Nanny says No active composition
Activate a composition in After Effects and retry. Selecting a comp in the Project panel is not a timeline layer selection. The tile may show the shorter badge No comp.
Nanny asks me to select layers
Select layers to adopt, Select layers to chain, and Select layers to release mean the active composition has no selected layers. Select the layers in its Timeline panel. A wide tile shows No selection for these messages.
Chain will not run
Chain needs at least two unlocked selected layers. With fewer, the message is Select two or more unlocked layers to chain and the tile may show Select 2+. If locked layers caused the shortfall, you instead see a locked-layer count. Unlock the intended links or select more layers, then retry.
Some selected layers were skipped
Adopt, Chain, and ordinary Release skip locked selected layers. A successful action reports N skipped (locked). If no action can run because of locks, the toast says Skipped N locked layers and a wide tile shows N locked.
Unlock the layers you want to change before retrying. Deleting an unlocked Nanny null is an exception for its children: Nanny reconnects even locked children, then restores their locks. See null removal.
Adopt fails when a locked parent is selected
Shared Adopt leaves selected descendants under their selected ancestor. It can fail if every unlocked selected layer is below a locked selected ancestor, leaving no eligible top layer to adopt.
Deselect the locked ancestor and try again, or unlock it if you want the whole branch adopted. Nanny can otherwise omit those descendants even when another branch is adopted successfully.
Release says Nothing to release
The selected unlocked layers have no parent links to remove. A wide tile also shows Nothing parented.
To release a null’s children, select the children. To remove the null itself, use the Alt-click procedure.
Alt-click Release keeps my null
The selected layer must be an unlocked null with the layer comment exactly nanny. A matching name alone does not qualify. Changing or clearing the comment removes that recognition. A regular null is kept, though its own parent link can still be released.
On macOS, hold Option while clicking. Select the Nanny null rather than only its children.
The null is not at the center I expected
Check Null Placement in Settings. Bounds center uses source rectangles, not all rendered effects or masks. Anchor average uses anchor points. Existing parent branches also affect which layers determine a shared null’s center.
Alt overrides the setting with the first unlocked selected layer’s anchor. Select that layer first when its anchor should place the shared null. Shift creates a null at each layer’s anchor and takes precedence when both keys are held.
If After Effects cannot evaluate the world-space placement, Nanny falls back to averaging Position values. Parent transforms can make that fallback differ from the visible center. Undo and try another placement option, or place a null manually before parenting the layers.
The adopted count is smaller than my selection
Shared Adopt counts the top layers of selected branches that it directly parents. Selected descendants retain their existing links. Nothing is missing from the branch. See existing branches.
Layers look right now but move differently later
Changing a parent changes inherited animation. Nanny does not bake the old parent’s motion. Review the time range, undo if needed, and bake inherited motion before detaching when you need to keep it. The release guide explains the distinction.
The tile only shows Not done
Read the accompanying error toast. Not done is the fallback badge for a failure without a more specific badge. A generic failure can say Nanny could not finish; host failures may include an After Effects error instead. Check the active comp, selection, and locks before retrying. If part of the action already changed the composition, undo it before trying again.
I cannot find Nanny in the module picker
Check whether Nanny is already in this layout. Use its existing slot, or remove that slot before adding it elsewhere. Each layout supports one copy of Nanny.