When behavior in After Effects does not seem as expected, you can reset After Effects preferences as a simple troubleshooting step. From After Effects Help:To restore default preference settings:
After Effects Secret Preferences Did you know that After Effects has a secret preference menu that could save you a lot of headache on your next render? By holding down the shift key when launching the preference window a “secret” menu appears giving users more options they can set. The Preferences object provides an easy way to manage internal AE preferences, such as you’d find in AE’s Preferences menu. These are saved in the After Effects preference files, and are persistent between application sessions. Preferences are identified by section and key within the file, and each key name is associated with a value. While After Effects is starting up, press Ctrl+Alt+Shift (Windows) or Command+Option+Shift (Mac OS), and your preferences will be reset. This is not very intuitive, since you may expect there to be a button to reset your preferences, in the actual preferences menu. Adobe makes it a little more difficult than that. Preferences are used to control many aspects of the After Effects application, including the way the interface displays, the way it works with external files, and even your system’s memory (RAM) behind-the-scenes. The location of the Preferences dialog box is different on the Mac OS and Windows operating systems.
- Press Ctrl+Alt+Shift (Windows) or Command+Option+Shift (Mac OS) while the application is starting.
- A dialog box launches asking you if you want to delete your preferences file. Click OK.
- To also restore default keyboard shortcuts, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the OK button.
Some personal notes:
- After you delete preferences, new preferences are automatically rebuilt for After Effects.
- Note: since you have deleted the preferences file, you may have to reset some of your preferences.
- For terminology’s sake, resetting preferences, deleting preferences, trashing preferences, or simply, “trashing your prefs,” all mean the same thing.
Resetting After Effects preferences has gotten me out of many jams. Try it if After Effects is misbehaving.
More details on Preferences.
Restoring default preferences
Reset Adobe After Effects Preferences
The preferences file controls the way the After Effects user interface appears on your screen. The instructions in this book assume that you see the default interface when they describe the appearance of tools, options, windows, panels, and so forth. Because of this, it’s a good idea to restore the default preferences, especially if you are new to After Effects.
Each time you quit After Effects, the panel positions and certain command settings are recorded in the preferences file. If you want to restore the panels to their original default settings, you can delete the current After Effects preferences file. (After Effects creates a new preferences file if one doesn’t already exist the next time you start the program.) Imessage showing email instead of name.
Media Disk Cache Preferences After Effects
Restoring the default preferences can be especially helpful if someone has already customized After Effects on your computer. If your copy of After Effects hasn’t been used yet, this file won’t exist, so this procedure is unnecessary.
Important: If you want to save the current settings, you can rename the preferences file instead of deleting it. When you are ready to restore those settings, change the name back and make sure that the file is located in the correct preferences folder.
Reset Preferences After Effects
- Locate the After Effects preferences folder on your computer:
- For Windows XP: ../Documents and Settings/<user name>/Application Data/Adobe/After Effects/9.0.
- For Windows Vista: ../Program Files/Common Files/Adobe/Keyfiles/AfterEffects.
- For Mac OS: ../<user name>/Library/Preferences.
- Delete or rename the Adobe After Effects 9.0 Prefs file.
- Start Adobe After Effects.