Troubleshooting

Start with ae_diagnose: it reports whether After Effects answers, whether the installed bridge is the build this server ships, the port and token the bridge uses, the announcements folder, the project folder, and which client and scopes the call came with.

"After Effects is not reachable"

  • After Effects is not running, or the bridge is not installed: ae_install_bridge installs it and starts it in the running After Effects.
  • Allow Scripts to Write Files and Access Network is off. The bridge cannot open a socket without it; switch it on in Preferences → Scripting & Expressions and run ae_install_bridge again.
  • After Effects shows a modal dialog. Scripts do not run while one is open; close it. After a forced restart a recovery or crash dialog can sit behind other windows.
  • The bridge log is at ~/.s3l-mcp-aftereffects/state/bridge.log, the loader's at loader.log beside it.

"The bridge is older than this server" or "differs"

The files in After Effects' Startup folder are not the ones this server bundles; ae_install_bridge replaces them and restarts the bridge.

"After Effects did not answer within N s" (Timeout)

After Effects was busy: a render in place, a heavy import, a dialog. Finish it; the next call continues. Pass a longer timeoutSeconds where the tool takes one, and move long renders to the farm, which does not hold After Effects.

Undo does nothing, or a tool hangs after undo

Undo and redo are run as a script handed to After Effects from outside the bridge, because executeCommand inside the bridge's tick wedges it. ae_undo answers at once and says whether the request was accepted; ae_project_info shows the result.

Names in another language

After Effects' interface language decides display names of properties, effects and menu commands. Paths take match names (ADBE Position), which never change; ae_property_tree and ae_effects_catalog give both.

The farm says aerender was not found

aerender lives beside After Effects: /Applications/Adobe After Effects <year>/aerender on macOS, Support Files\aerender.exe on Windows. The farm looks there for the newest version; ae_render renders inside After Effects instead.