After Effects Team Projects Constantly Creating "Recovered" Files Which Are Breaking Our Projects

[Autumn Line]

For months now, seemingly randomly, when we open one of our After Effects Team Projects, we get multiple errors to the tune of "After Effect warning: can not find source item for layer ID=1452; will will replace with a placeholder. (26 ::143)"

This happens, not only with footage, but with precomps, nulls, solids, etc. It's beyond frustrating, not only because of the interruption, but also because it creates a "Recovered" offline placeholder, but with no reference to what it replaced. 

So, unless I specifically remember what that layer was, I cannot replace it and it's now dead and broken. 

Please help, Adobe! I am truly at a loss and need to fix this ASAP. 

[michaelgoshey]

Hi Autmn_Line,

Sorry you've been experiencing this probem. Can you share with me the version of After Effects you are using currently. Do you recall this problem happening after any kind of update?

Also, do you see any type of pattern for the assets not being found - for example, are they all coming from the same source drive (network attached storage or other shared media)? Or are the assets usually of the same type?

Team Projects keeps track of all interactions, and as such it should have in it's logs the reference to the media/assets that are not showing up for you at random times. If you can send us the info at the following locations we can look into the logs/database and see what's been happening.

Depending on your platform, please see the requests below.

Team Projects - LOGS

Team Project Local Hub Log File Locations:

================================

Win - C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Team Projects Local Hub\

Mac - /<USERNAME>/Library/Preferences/Adobe/Team Projects Local Hub/

- Navigate to the "\logs" folder and send us the *.txt log file you find. 

- If you're on a Mac, you will need to hold down the OPTION/ALT key while looking in the Finder's "GO" menu to see the proper "Library" folder to navigate into.

TP2 - GIT Database Folder:

====================

• Data is stored in a git database folder in the Application Support folder
• Navigate to the folder with the proper version year of your software (2019, 2020, etc) and then into the /local or /synchronized folder (if you have successfully sync'd to the cloud all of your project data you will use the /synchronized folder). Once the this folder you will see folders with long alpha-numeric names with a ".tp2" at the end. Find the folder that represents your AE project in question (typically using the modified date information). Zip up the contents of that folder and share with us and we can review it's contents/history.
• Mac: /<USERNAME>/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/Team Projects Local Hub/(suite year)/(local|synchronized)/(identifier).tp2/
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Adobe\Common\Team Projects Local Hub\(suite year)\(local -or- synchronized)\(identifier).tp2\

Regards,

Michael

[Autumn Line]

Thanks Michael,

I'm currently been using Version 17.0.4 (Build 59), but this has been happening over multiple versions for the better part of the year. It seemed like there was a multi-month stretch where it stopped happening, but it's back with a vengeance at the moment.

And it doesn't seem to necesssarily happen from the same drive. All my assets are stored on the same drive, but it's also happening to my other team member who is in a different location on a different machine. And it's not always actual file assets. Sometimes Nulls, Solids, and Comps themselves go offline and show as "Recovered".

I'm happy to send you those files, is there an email address or somewhere I can DM them? I'm unaware if any personal info is in those logs. 

Thank you! I'm very eager to solve this.

[michaelgoshey]

Hi - 

You can send them directly to me at mgoshey@adobe.com    If you use a ZIP file, please rename the extension to something like .PDF to get through the virus filters on our end. Also, if the attachments are bigger than I think 20MB it might not make it all the way through. After you send, maybe ping me in a separate email letting me know they were sent just in case they don't appear here.

One of the QE on the team here noticed that if they restart AE, all of the assets get found/relinked properly and the RECOVERED state goes away. Not a great work-around as it disrupts your workflows, but if you get a chance to try that out I'd be interested to learn if that works for you and your team as well.

Thanks!

Michael

[Autumn Line]

Hi Michael,

Thank you so much, sorry for the late reply. I will find those files now and send to you via email.

Unfortunately the quick-fix mentioned of restarting didn't solve the problem. And strangely I found new details on the bug.  It will knock some layers offline to "Recovered" in some comps, but other comps that are identical or nearly identical (like a v2 vs a v3), will have the asset or layer online in one comp, but Recovered in the other.

I'll share these files and screenshots and other data with you shortly. Hopefully we can post a fix in this chain if we figure it out.

[michaelgoshey]

Hi -

Thank you for sending the log files over. We'll take a look right away. We've also finally been able to reproduce this issue in a dev environment and are working through it now. Hope to have an update/solution for you soon.

Regards,

Michael

[mathewv97762702]

Are there any updates for this? I've been having the same issue for a while now so any news on a fix would be a godsend

[megs35119035]

I am also experiencing this with my team too now that we are all remote. Please be sure to update us if there is a workaround or answer to this. Thanks!

[michaelgoshey]

Hi All -

We have checked in a fix for a related issue that we believe will also resolve the problem described here in this forum post. We've checked it in for our upcoming May release, but you can download our BETA Prime build and test it out - you can install the BETA Prime builds in parallel to your standard installations.

For those of you experiencing this problem, if you can test this out and let us know your results we would greatly appreciate it. We are also actively working on another issue related to importing media with layers (.AI files for example) where the RECOVERED clips issue also occurs. We expect to have more answers around that related topic later this week.

Below is a screenshot of the Adobe Creative Cloud desktop app with the "Beta apps" section selected. This is where you can download/install the daily betas. 

As always, thank you for your patience and support. Please let us know how this works (or doesn't) for you all.

Regards,

Michael

[mathewv97762702]

I downloaded this beta this morning and have already had five layers turn to the recovered type layers, one was a pre-comp and the other four had particular one which I wasn't able to copy onto a new layer and so lost half a days work or so. Luckily I'd saved an offline version an hour or so earlier which works fine. 

For me at least, this issue definitely isn't fixed and I'll have to stop using Team Projects completely.

[Autumn Line]

Yeah, unfortunately this doesn't appear to have solved the issue for me either, or at least not as far as I can tell on existing projects.

How it will affect new projects remains to be seen.

[megs35119035]

Agreed--doesn't resolve the problem in existing Team Projects. I'll be testing out a new Team Project with some coworkers in Beta this week...hopefully it will work.

[michaelgoshey]

Hi Guys -

Thank you for testing this out for us - apologies we aren't quite fully there yet. We have another fix now in testing here and are working to get it into a daily build this week. I'll post here as soon as it is ready. Thank you again for your assistance fixing this nasty issue.

Regards,

Michael

[michaelgoshey]

One more item that was not explicitly mentioned. The bug fix already submitted won't be able to restore previously unlinked assets, but it should prevent additional issues moving forward with new projects. 

Of course if additional RECOVERED assets appear with existing projects (as mentioned above) that still indicates the bug isn't fully resolved. 😞

Thanks!

Michael

[Udo_Pawlik]

We have a fix available for the testing in the latest AE_14.1.1 beta build. 
Please let us know if you still encounter any RECOVERED assets with the Beta build. 

Regards,
Udo