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Adobe Dynamic Link troubleshooting

Dynamic Link is a key selling point of the Adobe suite that many people rely on for their workflows. Here's what to do if it doesn't work as expected. This article is mainly aimed to dynamic linking between After Effects and Premiere but many of the suggestions will apply to the other applications in the suite.

Make sure your compositions have unique names

If you have multiple After Effects projects dynamically-linked in your timeline, Premiere can get confused if the same comp names exist in multiple projects. It's important to name your comps something unique rather than choosing the default "Comp 1" name.

Don't add trailing numbers

Adding trailing numbers to a filename such as "01" or "v02" can interfere with After Effects' Increment and Save function. This can result in the wrong project appearing in your Premiere timeline.

Check your firewall

Your firewall may be preventing the dynamic link process from communicating with the other applications. Make sure your firewall is set to allow all Adobe applications and also the dynamiclinkmanager application located at /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/dynamiclink/[CS suite version]/dynamiclinkmanager.

Disable simultaneous frame rendering

Dynamically linked projects do not support the Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously option. If you run into problems with it switched on, switch it off in the Memory and Multiprocessing tab of the preferences window in After Effects (it is off by default).

Clear caches and render files

If you find that the wrong project or composition is showing in your timeline, you may need to trash render files or your media cache in order to get it to display correctly. You can trash the render files by going to Sequence > Delete Render Files and the media cache by going to the Media tab in preferences or by using Pro Maintenance Tools.

Render as a movie file

If you still have problems after trying the steps above, render out the comp to a movie, import into Premiere Pro and replace the linked composition. This will of course remove the dynamic link and the advantages it offers, however you can right-click and choose Edit Original to relaunch the After Effects project if you need to re-render any changes.