# Can't open an After Effects project created with an earlier version!



## jedikalimero

Hi!

I have several AE projects created back in 2006. I've tried to open them in AE CS5 but I get an error:

_*(Translated from spanish) After Effects error: this file was created in an earlier version of After Effects [5.5.1 (Windows)] and can't be opened. You can convert this file using an earlier version of After Effects and saving it again.*_

What a solution! I can't even remember what AE version was used to create the file back in 2006!:sigh:

Is this normal? new versions of AE can't load earlier version projects or what?

What can I do? I don't have an earlier version of AE at hand right now...:4-dontkno


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## fractalman93

This might sound silly and I am no After Effects expert. However, if you have the discs for older versions of AE, try installing the latest older version first and upconverting it from there. You might need to download a converter plugin from Adobe, but that should work. Frustrating, yes, but it's a potential solution.


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## jedikalimero

fractalman93 said:


> This might sound silly and I am no After Effects expert. However, if you have the discs for older versions of AE, try installing the latest older version first and upconverting it from there. You might need to download a converter plugin from Adobe, but that should work. Frustrating, yes, but it's a potential solution.


OK, Let's suppose I did that project in After Effects 6 (I'm not sure, but maybe). Let's suppose I can install and run AE6 in my Windows 7 x64 machine (I'm not going to reinstall Windows XP). OK, I load the project, And save it again? What's the point on doing this? I can't save it in AE-CS5 format from AE6. If it was created in AE6 I can only save it in AE6 format (the format that it already has) or older, but not newer!

Are there plug-ins for older versions to save in newer formats? that solution is absurd. Since this would be practical for people actually using that older versions, it would be more logical to create a plugin for loading older formats in newer versions (in fact, this plug-in should come as part of the installation)

Just imagine if MS Word 2010 could not load docs created in MS Word 2003...


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## fractalman93

As per this link: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/aftereffects/cs/using/WS3878526689cb91655866c1103906c6dea-7f46a.html After Effects CS5 can open and import After Effects projects created by After Effects 6.0 and later.

However, the article indicates that you have to *import *the file rather than simply open it.


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