Nothing happens when I split
The message explains what Spellbound could not use. A short badge may also appear on the action button if it has enough room.
| Message | Badge | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| No active composition | No comp | Open the composition you want to split. |
| Select a text layer to split | Select text | Finish text editing and select a text layer in the active comp’s Timeline. Selecting only non-text layers does not count. |
| Selected text layers are locked | Locked | Unlock the selected text layers before splitting. |
| Spellbound needs After Effects 24.3 or later | AE 24.3+ | Update After Effects to 24.3 or later. |
| No text to split | No text | Select a layer with visible horizontal text. Empty text, whitespace-only text, vertical text, or text entirely outside a paragraph box cannot produce pieces. |
When unlocked and locked text layers are selected together, Spellbound splits the unlocked layers and silently skips the locked ones. Non-text layers are also ignored.
Some of my text is missing
Vertical text was skipped means the selected layer uses a vertical text orientation. Use horizontal text for splitting.
Overset text was skipped means characters do not fit in a paragraph text box. Enlarge the box to show them before splitting. Blank lines and spaces do not create layers.
These warnings accompany successful splits. If every selected layer is skipped or empty, the message is No text to split instead. Check orientation and the text box as well as the text itself.
I cannot find the original
With Delete original off, the source remains below its pieces. It has Shy on and its video switch off. Turn off the Timeline’s Hide Shy Layers control to reveal it. Enable its video switch when you want to use it again, and hide the pieces to avoid overlapping copies.
With Delete original on, the source was removed. Undo the split to recover it.
My letters are shapes instead of text
Shapes can’t be edited as text is an expected warning after shape output. To get editable letters, undo and split again with Letters as shapes off. Alt reverses that setting for a split, so release Alt if the output is unexpected.
Some letters stayed text
Some letters stayed text means Create Shapes from Text did not produce a shape layer for every piece. Those pieces remain text. Inspect the affected characters or undo and keep all pieces editable.
Combined letters or emoji split into extra pieces
Letters splits characters rather than preserving every combined visual glyph. Combining accents and emoji made from several characters can become separate layers. Use Words to keep such a sequence together.
Several pieces start at the same time
Stagger was capped at the layer’s length means a requested delay would start a piece at or after the source’s out point. The delay stops one frame before that end, so multiple late pieces can share a start time.
Undo, reduce Stagger, or lengthen the original layer, then split again. All pieces end at the original out point. For multiple originals, the stagger sequence starts over on each original.
The anchors are not centered on the pieces
Anchors stay at the original’s because its transform is animated appears when Parent to a null is off and the original has transform keys or an active transform expression. Spellbound preserves that motion on the pieces instead of resetting their transforms.
Undo and turn Parent to a null on for centered piece anchors with the original transform on the null.
An anchor expression was left as is means an existing anchor expression was preserved without rewriting it. Check that expression after the split, or keep null parenting on and split again.
The sample does not match my text
The panel always uses “Spell bound” to illustrate the chosen mode. It does not display the selection or predict an exact piece count. Hovering Split highlights those sample frames only.
For changing Source Text, put the playhead at the value you want before splitting. Pieces keep that value and lose Source Text keys and expressions. See animated text handling.
Spellbound reports an unexpected error
Split failed and was undone: followed by an error means the operation failed after work began and Spellbound attempted to undo it. Inspect the Timeline before retrying.
Split failed: followed by an error means the operation failed before it marked the comp as changed. Spellbound could not split or another host error means the request did not complete normally. Check the active comp and selection, then try a simple text layer to narrow down the problem.
The action may briefly show Not split for an unexpected failure. No count is a substitute for checking the resulting layers when an error occurs.