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After Effects: Scripts, ScriptUI Panels and MediaCore

Updated 2026-10-28 · 5 min read

After Effects keeps scripts and app-specific plug-ins inside its own folder in Applications, and shared plug-ins in a MediaCore folder in the system Library. Here is which file goes where, and how to make a script appear in the menu.

The four folders

After Effects does not keep scripts or plug-ins in your home folder's Library. They sit inside the app's folder in Applications, and one shared plug-in folder sits in the Library at the top level of the disk:

/Applications/Adobe After Effects [version]/Scripts/
/Applications/Adobe After Effects [version]/Scripts/ScriptUI Panels/
/Applications/Adobe After Effects [version]/Plug-ins/
/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/Plug-ins/7.0/MediaCore/

Replace [version] with the name of your install, for example 2023 or 2025, which is how Adobe names the folder in /Applications. Adobe's help says the Scripts folder is inside the After Effects application folder on a Mac, and Adobe's After Effects SDK guide gives the plug-in folders above.

After Effects is not installed on the Mac used for this guide, so the app-folder paths come from Adobe's documentation. The shared MediaCore folder does exist on that Mac, under /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/Plug-ins/7.0/, owned by root, with only a placeholder file inside.

Scripts and ScriptUI panels are different folders

A script is a .jsx or .jsxbin file. Where you put it decides how you use it:

Put it in	It shows up in	Use it for
Scripts	File > Scripts	Scripts that run and finish
Scripts/ScriptUI Panels	The bottom of the Window menu	Scripts written as dockable panels

Adobe says a script added while After Effects is open needs a restart before it appears in the File > Scripts menu. You can run it straight away with File > Scripts > Run Script File, which also runs a script that sits anywhere on your Mac without being installed.

Two more folders inside Scripts have no menu at all. Adobe's scripting guide says After Effects runs every script in Scripts/Startup when it starts (after plug-ins load) and every script in Scripts/Shutdown when it quits, in alphabetical order. A script that misbehaves at launch may be sitting in Startup.

Many scripts need to save files or talk to a network, and After Effects blocks that by default. Adobe's current help gives the Mac setting as After Effects > Settings > Scripting & Expressions, then Allow Scripts To Write Files And Access Network; older releases had it under Preferences > General. A panel that does nothing, or complains about permission, is often waiting for this box.

Installing a script

1. Quit After Effects, or plan to restart it.
2. Open /Applications/Adobe After Effects [version]/Scripts/ in Finder. Go > Go to Folder (⇧⌘G) takes the path, spaces included.
3. Copy the .jsx file in, or into ScriptUI Panels for a panel. macOS may ask for an administrator password, since the folder is inside /Applications.
4. Start After Effects and look in File > Scripts or at the bottom of Window.

Do not remove the scripts Adobe ships in the same folder. Adobe says several come with After Effects and appear automatically, so yours will sit beside them.

Installing a plug-in

Plug-ins have two homes, and Adobe's SDK guide recommends the shared one:

• The common folder (/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/Plug-ins/7.0/MediaCore/) is read by After Effects and by Premiere Pro. The guide says the 7.0 is fixed for all Creative Cloud versions, so it does not change when After Effects does.
• The app folder (/Applications/Adobe After Effects [version]/Plug-ins/) is for plug-ins you want only in After Effects, and it belongs to that one version.

Most plug-ins come with an installer that picks the folder for you. When you copy one in by hand, follow the developer's instructions first and use these paths as the check. Adobe's guide adds three details: After Effects searches subfolders up to 10 levels deep, it follows macOS aliases (Premiere Pro does not), and it skips any folder whose name ends in a parenthesis or starts with the symbol ¬. That last rule gives you a way to switch plug-ins off without deleting them: put them in a subfolder named, say, Parked (off), then restart.

A community thread on Adobe's forum links After Effects stalling at "Initializing MediaCore" to a third-party plug-in in the shared folder. The suggested test is to move the plug-ins out and back in a few at a time, restarting between rounds, which finds the bad one.

Your settings are somewhere else

The scripts and plug-ins above are the files you add. Your preferences and layout live per version in your Library:

~/Library/Preferences/Adobe/After Effects/[version]/

On the Mac used for this guide that folder is named 23.4, so the preferences folder uses a version number, not the year. That is different from the /Applications folder name, which is one reason people lose track of which copy they are editing.

Moving to a new version or a new Mac

Because scripts and plug-ins in the app folder belong to one version, a new After Effects install starts without them. Nothing in Adobe's documentation says they are carried over, so copy your .jsx files and any app-folder plug-ins to the new version's folders yourself. Plug-ins in the shared MediaCore folder are visible to every version that reads it. After a major update, some third-party plug-ins need a new build from their developer, so check before you rely on an old copy.

Why a normal search misses them

The Scripts and Plug-ins folders are inside the app's folder, and /Library/Application Support is a system location. Finder and Spotlight searches leave out most of that, and a script's file name is usually the author's, not the name shown in the menu.

Finding a script or plug-in again

Typing ScriptUI Panels into Everywhere lists that folder for every After Effects version on the Mac, which shows at once which version a panel was installed into. A script's file name, or .jsx with part of it, finds the script itself, and MediaCore lists the shared plug-in folders, including ones left by old installs. Press ⌘↵ to reveal a result in Finder. Applications and /Library are in the normal scan, and the search matches names only, not the code inside a script.

Common questions

Where do After Effects scripts go on a Mac?

In /Applications/Adobe After Effects [version]/Scripts/. They then appear under File > Scripts after you restart After Effects.

Where do ScriptUI panels go in After Effects?

In /Applications/Adobe After Effects [version]/Scripts/ScriptUI Panels/. Adobe says panels in that folder are listed at the bottom of the Window menu.

Where is the After Effects MediaCore plug-ins folder on a Mac?

At /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/Plug-ins/7.0/MediaCore/. Adobe's SDK guide says the 7.0 is fixed for all Creative Cloud versions, and Premiere Pro reads the same folder.

Why can my After Effects script not write files?

Scripts are blocked from writing files and using the network by default. On a Mac, turn on Allow Scripts To Write Files And Access Network under After Effects > Settings > Scripting & Expressions.