How do I restore a deleted Adobe AfterEffects built in workspace?

Question

I was trying to tweak the After Effects UI panels by creating and saving custom Workspaces. However the list became bloated and I decided to quickly delete off some workspaces.

However I just realized I deleted some native workspaces like the All Panels and Animation workspaces. I have tried to access the Workspace list via the Menu >>Window>>Workspace and via the Dropdown menu at the right of the Tools panel but they are not listed in either places.

How do I restore/recover these deleted workspaces?

Answer 1

Well I finally fixed it with a simple edit to the Workspaces.xml file. Usually most applications (on Windows platform) store user modifiable settings/preferences in the Roaming folder that are loaded at the splash-screen stage when the application is started. Adobe products also follow suite.

Am using Adobe After Effects CC and its user variables are located in.

C:\Users\myUserName\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\After Effects\12.2

It's in this folder that you will find the Workspaces.xml file. On examining it in a text editor, the Workspaces you deleted will not be listed among the <ustring> array entries.(In my case the All Panels and Animation entries were not listed.)

Add the missing Workspace names as separate ustring entries. In my case, all I did was to add them to the file again as shown in screenshot below(my additions to the file are highlighted in yellow).

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I have a feeling though that this is just a rough fix, that there is a better way of solving this. Any one with a much cleaner approach?

Answer 2

I did some similar experiment with the workspace and found your post when I was trying to recover the default workspace.

I found a possibly easier solution, in which at least you don't have to type. Just the delete the workspaces.xml and AE will regenerate the file when opened next time. And all the default workspaces will be restored.