Yes Templates are pretty great when not changing much but Im pretty familiar with the way they are put together and can break them down pretty easily. I actually ended up doing it manually but I still wanna figure this out. I totally understand the difficulty of picturing what the hell Im talking about but im not at work so I cant screenshot.
There are no shy layers or expressions in what I need to do and Im positive I made unique copies. Its a simple Christmas Ad I used for 10 locations of the same restaurant. I changed the logo size and position in one precomp and in another precomp the text is changed. So I just wanted to copy and paste these two precomps into the other templates made for the other locations instead of changing the text, resizing and moving the logo 10 times. But when I paste them into a different template (tried for multiple) it changes the precomps to match the ones already there! Even changing the name of the pasted precomp! Its so aggravating because Im pretty sure its something super simple I just have to switch off before I paste.
If you still dont understand I will be happy to explain further and even screen shot when I go to work later this week