Do you find that After Effects keeps crashing, shutting down, or failing to render or export? You’re not the only one. There’s nothing more frustrating than not being able to finish your project because After Effects keeps shutting down.
There are several reasons why this might happen, so check out the troubleshooting tips below. With luck, you’ll spot your problem and soon be able to get back to work.
Summary
Top 8 fixes to stop common Adobe After Effects crashes
1. Update your software
Developers use software updates to fix bugs and mistakes, and to keep programs safe and secure. Adobe regularly updates, and you should always run new updates as they’re released.
Updating your software takes no time or expertise, and it could be the perfect fix if your After Effects keeps crashing. Why? Well, if your After Effects version is outdated, you may be struggling with an issue that Adobe has already fixed.
Here’s how to update your After Effects:
- Go to your Creative Cloud Application Manager.
- In the After Effects section, select Update.
2. Media and disk cache
If your media and disk cache is on a slow drive with less than 10GB of space, you’ll probably have some performance problems. These can, in turn, be the cause of After Effects crashing.
The best practice would be to buy a cheap SSD specifically for After Effects’ scratch disk materials. If you don’t have one, some system settings could help make After Effects more stable.
- In After Effects, go to Edit > Preferences > Media and Disk Cache.
- Under Disk Cache, select Choose Folder and select a location on your fastest possible drive with more than 30GB open.
Sometimes, the scratch disk files are corrupted, or there isn’t enough space to read or write to your drive. Try deleting all scratch disk files and see if that helps with your Adobe After Effects crashes.
- In the Media Cache window, click Empty Disk Cache.
While you’re here, you can also try purging your RAM.
- Go to Edit > Purge > All Memory and Disk Cache.
- Hit OK.
A RAM purge will clear your computer’s memory and any corrupted disk cache files. Don’t worry — purging memory isn’t dangerous at all. The worst that could happen is that After Effects needs to process your timeline again. Think of it as a forced refresh. This tip can also fix cached preview errors in After Effects.
3. Reserve RAM
If you’re still experiencing After Effects crashes, you can try setting your computer to allocate more resources to it. It’s a pretty intensive, hungry program that needs all the processing power it can get.
- Go to Edit > Preferences > Memory.
- Reduce the number beside RAM reserved for other applications.
You want this number as low as possible so that the computer prioritizes After Effects when allocating RAM. Even if this doesn’t fix After Effects crashing, it will still boost the program’s overall performance. This can also help with After Effects playback lag.
4. Video card problems
Video card issues can cause many rendering, exporting, and overall system crashes. Depending on your system, however, you can use the video card to take the load off your CPU for demanding tasks. Disabling some of the video card features will let you test whether or not that’s the root cause of your After Effects crashing.
- Go to Preferences > Display.
- Deselect Hardware Accelerate Composition Layer.
- Go to File > Project Settings.
- Under Video Rendering and Effects, select a non-GPU acceleration option.
This will slow down the overall speed of your system, but it might also prevent crashes.
These fixes should help you narrow down the cause of your After Effects crashing. But if you want to fix the GPU itself, there’s a simple place to start — by updating your graphics card’s drivers.
First, you need to figure out what brand of GPU you’re using.
If you’re on a Mac:
- Go to Apple > About This Mac.
- Under Graphics, you should see your setup. Updates will be shown in your Software Update section.
To do this on Windows:
- Go to Task Manager > Performance > GPU.
It’ll state what your brand of GPU is at the top of the window.
Let’s say you have an Nvidia graphics card. To update the drivers:
- Head to the Nvidia website.
- Go to the Drivers section.
- Use your GPU information to search for that specific model in the website’s downloads section.
- Download the most recent set of drivers.
- Double-click on them.
- Click Next, and your computer will handle the rest.
5. Crashing on export
Is your project completed, but you’re having trouble with the export? You can skip exporting in After Effects and take it to Media Encoder instead.
It’s very easy:
- Instead of pressing Render, press Queue. This will open up Adobe Media Encoder.
- Choose your Export settings and hit the green arrow when you’re ready.
This should give you a more stable render. Even if the render fails, it shouldn’t crash your entire system, which is much less frustrating and allows you to figure out what else might be going wrong. If your issue is with errors in your After Effects previews, you can try Motion Array’s helpful tutorial instead.
6. Third-party plugins
Third-party plugins for After Effects can help your workflow, but can also mess up your system. This is usually compounded by having different After Effects versions running on your computer. If nothing else has worked for you so far, try this fix.
Navigate to this location (on a Mac):
Applications/Adobe After Effects <version>
Or this location (on Windows):
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects <version>\Support Files
- Copy and paste your plugins to a new location for safekeeping.
- Delete the plugins found in your After Effects folder.
- Re-open After Effects.
This might be frustrating if you’re using those plugins in your current project, but once the problem is resolved, you can use the plugins again. Sometimes, a little tweak will be enough to get your computer going.
7. After Effects won’t open
It’s pretty tricky troubleshooting Adobe Effects crashing if you can’t even get to its settings in the first place. If After Effects won’t open at all:
- Head to the file paths in tip 6 and see if there are any additional versions of After Effects on your system.
- Rename any older versions by adding the phrase ‘(old)’ in the title.
Sometimes, if you have multiple versions of After Effects installed, your computer will try to take information from all of them at the same time. Renaming the older applications makes things a little clearer.
You might come across a situation where that works the first time, but any subsequent attempts to open the application will cause Adobe After Effects to crash. In that case, you should contact Adobe support.
8. The ‘non-tech’ solutions
So, that’s the software-related issues behind Adobe Effects crashing out of the way. Try some of these non-tech tips and tricks if you’re still struggling.
If your computer might be overheating:
- Try lifting your laptop off the table, and use a mount or stand to keep the air flowing underneath it while you work.
- If you have a desktop, see if any of the fans have stopped spinning, or place a room fan next to it to blow cold air onto it.
It could also be that your computer isn’t well-specced enough to use After Effects. As we’ve established, it’s a pretty intense piece of software, and you might need to consider upgrading.
- Check out the hardware requirements for Adobe After Effects.
It doesn’t need top-of-the-range software to run smoothly. It’s more about making smart, strategic choices to maximize your computer’s potential.
There you have it. When After Effects keeps crashing, it can be one of the most frustrating things you’ll encounter as a creator, especially when you’re up against a client’s deadline! Try one (or all) of the tips and tricks above and you should be well on your way to preventing After Effects from crashing all the time.
