Troubleshooting
Where to look first
Section titled “Where to look first”The status bar at the bottom of the panel shows the most recent event. A full
log is written to Documents/BatchRender; click Log in the status bar to
reveal it. When reporting a bug, include the relevant log lines.
The log is safe to share: sign-in credentials are never written to it. Its size is limited, so it will not grow without limit during a long Agent Mode run.
Rendering
Section titled “Rendering”My unsaved changes disappeared after a batch
A row’s project column pointed at a different .aep than the one you had
open. BatchRender closes the current project without saving before opening
the new one. Save your work before running a batch that switches projects.
See Project Setup.
“Comp not found in project: …”
The comp value does not match any composition name in the open project.
Names must match exactly, including case. Leading and trailing spaces in the
cell are ignored.
“No comp specified for this row”
The row’s comp cell is empty. Every row must name the comp it renders.
“… has no comp column”
The batch or agent was stopped before the first render because the data source
has no comp column at all. Add one, then start again.
A Ctrl+K link in a Google Sheets cell is ignored Put the URL in the cell as plain text. See Linking to images and video.
“Column ‘…’ holds a link that was not downloaded”
The row fails because the link could not be used as a file. The link is
either a share link from a service other than Google Drive, or a direct link
whose address does not end in a file extension (common with image CDNs, for
example .../photo.png/m/750x0). See
Files from the internet
for which links work.
Text or footage does not change Column names must exactly match the text layer name (for text) or the footage item name in the project panel (for footage). Check for trailing spaces in your sheet’s header row and in layer names.
The Render Settings or Output Module dropdown is empty
This can happen on a fresh After Effects install that has not saved its
template list yet. Open the Render Queue once, quit After Effects so it saves
its preferences, then start it again. Until then, type the template name into
a render-settings / output-module column; the column value is applied
regardless of the dropdown.
“Footage not found for ‘…’”
The row fails because the file does not exist at the path shown. Cell values
are resolved against the Footage Path setting. Verify the path is set and
the file exists at <footage path>/<cell value>. Downloaded files are the
exception: they are used directly from
BatchRender-RemoteAssets and ignore the
Footage Path.
A row renders with the previous row’s image
Its footage cell is empty. An empty cell leaves the footage item unchanged, so
it keeps the file the row before used. The log and br-warnings say
Column '...' is empty. Footage stays .... Fill in the cell to swap it.
“Output module template not found: ‘…’” / “Render settings template not found: ‘…’”
The template named in the dropdown or in the row’s output-module /
render-settings column does not exist in After Effects. Check the spelling;
right-click a dropdown to copy an exact name.
“Save your After Effects project first” The project has never been saved. Rendering and previewing both need a saved project. Save it anywhere and try again. See Save your project first.
“The BatchRender script did not load in After Effects” Restart After Effects. Closing and reopening only the panel is not enough.
“Could not download …” / “Google Drive returned a web page instead of the file” / “The link returned a web page, not a file” The link is not publicly readable. For Google Drive: open the file, Share, and set General access to Anyone with the link. The row fails and the batch continues with the next row.
“Row N is empty or past the end of the data” Your Start/End range extends past the last data row, or the row is blank. The row is skipped and the batch continues. See Row numbering.
“Not signed in to Google” / “Not signed in to Airtable” The panel opened with a Google Sheets or Airtable connection, but that service’s sign-in could not be restored, for example because it expired. Open Sheets or Airtable and sign in again; your connection is kept.
A path does not resolve
Output, footage and watchfolder paths accept both \ and / separators.
Check the path exists and is reachable, and look at the log line for the exact
path that was attempted.
“Output name cannot leave the output folder” / “Output name must be relative to the output folder”
The row’s output value contains .. or is a full path. Use a name, or a
subfolder path, relative to Output Path. See
Output filenames.
Renders overwrite each other
Two rows produced the same output filename. Give every row a unique
output value. See Output filenames.
Data sources
Section titled “Data sources”Google/Airtable sign-in never completes
Make sure you complete the consent screen in the browser tab that opened.
Sign-in finishes over a connection on your own computer, so firewalls or
security software that block local (localhost) connections can stop it from
reaching the panel.
“… sign-in timed out. Start it again from the panel.” The panel waits 5 minutes for the browser to finish signing in. Click Sign in again and complete the consent screen in the new tab.
“These files were picked with … but the panel is signed in as …” The spreadsheet was chosen with a different Google account than the one the panel uses. Click Browse Drive again and pick it with the account the message names, or share the spreadsheet with that account first.
“The file is … above the … maximum download size” A link or attachment in the row points at a file larger than the limit in Settings. Raise the limit if the file is expected.
“The download was interrupted” / “The download was incomplete” The connection dropped while a file was downloading. The partial file is discarded. Render the row again; if it keeps happening, check the link opens in a browser.
On a company network: sign-in works, then every request fails Many companies send internet traffic through a proxy or a security scanner (such as Zscaler or Netskope). BatchRender uses the proxy set in your system settings (macOS: System Settings > Network > Proxies; Windows: Settings > Network > Proxy) and trusts the certificates your computer trusts, so this normally works without any setup. When a request fails through a proxy, the error names the proxy it used. If it still fails:
- Automatic proxy configuration (a PAC script or “Automatically detect
settings”) is not supported. Ask IT for the proxy’s address and set it as
the
HTTPS_PROXYenvironment variable, for exampleHTTPS_PROXY=http://proxy.company.com:8080, then restart After Effects. - A proxy that asks for your Windows login is not supported: the status
bar says “asks for a login”. Ask IT to allow After Effects through without
one, or to exempt
googleapis.com,airtable.comand your asset hosts. - “unable to verify the first certificate” means the security scanner’s
certificate is not installed on this computer. Ask IT to install it, or
point the
NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTSenvironment variable at the certificate file.
Environment variables: on Windows, set them under System Properties >
Environment Variables. On macOS, apps started from the Dock do not read your
shell profile, so run launchctl setenv HTTPS_PROXY http://proxy.company.com:8080
in Terminal (it lasts until you log out). Restart After Effects either way.
My spreadsheet does not appear in the Google list By design BatchRender can only see files you picked. Click Browse Drive and select the spreadsheet once; it stays in the list afterwards.
“Rate limited, retrying…” Normal under heavy use. BatchRender waits and retries automatically; no action needed.
Agent Mode
Section titled “Agent Mode”The agent never picks up my row
Check that: the status column exists, the cell value is exactly ready
(lowercase, no spaces), and the row’s worksheet/view is actually connected.
A row failed and is not retried
Intentional: failed rows get error: ... and are left alone so the agent does
not loop on a broken row. Fix the cause, then set the status back to ready.
Panel does not appear under Window → Extensions Confirm the ZXP installed without errors and that your After Effects version is 2022 (22.0) or newer, then restart After Effects. BatchRender is an After Effects extension only; it does not appear in other Adobe applications.
A “Script Alert” dialog appears when the panel opens Restart After Effects, especially right after installing or updating. If the alert comes back, report it with the log.
Delivery columns stay empty
The status bar names missing br- columns when a run starts. See
Write delivery information back to source
for column names and when fields are written.
Getting support
Section titled “Getting support”Click Settings, then License, and open the Support tab, or contact support through the BatchRender product page on aescripts.com. Include:
- your After Effects version and operating system
- your BatchRender version (shown in the licensing dialog’s About tab)
- what you did and what happened, with a screenshot if possible
- your log file (Log button in the status bar)