have two completely separate Production files for my one production. And God knows what I can get done in 2021 and what has to be done in the 2022 versions. 

Seriously, SUCH a nightmare. 

[PJPJr10]

I think I may have discovered the culprit of all of my problems: I invested everything I had in early 2020 for an upgrade to a refurbished iMac that was as fast and powerful as I could afford at the time - choosing specs that were recommended by Adobe pro's. I'd hoped it would get me through a few years until I could afford something more even more powerful and (potentially) new vs. refurbished. I now read on the Adobe Max promo post that my i5 chip is unable to handle any of the 2022 versions. The tragedy of choosing refurbished machine with an older chip so that you can invest in RAM and other speed/storage upgrades. So I realize now that what I thought was a smart investment in a tool that could give me 2-3 years of workhorse usability to monetize my content creator business (and eventual ability to upgrade to the pro level machines), I'm typing this post on what is apparently the modern computer equivalent of the abacus. So I guess my lot in life now is the battle between MacOS updates, while hanging onto older Adobe software that will crash and lack all of the exciting bells and whistles that Adobe PR keeps putting out there for their subscribers.

I greatly appreciate your help. I'm sure it won't be my last question on here, just as I'm sure that many of my questions/glitch issues will likely be due to that battle with an older chip and 2022 updates. I thank you for your patience in helping this creative whose brain is not necessarily wired for the tech stuff (but needs it to compete in this industry).

[R Neil Haugen]

The need to constantly update the gear is a total pain. I just switched a few months back from a 6 core 32GB RAM with a 1060 to a 24 core Ryzen with 128GB RAM and a 2080Ti.

Sheesh. But needed, the other rig was four years old. The speed with which the needs for speed keeps happening is frustrating.

Neil

[PJPJr10]

thanks for understanding! Sometimes that's even more helpful than a solution when you're on these forums trying to figure out why things aren't working. Much appreciation!!

[Kevin-Monahan]

PJPJr10,

Sorry for the hassle.

You can get by for awhile on a lesser mac if you take care of the issue brought about by H.264 source media and exporting to H.264, which really taxes the resources on your machine. If you switch it up and set up a proxy workflow utilizing ProRes files or transcode to ProRes LT on ingest, you can work with the machine until you can afford something more powerful. We were able to playback HD versions of these files on mac machines going back to the G5!

Furthermore, if you export to ProRes (with the Using Previews button enabled), and render effects to ProRes as you go (Change your Sequence Settings Edit Mode > Custom and then adjust video preview settings to the same flavor of ProRes), you can have a very reliable way of exporting using a process called "smart rendering." This generates a lot of heavy files, but you can delete them after you export to ProRes (which you then make H.264 copies, if you like).

That's how I'd approach it.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Kevin-Monahan]

Got a lesser machine? Proxies and/or transcoding is that person's best friend. All that's needed is a little knowledge and some testing.

Kevin