Troubleshooting

When something goes wrong, the log usually says why. Click Show log in the panel’s status row to read it, and Copy log to send it with a support request.

After installing or updating

Gulp is missing from Window ▸ Extensions, or Quick Look does not open

Quit After Effects completely and start it again. After Effects only registers new extensions and windows when it launches, so a fresh install — or an update that adds a window, as Quick Look did — does nothing until the next start.

Comps build without their passes split

The plug-ins half of Gulp is not installed, or After Effects has not been restarted since. Gulp comes in two halves: the panel and the plug-ins. Install both — see Getting started — then restart After Effects.

Build and Import are greyed out, or a build times out

The panel and the plug-ins come from different downloads. They only work as a matched pair. Reinstall both from the same download, or update through the aescripts + aeplugins manager, which installs both together. Then restart After Effects.

A build that waits 90 seconds and reports Build timed out usually means the same thing — or that After Effects is showing a dialog of its own behind the panel. Check for one, then press Refresh in the status row to reset the panel.

Long paths

On Windows, After Effects cannot open a file whose full path is 260 characters or more. For movies it does not say so: it imports the file, decodes nothing, and leaves colour bars and tone in a project that saves without an error.

Gulp can read these files, so they show in the browser as normal. But it will not hand After Effects a path it will mishandle: Build, Import and render watching refuse such files and say why.

The limit sits in After Effects’ own importers, so no setting or script lifts it. The fixes:

• Move the footage somewhere shorter. This is the permanent fix.

• Map a short drive letter to a deep folder, then browse or relink from that drive. In a Command Prompt:

  subst X: "D:\Jobs\Client\Project\Renders\Shot_010"

  Keep the mapping: After Effects saves the path it was given, so a project opened through X:\ expects X:\ to exist next time.

The Relinker suggests the subst command for you when it finds paths that are too long. Illustrator and PDF files hit the same limit in After Effects’ own importer, even when everything else about the path is fine; those have to move.

Cloud storage and online-only files

In a Dropbox, OneDrive or iCloud folder, files can be online-only placeholders. Opening one makes the cloud client download it — which can mean minutes of stalling while gigabytes arrive.

Gulp never downloads anything without asking:

• Online-only rows show an online-only badge, and Gulp reads what it can without downloading.
• No thumbnails are made from a placeholder.
• Anything that needs the pixels — building, splitting, inspecting passes — tells you the size first and asks.

To fetch footage, click its online-only badge or use the right-click menu. Downloads run in the panel’s footer, ten at a time, and can be cancelled. If you work from a render folder every day, make it available offline in your cloud client.

“Unknown BIB Error” or “ATM Parse Error”

These come from After Effects’ font engine, not from Gulp. While it is in this state After Effects cannot create text layers, so an Illustrator or Photoshop import with editable text comes in without it, and the error dialog can hold up whatever Gulp asked After Effects to do next.

The usual cause is a font that is damaged or installed twice — for example the same family installed locally and through Adobe Fonts. Remove the duplicate, restart After Effects, and import again. Gulp names in the log the parts of an import that did not finish.

Licensed, but still the trial

You bought Gulp, but the panel still says Trial build, or tells you your licence is active but this is the trial build.

The aescripts + aeplugins manager keeps a copy of each download, and the trial and full versions can share a name in that cache. After a purchase, the manager can reinstall the cached trial. A licence cannot unlock the trial build, so the fix is a clean install:

1. In the aescripts + aeplugins manager, uninstall Gulp.
2. Click Clear Cache.
3. Install Gulp again, and restart After Effects.

Trial limits

The trial is the full panel with 5 comp builds and 5 imports. A banner above the Build button counts down what is left. Browsing, Quick Look, thumbnails and relinking are not counted. Once both allowances are used, the panel stops working until you buy a licence.

The trial does not include Gulp Tonemap, the Light Mixer, Send to Premiere, render watching, splitting passes to disk, building from several folders or editable Photoshop and Illustrator text. Those show a FULL VERSION badge.

The effects show a warning

• Gulp Tonemap’s first control reads “Unlicensed - open Gulp”. Open the Gulp panel on that machine. Gulp Tonemap and the Light Mixer need a full licence.
• The Light Mixer shows the render with a red border. The machine rendering it has no full Gulp licence, so every light is shown at 100%.
• Gulp Tonemap reads “(!) Needs a 32 bpc project” or an Output (!) warning. These are colour guidance, not faults. See Tonemap and Light Mixer.

Other things worth knowing

• Space starts a RAM preview instead of Quick Look. After Effects’ viewer has the keyboard. Click a row in the panel first, or right-click it and choose Preview (Space).
• A huge folder is slow to list. Gulp lists it without freezing, with a running count and a Cancel button. Over 40,000 files it asks first; Names only lists straight away and reads file headers later, only for what you use.
• An imported sequence asks about missing frames every time. That is After Effects’ own dialog. Tick Silence AE missing frames nag in favour of Gulp in the Build dialog — Gulp shows the gaps on the row instead.
• The panel seems stuck. Press Refresh in the status row. It re-scans the folder and resets the panel.