[Jeff Hinkle]

Sounds like Photoshop is seeing your layers as timeline objects with one layer shorter than the rest. In Photoshop, go to Window>Timeline and see if it shows your layers as a series of colored bars. This shows how long Photoshop, and by extension AE and PPro, think the layer should be visible. Then either extend the trouble layer to the end or, if you don’t need the timeline function, just Delete Timeline from the Timeline flyout menu. That should turn your PSD file back into a regular ol’ layered graphic with no inherent duration.

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It is easier to destroy than to create.
More fun, too.

[Jeff Hinkle]

Are you using paragraph text (dragging a text box before typing)? If your text box isn’t tall enough, all your text will disappear if the vertical size is too large for the characters to fit. Likewise, if you type beyond the horizontal boundaries, Photoshop has no place to flow the extra text so it appears to disappear. You should see a tiny plus sign in the lower right square of your text box indicating hidden text. Just drag your text box larger with the text tool to give the text room and you should see everything you typed.

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It is easier to destroy than to create.
More fun, too.

[Jeff Hinkle]

Looks like After Effects has a BUNCH of STD’s.

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It is easier to destroy than to create.
More fun, too.

[Jeff Hinkle]

Are you making selections with the Pen tool, by chance? Could be it was changed from Combine Shapes to Subtract Front Shape, which, when converted to a selection, will select everything outside of itself, which sounds like what you’re describing. Just change it back to Combine Shapes and it should behave as expected.

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It is easier to destroy than to create.
More fun, too.

[Jeff Hinkle]

Pop them open in Illustrator and check the Links panel to see if any placed artwork is listed there.

—
It is easier to destroy than to create.
More fun, too.

[Jeff Hinkle]

Are they true vector files or do they contain placed raster artwork?

—
It is easier to destroy than to create.
More fun, too.

[Jeff Hinkle]

Place your cursor over your Project window and hit ~. That’ll make that window go full screen which should give you plenty of real estate to swap things around.

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It is easier to destroy than to create.
More fun, too.

[Jeff Hinkle]

On the Import dialog box, click Options then uncheck “import as sequence.” Not terribly automatic, but it’ll let you import individual files.

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It is easier to destroy than to create.
More fun, too.

[Jeff Hinkle]

Are both documents using the same color profile?

—
It is easier to destroy than to create.
More fun, too.

[Jeff Hinkle]

Had this happen to me a couple times. Draw a star with the tool, nice and big. Then hold Cmd/Ctl and drag back towards the center, but not all the way. You’ll see your inner radius start to “fatten up.” Release Cmd/Ctl and drag outward again to check if the shape is the way you want it. If not, do the Cmd/Ctl-drag-in-out thing again until it looks how you want it. Should clear it up.

—
It is easier to destroy than to create.
More fun, too.