After Effects Troubleshooting: After Effects Keeps Crashing

If you’re in the business of creating videos, motion graphics, or animations, you’re likely familiar with Adobe After Effects. After Effects is one of the most popular video editing programs on the market and an essential tool for many video creators—that is, until it crashes.

After Effects crashing is a common problem many users face and can be incredibly frustrating. Not only does this issue disrupt your workflow, but it also presents the possibility of lost work.

If you want to know how to stop After Effects from crashing, we’ve got you covered. Read on to learn how to fix After Effects crashing, top troubleshooting techniques, and preventative tips to avoid a future After Effects crash so you can enjoy a smooth, steady video production process – minus the profanities!

Common Causes of After Effects Crashes

If you’re wondering why After Effects isn’t responding or keeps crashing, more than one factor could be at play. Let’s look at the most common causes of After Effects crashing.

• Your computer falls short of the necessary specifications.
  If your computer doesn’t meet the requirements set out by Adobe – such as features like the processor, storage capacity, or graphics card – it could be triggering frequent crashes or slowing overall performance. So, as a first port of call, it’s a good idea to check out the After Effects specifications on the Adobe website to see if your computer is compatible.
  
• After Effects isn’t playing nice with your other software.
  Sometimes, After Effects mightn’t work well with the other applications or plugins installed on your computer. To avoid crashes caused by software conflicts, it’s best and common practice to regularly update all software and plugins.
  
• There’s not enough room on your computer.
  Not having enough available memory (RAM) or disk space can also cause After Effects to crash. Managing your computer’s memory well means setting up enough space for After Effects to run smoothly. It also helps to regularly clear the cache and remove any unnecessary data.
  
• Damaged files are causing the problem.
  If your After Effects project files become corrupted or damaged, it can again result in unexpected crashing. You can protect your work by creating regular backups and using backup files or recovery tools to recover or repair corrupted projects.

Troubleshooting Techniques to Prevent Crashes

Now you’re up to speed on the common causes of After Effects experiencing technical issues, let’s look at how you can fix it! Here are some simple techniques to troubleshoot and prevent After Effects crashes:

1. Stay on Top of After Effects Updates

Keeping After Effects up to date is vital to a smooth and reliable experience—plus, it’s super easy to do. Software updates aim to fix problems and enhance the platform’s usability with added new features. You can check for updates in Creative Cloud and install them to get the latest improvements, helping to prevent crashes. Here’s how:

• Go to your Creative Cloud Application Manager.
• Select Apps, then Check for updates.
• If there’s an update available for After Effects, a button will say Update.

2. Tweak After Effects’ Settings

Adjusting the preferences and settings in After Effects can help boost its performance. Try tweaking how much memory you’re using or enabling multiprocessing to simultaneously use multiple parts of your computer. Experiment with different settings to find what works best for your computer and project!

• Go to the Edit menu in After Effects
• Select Preferences and choose Memory and Multiprocessing.
• Adjust the sliders or input fields for RAM Reserved for Other Applications and RAM Available for After Effects.
• Enable or turn off Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously for multiprocessing.
• Find the optimal memory configuration for your system through experimentation.

3. Close Any Unused Programs

This is a simple fix, but it does tend to slip the mind, so think of this as your friendly reminder! For each additional program open on your computer, your machine works extra hard in the background to provide a seamless experience. Closing any programs or tasks you don’t need can free up memory and processing power, filtering it back into where it’s required: After Effects.

This is particularly relevant if you’re doing heavy rendering work, like creating detailed 3D animation or working with intricate visual effects or multiple layers. If this sounds like the projects you often work on, you can adjust the rendering settings in After Effects to lessen the burden on your hardware.

• Go to the Composition menu in After Effects.
• Select Composition Settings.
• Modify settings like the composition size, frame rate, and pixel aspect ratio.
• Experiment with different settings to find the right balance of quality and performance.

4. Troubleshooting Plugins and Third-Party Software

Third-party plugins can be super helpful for streamlining workflow and maximizing efficiency, but they can also mess up your system. The best way to fix any problematic plugins is to delete them from your software folder and ensure all your plugins are current and work with your After Effects version.

• Go to the Adobe After Effects folder in Applications for Mac users and Program Files for Windows users.
• Copy and paste your plugins to a different place for safekeeping.
• Delete the plugins found in your After Effects folder.
• Reopen After Effects, and you should be good to go.

5. Keep Your After Effects Files Organized

Organizing and managing project assets is essential for a smooth workflow. It’s helpful to use folders and clear names to keep track of your files and remove anything you don’t need to avoid clutter. You can also regularly perform housekeeping tasks within After Effects to keep your project clean and lower the risk of crashes.

6. Practice Good File Management

Regularly saving and creating backups of your project files can help to prevent losing your work if After Effects crashes. Start saving your work incrementally in different versions to ensure you have multiple recovery points. It’s also helpful to follow best practices for file organization and archiving, like creating a folder structure and storing files in a secure location.

• Go to the File menu and select Save As.
• Choose a location on your computer to save the backup file.
• Give the backup file a new name to differentiate it from the original.
• Click Save to create a backup of your project file.

After Effects Crashing: Additional Tips and Best Practices

If you’ve exhausted all the steps above, and After Effects still keeps crashing, what now? Let’s look at some additional tips and best practices that could help future you should a crash arise.

1. Work in Stages and Save Incrementally

We briefly touched on this earlier, but breaking your work into stages and frequently saving means you can return to previous versions if there are crashes or mistakes.

2. Utilize Preview and RAM Caching Effectively

Make the most of After Effects’ preview and RAM caching feature to ensure playback and rendering is smoother and faster. This reduces the likelihood of crashes while previewing your work or rendering the final output. Some of these include:

• Enabling RAM Preview for smoother playback:
  • Select the composition you want to preview.
  • Go to the Preview menu and choose RAM Preview.
  • After Effects will start caching frames into memory, resulting in smoother playback.
• Adjusting the Preview Resolution settings to balance quality and performance:
  • Go to the Preview menu in After Effects.
  • Select Preview Resolution.
  • Choose a suitable Preview Resolution option (such as Full, Half, or Custom).
  • Experiment with different Preview Resolution settings to find the right balance for your project.
• Setting RAM allocation in Preferences:
  • See the above section “Tweak the Settings in After Effects” on how to do this.

3. Clear Disk Caches and Optimize Scratch Disk Settings

Regularly clearing the disk caches in After Effects helps to free up storage space and maintain optimal performance. It’s also a good idea to configure the scratch disk settings to use the fastest available drive for temporary storage.

• Go to the Edit menu in After Effects.
• Select Purge and choose All Memory & Disk Cache.
• Confirm the action when prompted.
• After Effects will clear the disk cache, freeing up storage space.

4. Consider Upgrading Your Hardware

If your computer is outdated (i.e. it doesn’t meet the minimum requirements for After Effects), it might be time to consider an upgrade. You could consider upgrading RAM, CPU, or GPU components to enhance performance and stability. Take a quick squiz at the Adobe website to check the requirements for the best possible After Effects experience.

To Wrap Up

After Effects crashes are frustrating, but by understanding the common causes – and using the troubleshooting techniques and best practices discussed in this blog post – hopefully, you can ward off any crashes down the line.

Remember to keep After Effects up to date, optimize your system settings, and close any unused apps or tasks. Regularly troubleshoot problematic plugins, keep a clean project, and practice good file management. These simple tips can help minimize crashes, save time, and ensure a smooth video production experience.

And if you’re a new After Effects user—or just looking to recap the basics—check out our free beginner’s course. Alternatively, if you’re looking for more After Effects blogs to keep reading, discover our take on Premiere Pro vs. After Effects or our picks for the Top 10 After Effects Templates for 2023. Be sure to visit Envato Elements to find a huge range of powerful After Effects templates to boost your video-editing capabilities.