File Error on Open: "Unexpected data type"

[thejackofhearts]

A file we've been working with on multiple machines for a couple of weeks suddently won't work on one particular machine. 2 or three other machines and the file opens fine. On this one, I get the file open progress bar, but then as soon as it's through, I get the error "Unexpected data type". I can click on "OK" 100 times, and it just keeps poping up the same dialog. I can never get past it and just have to force quit.

Anyone have any ideas what could be causing this?

Thanks,

//Jared

[Todd_Kopriva]

Do you have any third-party effect plug-ins used in the project that aren't installed on that machine? I've seen this problem in two cases before, and in both cases it was because there was a missing third-party plug-in used in the project that was not installed on the current machine.

Also, please give much more information when asking questions. At the bare minimum, tell us exactly which version of After Effects and which operating system you're using.

[dbourke_1980]

Hi, I've had a similar issue. I literally just updated to 10.0.1 on my Mac Pro and the message has come up ever since.

I'm also suffering from a separate issue where neither of my two Mac Pro computers running Leopard will render more then 2GB of a file. I was hoping the latest update would fix it. But I can't test that due to this new issue.

Any help on either issue would be great.

cheers,

DB.

[Todd_Kopriva]

jersmi,

Please answer the questions that I asked the original poster.

Regarding the inability to render and export a file greater than 2GB: Are you creating a QuickTime movie? Over a network? Please give more details.

[dbourke_1980]

Hi, sorry I'll give a few more details. I'm not sure her Jersmi is though.

In regards to the "unexpected data type" issue:

Yes there is a 3rd Party plugin not installed on the Mac Pro in the project I'm using. But the plugin is not used on the comp I want to render and also I wasn't getting this message before I upgraded to 10.0.1.

I'm in AE CS5 on a Quad Core Mac Pro running 10.6.4 (Sorry I thought I was Leopard before).

In regards to the 2GB render issue:

Yes, I'm rendering over a network.

I'm rendering a Quicktime file with the Animation codec.

Project file is HD in size, but I've tried rendering at smaller screen widths and everything will be fine unless the comp I render breaks the 2GB barrier.

Not sure what other information to give you on this one. But I can tell you defnitely that the 2GB issue occurs across two machines (1 Leopard, 1 Snow Leopard. I haven't updated the Leopard computer to 10.0.1 yet, as if I lose the ability to render from both computers I'm totally screwed.).

Hope this helps.

cheers,

DB.

[Todd_Kopriva]

> I'm not sure her Jersmi is though.

Oops. That's what happens when I'm answering several questions in a row. Sorry.

Regarding the 2GB issue: This is a known problem with After Effects CS5. Actually, it's a known problem with the QuickTime Compression Session API that Apple asked us to use for this version. We found out (too late) that this API has a limitation when rendering over a network. The workarounds are a) render and export using a different format---anything but QuickTime--- or b) render and export locally, not over the network. We have a bug report in to Apple about this and are looking into what we can do on our side. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Regarding the "Unexpected data type" issue:

Would you mind sending  the project (or a reduced version that exhibits the problem) to aebugs -at- adobe -dot- com ? (I'm the human on the other end of that email address.) We've seen two cases of this issue so far, and they were both caused by a poorly behaved third-party plug-in that was missing on the machine on which the project was opened. Granted, After Effects shouldn't freak out like this even if there's a problem with the plug-in.

[dbourke_1980]

Hi Todd,

Thanks for the info. I had no idea about the 2GB limit.

Rendering directly to the desktop has done the trick. My 7GB file rendered fine. I'm glad I asked. Thanks a lot for the solve.

In terms of the unexpected data issue I'll see how I go. I don't have time to send a project file over currently. But I will definitely need to sort it. So I'll try and send you something next week some time.

cheers,

DB.

[thejackofhearts]

Sorry for the delay and lack of info.

No third party plug-ins used on any of the machines. All are on CS5 7.0.2. Mac in question is running 10.6.4. 8 core 2.93Ghz. 8GB of ram.

Hope that helps,

//Jared

[Todd_Kopriva]

> All are on CS5 7.0.2.

That number doesn't make any sense to me. If it's After Effects CS5, it's either 10.0.0 or 10.0.1.

Please send a project that demonstrates the problem to aebugs -at- adobe -dot- com.

[thejackofhearts]

10.0.1.19

[Todd_Kopriva]

The "Unexpected data type" error is occurring because you are opening a project that  contains a third-party plug-in on a computer on which that plug-in isn't  installed. To get past this error, install the plug-ins used in this  project. If you don't have the plug-ins, you can get past this error by  doing the following:

1) Press Caps Lock before starting After Effects (to prevent After Effects from trying to render anything).

2) Search for missing effects in each composition. (Paul Tuersley provides a script on the AE Enhancers forum with which you can search compositions for effects and turn them on or off.)

3) Reset or remove _each_ instance of the missing effect.

4) Save a version of the project.

5) Quit After Effects.

6) Open the newly saved version.

This should get you past the "Unexpected data type" error.

[JaysonM-Y]

never had this problem but nice work Todd

[thejackofhearts]

As I mentioned previously, there are no third party plug-ins installed. I have 3 identical machines, and only this one gives the "unexpected data type error" from the same set of files. One day it worked fine, the next I got the error that I can't get past. As there are no missing effects to replace or remove, the caps lock trick is of no use in this case. I've reinstalled Aftereffects, Permission checked the system and tried unlinking and re-linking all the itmes in the library. All with no effect.

Thanks,

//JB

[Todd_Kopriva]

> As I mentioned previously, there are no third party plug-ins installed.

The issue isn't that third-party effects are installed. The issue is that some third-party effects used in the project are _not_ installed. The problem that we have seen is that a project that should open with no problems other than some of the effects being "missing" instead opens with these error messages.

If you're 100% certain that the project that you're opening doesn't use any third-party effects, but you're still getting this error, then we'd really like to see that project so that we can use it to isolate and fix this bug. The email address for sending bug reports with attachments is aebugs -at- adobe -dot- com.

[thejackofhearts]

Sorry, maybe I was unclear. I'am 100% sure that there are no third-party extensions _used_. This is not a project that we've gotten externally and then had problems with. I created this project myself, on  this same machine. It's then been passed around internally to 2 other machines for small changes along the way. Suddenly within the last week, though I can open and work on it fine on 2 of the 3 machines, the machine that I created and worked on the project originally has started giving me this error. All 3 of the machines are setup identically to avoid issues like this.

There are definitely no third party plugins installed and/or used on any of the other machines, and as I setup the original project myself I can be certain that I used no 3rd party plugins in the creation of it. Also, i've gone through the timeline and library quite thoroughly on a machine that I can open the file on and it's clean.

Thanks for your effort on this, I appreciate your suggestions. In terms of sending a test file your way, it's probably not possible as the job is of a corporate nature and has NDA's involved.

Since I can open the project on other machines, it's not a game-stopper, just a frustrating experience when I can't seem to find the issue and resolve it so I can avoid future similar situations.

Thanks again,

//JB

[Matnesss]

Just an FYI, I was having this problem with a project this morning.  The two "machines" in question are two partitions of Leopard and Snow Leopard on the same machine.  I have to boot into Leopard from time to time to use Director MX2004.  The problem occurred when opening the project in Snow Leopard after having opened it in Leopard.  I do have 3rd party plugins installed, but I don't think any are used in this project.  I actually have more of them installed on the Snow Leopard partition than the leopard one.  I tried Todd's suggestion of starting AE with Caps Lock on, and that opened the file for me.  Just in case I checked for use of plugins but couldn't find any.  I saved it as a new project.  Quit, opened it again, no problems.  The file that was causing the crash is unchanged, but once I got it to open using Caps Lock, it no longer gives the error.  Things seem ok, but it was a scare.  My time machine isn't backing up while I'm in leopard, and I thought I had lost a couple days of work.

-Matt

[Todd_Kopriva]

Thanks, Matt. I've given a link to this thread to the software engineers and testers who are working on a fix for this issue.

[Todd_Kopriva]

Paul Tuersley provides a script on the AE Enhancers forum with which you can search compositions for effects and turn them on or off.

For anyone encountering this error and using the workaround that I described above, this script might be useful.

[Geoff Vane]

"Unexpected data type" is a major issue that should be repaired. CS4 doesn't have this, it's a unique CS5 feature.

It is almost impossible to remove missing plugins due to the pesky error message.

Turning of missing effects does not help.

[Todd_Kopriva]

If anyone else is hitting this issue, please respond to this forum thread and let us know whether the workaround is working for you.

[Soose99]

I've also run into this problem.  The work arounds have not yet actually worked around this problem.  The project will not launch if cap lock is engaged.  If I launch in the usual manner I can't get beyond the error.

This is a project I've inherited from unknown source. I'm sure there may be some third parties involved, but as previously mentioned, can't get in to turn them off.

[Geoff Vane]

This does not work.

You must use the older AE version to remove the reference to any missing third party plugin.

Caps Lock does not prevent the error message from appearing all the time.

Just have the useless error message removed in the next update; that will help.

The error message prevents the user from operating the user interface.

The very nice script unfortunately can't delete plugin references; if it could, it would be great.

Turning of the missing effects does not help a bit; the project remains unstable in AE CS5.

[stefan_b1]

hello Geoff

Did you ever figure out a work around for this.

I'm in the same boat... and would hate to have to rebuild from scratch

[hejole]

Edit:

Sorry. Restarting AE did the trick.

--------------------------

Hi

I'm seeing this error for the first time today.

I'm not using any third-party plug-ins in the project. It is a very simple 10 second animation and all I use is "Scale" and "Opacity" and perhaps the crossfades are scripted. I can't recall for certain.

The project file fails to open. I just get the "Unexpected data type" error popup and when I click OK AE just closes the project.

The Project library loads right before I get the error.

Thanks

[ggonzalez17]

The caps lock workaround did work for me. I was able to open my project and save it as a copy. However, I am still experiencing multiple crashes with this project. I do have the 3rd party plug in installed in CS5. So for me, I think the workaround definitely got me out of a tough situation, but I don't think the problem is fixed. Thanks for looking into this for us.