Are you experiencing lagging playback in After Effects? Lag can cause issues like odd audio playback, or video playback that seems to run frame by frame instead of smoothly. There are several reasons you could be facing lag, but, whatever the cause, lagging makes it more difficult to review your work accurately. Luckily, you don’t have to just live with lag! This guide will show you everything you can try to fix your After Effects lagging, and you’re sure to find a solution to your issues.
Summary
Part 1: What to check when your After Effects playback is laggy
The first step in fixing After Effects slow playback is figuring out why it’s happening. While there are many reasons that After Effects might have playback issues, there are three broad categories these errors fall into: software, hardware, and conflicts.
Software
Your lag issues may be caused by out-of-date software. This is especially true if the operating system on your device differs from the After Effects version you’re using. If Adobe Premiere has slow playback and a general lag in program responsiveness, software issues are likely to be behind it.
Always check that your device and Creative Cloud software is up to date. It’s also worth making sure that all your Adobe software is up to date, even if you’re only using After Effects. After Effects works hand-in-hand with Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, Encoder, and Adobe Bridge, so make sure everything is up to date, especially if you’re using Dynamic Linking.
Hardware
The device you use to edit can also be responsible for playback lag. Adobe specifies how much Memory/RAM you need to run After Effects. You may run into trouble on larger or complex projects even if you meet the minimum threshold.
Video editing software is hungry for processing power. It’s one area where more is always better. If you often experience After Effects lagging across different projects, hardware will likely be the cause.
Always check that your device meets Adobe’s specifications. If your specs are too low, you may need to consider getting a new editing laptop.
Conflicts
Conflicts occur when using out-of-date products with a more up-to-date version of After Effects. Unlike software issues, where there’s a difference between programs, your conflicts may occur within After Effects itself. It’s a surprisingly common reason for After Effects lagging.
Creative Suite is a powerful and impressive selection of tools that can be powered up with third-party plugins and effects. While these easily downloadable add-ons are ideal for adding more to your editing suite, they’re sometimes not updated as swiftly as After Effects.
If a conflict occurs, it will usually result in After Effects lagging or crashing when using a particular effect, plugin, or template. If After Effects is up to date, check with your third-party creators to see if the plugins also need updating. If there’s no update, but the conflict still occurs, you may need to uninstall the plugin.
Part 2: 10 ways to fix laggy playback in After Effects
If you’ve figured out what was causing your Adobe Premiere’s slow playback, you may already know how to fix it. However, if you’re still struggling, follow these steps. Hopefully, your issues will soon be sorted out.
1. Close down other applications
Every application needs RAM to run correctly. RAM gives the computer temporary space to work, and your whole computer shares its RAM power. So, if you have two intense programs running, it can cause issues. If you’re curious, you can learn more about RAM and what it does.
After Effects needs a lot of RAM to run efficiently. This is common for video editing tools. Remember, video, especially HD video, is resource-heavy, and file sizes are large. Limit the number of open applications and close those you don’t need while working in After Effects. That may be all you need to fix your Adobe Premiere slow playback.
2. Delete some files
After Effects lagging could also be caused by a lack of space on your device. With the size of media files, it can happen quickly. If you use a lot of downloadable assets, your Downloads folder can soon become cluttered with Zip folders and footage. Regularly clear out your downloads folder and file the assets you need accordingly.
3. Clear media cache
After Effects creates cache files each time you play back compositions. These small rendered files help with the preview and speed up the program. Over time, the media cache can block your device. Unlike other files on your device, the media cache must be emptied from within After Effects.
- Go to the After Effects Menu > Preferences > Media and Disk Cache
- Hit Empty Disk Cache followed by OK.
- Next, click Clean Database and Cache, followed by OK.
4. Move source files to local drive
After Effects uses your original files from their saved location. If you work from an external hard drive or a cloud-based setup, your system may struggle to find the footage you’re working with.
For a speedier playback, move your project to an internal drive while working on it if you’re struggling with After Effects slow playback. It’ll be easier for After Effects to find and work with your files.
5. Hardware accelerator
Another way to improve your playback is to use the After Effects Display options. Once you’ve made this change, you’ll need to restart After Effects, so make sure you save your work first.
- Go to After Effects Menu > Preferences > Display.
- Uncheck Hardware Accelerate Composition, Layer, and Footage Panels.
- Hit OK and restart After Effects.
6. Change playback resolution
Playback resolution is easy to change and gives After Effects an easier time playing back your videos. The Playback Resolution settings only work within After Effects, so your exports will still be in full quality. While the Playback Resolution settings decrease the quality of what you’re watching, it’ll help you review it at full speed without After Effects lagging.
7. Adaptive resolution
Adaptive Resolution is a function that allows After Effects to decide how much information to show from a high-resolution clip. It’s similar to changing the playback resolution, but After Effects will decide the minimum resolution needed to preview the data.
- Click on the Fast Previews icon next to the Playback Resolution drop-down.
- From the menu, choose Fast Previews Preferences.
- Change the Adaptive Resolution to 1/16 and hit GPU Information.
- Change the Texture Memory to 1152 and hit OK.
8. Memory and performance
All Adobe programs allow you to specify how much RAM your device allows them to use. You can change this if you wish. This sometimes stops After Effects lagging because it has used all the memory available. It can also make sure that After Effects gets to use all available RAM instead of it being used by other applications.
- Go to the After Effects Menu > Preferences > Memory and Performance.
- Change the RAM Shared By After Effects so your device uses as much (or as little) RAM as required.
- The RAM used for other applications will be adjusted to match. This setting only affects your other applications when Adobe is open.
9. Divide into smaller projects
If you have a particularly big or complicated project, dividing your composition into smaller chunks can help. Bigger projects will require compositions within compositions. The more comps within comps you create, the more likely slow playback will be. So, divide your project into scenes and create a separate After Effects project for each.
10. Export as previews
If your playback is still lagging, the last resort is to Export for Preview rather than rely on the After Effects playback tool. Doing this can add a lot of time to your edit, as you need to export your project after each change. Still, it will give you a realistic view of your project without After Effects lagging. It’s a good workaround to know.
If your After Effects is lagging, there are plenty of fixes. Hopefully, you’ve found one that works for you. Remember that you’re far less likely to run into problems with your editing with an optimized workflow. It’s always worth taking a little time to set up your project correctly. Motion Array has plenty of other Premiere Pro tutorials to help you, so why not try a few?
