Remove an effect or animation preset

You can remove an effect or animation preset from the folder in which After Effects searches for these items, preventing it from being loaded and from being shown in the Effects & Presets panel or Effect menu.

  1. Select the effect or animation preset in the Effects & Presets panel.
  2. Choose Reveal In Windows Explorer (Windows) or Reveal In Finder (Mac OS) from the panel menu.
  3. Move the effect (.aex) or animation preset (.ffx) file out of the Plug-ins or Presets folder.
  4. Choose Refresh List from the Effects & Presets panel menu to update the list of animation presets in the panel.

    The list of effects is only updated when the application starts.

Rather than removing effects or animation presets entirely, consider creating a subfolder in the Plug-ins or Presets folder for effects or animation presets that you seldom use. After Effects ignores the contents of folders with names that begin and end with parentheses, such as (archive_folder).