After Effects constantly forcing window focus
Anytime I use dynamic link between After Effects and Premiere Pro, After Effects constantly forces window focus.
Example: While I'm trying to name a project, I have to keep clicking on the naming box to keep focus so I can finish.
It is a never ending battle until I close either After Effects or Premiere. I uninstalled the Monogram plugin and the issue goes away. But I can't use the console without the plugin.
I have been able to replicate this issue on two other windows machines. One Machine (Surface tablet) never had any creative cloud apps on it. So it is not just my main machine.
I also tried going back a few versions to see if that resolves it. Nope.
Are there any possible work arounds for this?
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Windows 10 Pro 21H1 | PP 15.4.1 | AE 18.4.1
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After doing some troubleshooting in the extension's folder, I found a work around
File
On Windows, go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\CEP\extensions\MonogramExtension\jsxbin\after_effects
The Workaround
Creating a dynamic linked AE file.
Open Premiere Pro, move the file [ae_getData.jsxbin] out of the folder, create your AE dynamic linked file, move the file [ae_getData.jsxbin] back into the folder to restore interface functions.
Opening AE file not linked to opened PP project
Move the file [ae_getData.jsxbin] out of the folder, open AE file, Move [ae_getData.jsxbin] back into the folder to restore interface functions.
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The whole point is to stop the monogram plugin from starting an infinite loop. Hopefully this narrows down the issue for the devs to fix.
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I'm glad I am not the only one experiencing this issue. After installing the latest monogram creator update (5.2.1) and updating to the latest Premiere and After Effects (22.1) the problem still persists. Good to know it happens on windows 11 too.
After chatting with customer support, they told me they would investigate and let me know when it is fixed. That was 5 months ago. So, I don't think this will be addressed any time soon. Unfortunate, since it renders my $500 console useless as well.
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I received my Monogram studio console a couple of days ago and immediately ran into the same issue with After Effects on my Windows 10 system.
I haven’t tried Eric’s workaround yet; I’m using After Effects a lot right now and just want a stable system so I did a complete uninstall.
Once I have time to mess around with it, I’ll see if that ‘fix’ works for me. If so I might be able to create an AutoHotKey script to move the file automatically when After Effects launches (I’ll share the code here if I get it working), but that’s far from ideal.
I just emailed support to see what the procedure for 30 day return is in case I can’t get this working. It’s a bummer, as the hardware seems great and I was excited to add it to my workflow.
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The workaround that Eric discovered kind of works for me, though there are still instances where moving the .jsxbin file back into its normal directory bugs out AE. Maybe related to using an older project that had already bugged out once? Newer projects or ones without links to Premiere do seem OK but I haven't done much testing. I did notice that even when AE is running as a background process spun up by Premiere (i.e. no AE project is open but you can see an instance in task manager) it would bug out if the .jsxbin file was in the directory. So I plan on just keeping it out for the most part and using Monogram with AE cautiously until the bug is fixed or I know more about the conditions that cause it.
I did write an AutoHotKey script that, when run as administrator, waits for a key command (control-shift-alt-z by default) then moves the .jsxbin into a new folder created to hide the file. Hit the hotkey again and the file toggles back where AE can find it, and so forth. A dialog box should pop up each time, letting you know if Monogram is disabled, enabled, or if the file can't be found. If you don't see a dialog box it's probably not doing anything, likely the script wasn't run as administrator.
I'll post the AHK code here, AutoHotKey.com has the free open source scripting program you'll need to run it and/or compile it as an .exe if you'd like (as an .exe you can use task manager to bypass UAC and start the program on a trigger event like startup or login, which is the best way to avoid having to run the script as administrator each time you restart your system).
I'm a very very amateur coder and mostly googled around to make this work, but it seems to do what I need to keep AE/Premiere stable. No guarantees it will work on your end, let me know how it goes and feel free to fiddle with it.
I probably spent more time doing this than I would have hunting down the file and moving it in and out whenever I wanted Monogram in AE, but hopefully others will find it useful and it was satisfying to get it working! And I hope the Monogram team is paying attention to this issue, as AE is still unstable even with this 'fix'. The hardware is amazing, I'm now diving into the SDK and thinking about how to push past the sometimes limited software.
EDIT: If you are unfamiliar with AHK, here's how to use the code I pasted into the comment below; download and install AutoHotKey (AutoHotKey.com), copy the code I pasted into a text editor like notepad, and save it as Monogram_AE_Fix.ahk (or anything really as long as the extension is .ahk). Now run that file as administrator. Done! The hotkeys should work now.
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; Monogram_AE_Fix.ahk: AutoHotKey script by Sawyer Broadley, February 2022
; Developed with AutoHotkey 1.1.33.00 Unicode X64 under Win10 X64; AutoHotKey is free, open source scripting software: AutoHotKey.com
VERSION = 1.0
; IMPORTANT: Script needs to be 'run as administrator' in order to work
; Assumes \MonogramExtension is in expected directory
; I suggest making a back up of your ae_getData.jsxbin file before running this#SingleInstance [Force] ; If this script is run while an instance is already active it will automatically replace the older version
Gui, +Owner ; This hides the script from the task bar, it will still show up in task tray and can be exited from there
; Creates a directory named "hidden script" if there isn't one already in the same directory as the problematic .jsxbin fileif !FileExist("C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\CEP\extensions\MonogramExtension\jsxbin\after_effects\hidden_script")
{
FileCreateDir, C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\CEP\extensions\MonogramExtension\jsxbin\after_effects\hidden_script
}
; Waits for hotkey combination "Ctrl Shift Alt Z"^+!z::
; Looks for the .jskbin file in its expected directory and if found moves it to the "hidden_script" directory
if FileExist("C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\CEP\extensions\MonogramExtension\jsxbin\after_effects\ae_getData.jsxbin")
{
FileMove, C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\CEP\extensions\MonogramExtension\jsxbin\after_effects\ae_getData.jsxbin, C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\CEP\extensions\MonogramExtension\jsxbin\after_effects\hidden_script\sleep, 1000 ; Waits a second for file to be moved
MsgBox, 48, ALERT, MONOGRAM AE DISABLED, 1.2 ; Displays a temporary message that Monogram is disabled in AE
}
; If .jskbin file wasn't in its expected directory, moves it back out of "hidden_script" directoryelse if FileExist("C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\CEP\extensions\MonogramExtension\jsxbin\after_effects\hidden_script\ae_getData.jsxbin")
{
FileMove, C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\CEP\extensions\MonogramExtension\jsxbin\after_effects\hidden_script\ae_getData.jsxbin, C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\CEP\extensions\MonogramExtension\jsxbin\after_effectssleep, 1000 ; Waits a second for file to be moved
MsgBox, 64, ALERT, MONOGRAM AE ENABLED, 1.2 ; Displays a temporary message that Monogram is disabled in AE
}; Displays an error message if the file isn't found in either directory
else if (!FileExist("C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\CEP\extensions\MonogramExtension\jsxbin\after_effects\hidden_script\ae_getData.jsxbin") and !FileExist("C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\CEP\extensions\MonogramExtension\jsxbin\after_effects\ae_getData.jsxbin"))
{
MsgBox 48, ERROR, FILE NOT FOUND, 2
} -
This issue of windows constantly losing focus is driving me crazy. I can't get anything done when After Effects and Premiere Pro is open. It's not just affecting those programs either. Because the window focus always seems to go back to "AfterFX" it means that I can't use Outlook, Chrome, any other software while the issue is happening. I've tested this by using a logging software called "JocysCom.FocusLogger".
I hadn't been aware until I discovered this post that the issue might be related to using the Adobe Dynamic Link. Something which I use regularly.
So what are my options? Uninstall Monogram completely and not use the interface? Surely not.
I did look for the file mentioned above, however I don't have the "MonogramExtension" folder in the "extensions" folder. I then wondered if that could be the issue, however shortly before writing this I opened Monogram Creator and it installed a new update, so would new plugins not have been added then? After the update I opened Premiere Pro and After Effects and was getting the same issue.
Any advice and solutions are most welcome.
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Update
I uninstalled the Monogram program and then launched Premiere Pro and After Effects expecting that the window focus issue to be resolved. It was not. :-(
However I did notice in After Effect that the Monogram extension is still listed in Windows > Extensions. How do I remove the extension? Just in case it still being there is causing the problem?
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The plugin is still installed and causing your issue. I found the software does not uninstall the extension for some reason.
If the "MonogramExtension" folder is still in the "extensions" folder you only need to delete it. That is the direct way to uninstall it.
It should be here:
C:\ProgramFiles(x86)\CommonFiles\Adobe\CEP\extensions\MonogramExtensionAnother way is to download this plugin manager "ZXP Installer": https://aescripts.com/learn/zxp-installer/
It will allow you to uninstall it. A bonus is it also gives you an overview of what plugins are currently installed for the creative cloud apps. Useful in troubleshooting.I have resorted to only using the tool when I don't have any dynamic linked projects. Which is almost never.
Sawyer gave a really nice autohotkey script that will do my workaround without having to hunt down the file. You can give it a go when you don't want to use the console.
My only advice is open a ticket with monogram and see if they will address it. Now that there is a number of people reporting this issue, maybe they will look into it with a little bit more urgency.
Thanks for mentioning the "JocysCom.FocusLogger" software, I have been looking for something like this.
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Many thanks for the reply Eric.
I've downloaded the extension manager and removed the Monogram extension. I'll test it later and make sure that I can have Premiere Pro and After Effects open with a dynamic link and not have the windows focus issue.
With the ability to use Monogram with the Adobe suite being a major selling point surely the developers will need to investigate and fix this issue.
No problem about the focus logger. I had come across other software but it was really old. This one is much newer and looks to work well. If you don't already have .NET installed it will ask you to install a .NET package too.
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For what it's worth, I recently contacted Monogram support about this issue and they got back to me with a request for project files that were experiencing this glitch, plus the log files from while the glitch was happening, which I provided. Hopefully that helps them track down the issue (they said they hadn't able to replicate it).
Removing the AE MonogramExtension (Eric's workaround) lets me keep using the console in all other apps besides AE with no issues; luckily I'm mostly in Premiere right now and haven't built any workflows around Monogram in AE.
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Honestly, I wish I hadn't bought this. On top of this issue, I am having to restart the program consistently because it won't register inputs in premiere. The app also decided to randomly delete all my profiles. So now I get to remake them.
I have noticed this in the patch notes for creator 5.3.1:
- Improved performance of app for certain computersI'm not sure if this was suppose to be a "fix" for this, but at this point I don't think they care. Would be nice if someone from the Monogram would at least acknowledge this issue.
In my opinion, I think you are better off returning it. This software is clearly still in beta and when it comes to these devices software is everything. You might want to consider the "TourBox". I decided to give it a try because I'm tired of waiting for monogram to fix this.
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