Message text:

After Effects error: Internal verification failure, sorry!{preferences structure invalid}

Message interpretation:

Some data in your preferences file is damaged or not formatted correctly.

Possible causes:

The preferences file may not have gotten written to disk correctly the last time you exited After Effects. On foreign language systems it may contain invalid characters due to directory names containing them.

Resolution or workaround:

Trash the preferences file and have the program create a new one from scratch. Either hold down Ctrl + Alt + Shift (Cmd + Alt + Shift on Mac) during the launch of the application or delete it manually. The location of the preferences is explained on this page.

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 error: Unknown checkout ID.

Message interpretation:

An effect returned an invalid parameter and thus did not produce a correct result.

Possible causes:

This error is pretty rare, as it indicates a bug in a plug-in or file format module and should not occur in publicly released versions. A first occurance was recorded during a specific render that involved audio files. Initial suspicions, that this would mean that a given frame could not be finalized (checked out) during render, could not be confirmed. Instead this seems to be caused by including audio in the render and a problem with Quicktime. The user affected by the problem was able to resolve the issue by simply removing the audio files from the project. Another incident was noted with GenArts’ Sapphire plug-ins, where the interactive overlay manipulators used in some effects would produce invalid numerical values.

Resolution or workaround:

If you are using an outdated version of a plug-in, try to obtain and install a newer version that is compatible with your current version of After Effects. If the error is related to rendering specific formats, re-installing Quicktime and Specific CoDecs may be necessary. Also converting source footage files to other formats may prevent these errors.

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 warning: Error parsing properties list.

Message interpretation:

During launch it was impossible to derive useful info from some settings found in your preferences file.

Possible causes:

Either the preferences got damaged in a crash or some settings do not make sense. If you created custom output module and render settings templates it is possible that they are not recognized as valid because they are contrary to the footage interpretation rules or some other settings. Likewise using customized brush settings for paint and a few other things can make the prefs break.

Resolution or workaround:

Delete the preferences file. The location of the directories and files is explained on this page. You can also hold down Ctrl+Alt+Shift while launching the program to enforce creation of a new prefs file with factory default settings.

Message text:

After Effects error: Failed to parse transmap file.

Message interpretation:

Unicode conversion for fonts failed because there is no rules file.

Possible causes:

Basically, the Adobe font system is broken when this message appears. This is a component shared between various programs and operates side by side with your operating system’s font system. Due to these complex mechanisms, it can break relatively easily. In most cases this is triggered by installing various applications in the wrong order. If you install for instance an older version of a program to complement other programs, trouble may ensue. This is in particular a problem when you install a mix of complete suites and separate tools. In addition, damaged or poorly designed fonts can cause similar troubles, because they cannot be properly accessed and rendered in font selection lists.

Resolution or workaround:

As a first, always try to remove any fonts from your system that you do not need currently. They only consume memory and performance when the system needs to access them, e.g. to generate previews, and make the lists unnecessarily long. If that doesn’t help, removing all Adobe apps and re-installing everything from scratch will fix the issue in many cases. In addition to removing the programs, you may need to manually remove directories and configuration data. The location of the directory is explained on this page. If you need to use an offending font regardless, try to find a better version of it. If it represents a clone of a commercial font, that one time may be the right moment learning to appreciate the quality, both in technical and aesthetical terms, of a well-done commercial typeface and spending a bit of money on it.