Copy location help

I’ve two empties. The second should copy the location of the first with an offset. However it won’t work unless I “apply location”. The issue is I need these objects to stay where they are, if I apply anything the animation breaks.

Hi
try and apply location to Deltas in ctrl + A

It allows you to apply additional transformations relative to an object’s original transform, acting as an offset without modifying the main transform values.
hope it works

No, whenever I apply anything it just changes the location.