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Old AE Project Not Opening Because Media File Path Doesn’t Exist
I’m running into an issue trying to open an AE project from 2013 because our old XSAN has been replaced and the server where all the media used to live no longer exists. I’ve tried multiple versions of CC and every time I try to open a comp but it gets 5% into the load it hangs.
Is there any way to edit an AE file in a txt editor and modify the locations of a directory? Or do you know of anyway to force AE to open a project but leaving all media missing?
I essentially just want to open the file and re-link everything from our new server path. Any thoughts?
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4 Replies
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If assets have moved, it shouldn’t cause AE to hang at all. It should just say, “Hey, some files are missing.”
What is the exact text of your error messages? What versions of AE are you running (down to the last decimal)?
Have you tried importing that file into a brand new project?– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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That’s what I would have expected to happen too – that AE would just not find the file and move on in just the way it normally does when it can’t locate a file in a given path. However, I think what’s happening here is that AE is trying to mount a server that doesnt exists in order to look for the media and that seems to totally lock it up. I get no error message in AE, but after AE hangs on the project open, I then get a message in the finder a few mins later that says “Xserve Volume Can’t Be Found” or something along those lines. It’s like it gets stuck just trying to see if it can mount the server volume.
Is there anyway to open an AE project and edit directory locations? Or any way to force that AE will just open with all media unlinked? I feel like those are my only two options here.
I’ve tried in AE 13.1.1.3 and AE 12.2.1.5
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Try importing that project into a new project that you’ve saved somewhere you DO have access to.
This should work.
If not, you could try OpenSesame: https://aescripts.com/pt_opensesame/
Your CC 2014 isn’t updated, by the way. You should consider going to 13.2.0.49. Some interface improvements, bug fixes and other updates make it very worth it.
– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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Michael I appreciate your insights. If I import the project from it’s new location into an open AE project it still hangs in the same way because AE is still trying to mount the old xserve and link to the media it thinks is there. Once I quit AE the error I get in the finder says it can’t find the old server.
Open Sesame could be an option, but it seems like you need to be able to open a project in order to run it and my problem is that I cannot seem under any circumstance to open up an old comp without hanging AE.
For whatever reason this seems to be more of a mac issue. I had our 3D department open up the file on one our PCs and it behaved as expected where everything came up missing but it didn’t hang on opening. Thanks for the help and right now I’m out of the weeds for time being!
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