Message text:

After Effects error: AE_OpenGL: Unexpected Condition: No active gl context for line drawing (due to interrupt during N-up frame render?)

Message interpretation:

The view could not be drawn due to an OpenGL problem.

Possible causes:

The error would indicate an issue with internal resource management which terminates OpenGL based drawing prematurely, if multiple 3D views are used. No further details are available.

Resolution or workaround:

Not applicable.

Message text:

After Effects error: AE_OpenGL: Failed to load shader.

Message interpretation:

A specific code fragment could not be loaded and executed on your graphics card.

Possible causes:

This error indicates that your graphics card is either incapable of supporting the required shader features or you have a misconfiguration. More likely it’s the latter, as After Effects should disable these features, if no suitable card is detected. Outdated drivers or unusual configurations may have prevented that.

Resolution or workaround:

Check your graphics driver settings. If you have customized them, reset to factory defaults. Also choosing a different application profile may improve things. Always make sure to install a reasonably new driver which may already fix the issue. if that is not possible, turn off OpenGL in the preferences.

Message text:

After Effects error: Shatter: Internal Error (512)

Message interpretation:

The Shatter effect produced an unspecified internal error.

Possible causes:

This error seems to have no clear cause. In the given case, the effect refused to accept a custom Gradient map produced in a pre-composition, but would happily accept the same comp after restarting the program. This would indicate that there was a problem with the composition buffer and the caching system that prevented an internal operation.

Resolution or workaround:

Restart the application and try again.

Message text:

After Effects error: CT bad param:invalid translator.

Message interpretation:

The code page range for a given character could not be converted to be compatible with the present system settings.

Possible causes:

See this error

Resolution or workaround:

See this error

Message text:

After Effects error: Writing to file “$filename” (1450)

Message interpretation:

The host program failed in writing a file to disk.

Possible causes:

This error regularly occurs with image sequences. The most common source of trouble seem to be delays caused by large files in compressed formats or formats that require color space conversion (Cineon, DPX, YUV-encoded TIFF). Of course simply slow disks, problems with RAID drivers and others might also be the cause for trouble.

Resolution or workaround:

In the particular case the problem could be solved by disabling asynchronous read/ write in the After Effects prefs. This can be done manually following the steps laid out below:

- go to your application preferences directory as explained on this page

- open the Adobe After Effects x.0 Prefs.txt file in a text editor (Notepad)

- look for a paragraph called ["Misc Section"]

- find the line that says “Asynchronous file reading and writing” = 01 and change the value to 00

The next time you launch After Effects, the change will be in effect. The downside to this approach is that the program will now wait until all files necessary for rendering a given frame before writing the last rendered frame. If you are using many footage sources, this might considerably prolong the rendering process. Another solution to consider is simply choosing a different target drive.

Message text:

After Effects error: Error creating file “Workspace.xml” (5).

Message interpretation:

Upon launching the program, the file mentioned could not be found. An attempt to create it based on After Effects‘ default settings has also failed.

Possible causes:

The directory where the file is supposed to be placed is either not in place, cannot be found or it is locked somehow. This can happen if you install with insufficient user privileges or do not have the correct attributes and permissions set on your directories.

Resolution or workaround:

Manually check your permissions. Re-install the program with administrative rights and make sure to grant yourself the correct user privileges to write to system directories. For information on the proper default directory locations, refer to this page.

Message text:

After Effects error: Preference [Options Normal] ‘Frame Rate’ is 312 bytes, max allowed is 255 bytes.

Message interpretation:

The frame rate for RAM previews in your preferences is set to an illegal value.

Possible causes:

Due to a crash, disturbance during program exit or similar event, your preferences got corrupted and wrong configuartion values were stored.

Resolution or workaround:

Delete your preferences file. The next time you start After Effects, they will be restored with default values. Alternateively, open the preferences in a text editor and change the value in the section mentioned in the warning. The default for this value is "Auto", which will always attempt to use the composition frame rate. The location of the preferences is explained on this page.

Message text:

After Effects error: Finding preferences folder – no such directory.

Message interpretation:

The preferences folder could not be found.

Possible causes:

In most cases this will be caused by an permission issue, where the user cannot access his configuration directory. On rare occasions, the folder will not be found because it has accidentally been deleted or renamed.

Resolution or workaround:

Make sure that your user has full access to his user directory and it actually exists. The locations of the folders are explained on this page. Once there, right-click the folder and call up the Information panel (Mac OS X) or the Properties dialog (Windows) and check the security permissions and user privileges.

Message text:

After Effects warning: Failed to create mediacore preference paths.

Message interpretation:

The configuration for advanced media file handling using MediaCore could not be written.

Possible causes:

The user permissions on the directories in question are not set correctly or the directories cannot be found because you installed in a different path.

Resolution or workaround:

Make sure to grant the right user privileges for all directories. Information on the location of these directories can be found on this page. A more comprehensive description of recommended procedures before and during installations can be found here and here.

Message text:

After Effects error: Adding to movie – disk is full (-34)

Message interpretation:

The movie could not be saved because the disk you are saving it to does not have any space anymore.

Possible causes:

The message is pretty clear in that it already points out the cause that ultimately makes the program throw an error. However, on deeper inspection this can be related to different things. Of course the first and most obvious is, that the disks are physically full. A second, less apparent reason is, that only specific directories on the disk are full. Especially when using Render multiple Frames simultanoulsy, After Effects will generate temporary data in your user home directory. If the folder is full, and no more data can be stored in it, the rendering may fail. This must not be, because the program itself stores so many files, but otehr programs that use the same directory. Similarly, the Media Cache and Disk Cache may prevent successful completion of renders, if they are full. In workgroup environments, you may be restricted by a disk quota, either on your local machine or the server. As an last item, a common reason is simply disk fragmentation.

Resolution or workaround:

First, check whether the location you are saving to, really is full. If so, choose a different directory. As a next step, check all your temporary data directories. Use tools like CCleaner or e.g. Windows‘ own disk cleanup utility to remove any unnecessary files. In addition, manually verify your user home directory and its sub-directories. The locations of these directories are explained on this page. Of course by all means run a defragmentation tool, if you suspect this being the cause. As an last item, increase the available space alotted to your user by changing the quota or lifting it completely. You may need to contact your system/ network administrator to do that.