Repair a moved group
Accordion remembers which layers belong to a group. Dragging a member away or inserting another layer into its block can make the timeline disagree with that membership. Return to Accordion to refresh the list.
A moved badge replaces the member count when the stored members are no longer together immediately below their header. Click it to choose a repair.
| Choice | What it changes |
|---|---|
| Regather layers | Keeps membership and moves the stored members back below the header, including nested groups. Their current timeline order determines the gathered order. |
| Update group | Keeps layer positions and revises membership to match the detected block under the header. The same action is labeled Update to what’s under it in the full right-click menu. |
Use Regather layers for an accidental drag. Use Update group after deliberately rearranging the group. Update uses the existing members to infer the block’s end and stops before another group’s header. It can add intervening loose layers and release members outside that block. Review the result, especially after a large rearrangement, and undo if it chose the wrong boundary.
Moving a layer beneath a header does not by itself make it a member. Reordering the existing members within their block does not require a repair.
Keep the layers and remove one header
Right-click the group and choose Ungroup. Accordion restores shy switches saved by that group and deletes its header. Direct members remain in place. Nested groups remain groups. If this was inside another group, its members and child groups join that parent.
Layers parented to the removed header are reassigned to that header’s parent, or become unparented if it had none. This also applies to layers outside the group that you manually parented to the header.
Before ungrouping, turn off any active Solo, Hide, or Lock overrides you want restored. Removing a header leaves those current switches in place. It also leaves matte assignments and any Group FX adjustment layer in the composition.
Remove all headers for delivery
Right-click any group and press and hold Strip all groups for about 0.7 seconds. It removes every Accordion header in the active composition, including nested headers, and restores saved shy switches. It leaves the artwork, matte connections, Group FX layers, and current solo, visibility, and lock switches.
Release early or move the pointer away to cancel the hold. Alt-click skips the hold and runs immediately. Strip uses the same header-parent release behavior as Ungroup.
The composition’s Hide Shy Layers switch stays on if folding turned it on. Layers that were already shy can therefore remain hidden after stripping.
Delete the group and its layers
Press and hold Dissolve for about 0.7 seconds to delete the chosen header, all its members, and all nested groups and contents. Locked members are deleted too. Alt-click runs immediately; releasing early or leaving the button cancels the hold.
Use Ungroup when the artwork should stay. Dissolve removes timeline layers from the composition.
Each editing action is one After Effects undo step. Member selection and the saved Accordion mode setting are separate from these editing actions.