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J
Community Manager
jenkmeister17177426Community Manager
October 7, 2023

After Effects 23.6 and 24.0 Not Starting on MacOS 14/Sonoma

  • October 7, 2023
  • 75 replies
  • 48987 views

Issue

Users upgrading to MacOS Sonoma (version 14) may find that After Effects will not startup and will report errors such as:

 

  • After Effects can't continue: internal structure inconsistency (g) ( 25 :: 2 )
  • After Effects error: globals unborn. ( 21 :: 3 )
  • After Effects can't continue: unexpected failure during application startup
  • After Effects can't continue: ... check for permissions or other error messages

 

Users may also find installed plugins are failing to load or exports from the Render Queue are failing in ways they did not before upgrading to Sonoma.

 

Resolution

The cause of the issue appears to be Sonoma adjusting the permissions and access to folders that After Effects requires to run. These include:

  • /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/Plug-ins/7.0/MediaCore
  • /Users/[Username]/Library/Preferences/Adobe/After Effects/[Version]
  • /Users/[Username]/Library/Preferences/[com.Adobe.After Effects.23x-24.plist(s)]

 

To check for the appropriate permissions:

 

  1. Navigate to /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/Plug-ins/7.0
  • Right-click on the MediaCore folder and choose Get Info from the context menu.
  • Open the Sharing & Permissions section and make sure “everyone” has at least Read Only Privilege set.
  • If the account you are launching After Effects with is listed in the Name column, make sure it has at least the Read Privilege set as well.

 

  1. Navigate to /Users/[Username]/Library/Preferences/Adobe/After Effects/
    • Right-click on the appropriate [Version] folder and choose Get Info from the context menu.
    • Ensure Locked is not checked. Uncheck it if necessary.
    • Open the Sharing & Permissions section and ensure the account you using to launch After Effects has both the Read & Write Privilege.

 

If after completing steps 1 & 2 After Effects will still not load, please make a backup of the above folders, then delete the folders at the paths above. Then uninstall and re-install After Effects.

 

Additional Step, thanks to @Mike Wills Makes 

 

3. Navigate to /Users/[Username]/Library/Preferences/

  • Find the com.Adobe.After Effects.23*.plist files 
  • Backup a copy of them to a safe location
  • Delete the files. 
  • Repeat these steps for any com.Adobe.After Effects.24*.plist files 

 

    75 replies

    Show previous replies
    K
    Kuzu33071243kjcr
    Participant
    October 21, 2023

    How did you fix that? @jack! :D 

      J
      jack! :D
      Participant
      October 20, 2023

      Same here! I downloaded macOS Sonoma 14.0 a couple weeks back and I realised After Effects won't open; the rest of my Adobe apps were fine though. I use AE 2020 fyi!

        C
        ch&h
        Participant
        October 20, 2023

        I went into Library/Preferences/ (then deleted all) com.Adobe.After Effects.23x-24.plist(s)

        Then it worked for me! Thanks MaxLuczynski!

          M
          Mia3302601453gf
          Participant
          October 19, 2023

          Is there anyway you can explain how you did that? Very desperate to make my AE work again!

            M
            MaxLuczynski
            Participant
            October 18, 2023

            I'm on Sonoma with AE 24 – I tried that fix but it didn't work.
             
            BUT:
            then I deleted the preferences of all 23.x versions as well, as I thought AE might look through these after a fresh install, which might result in the same error. 

            Worked like a charm, and AE is up and running again.

              J
              Community Manager
              jenkmeister17177426Community ManagerAuthor
              October 17, 2023

              @Alice32989354g8hl Only AE 23.6 and 24.0 are supported versions of After Effects now. Version 17.0.6 is not something we will be able to make work with MacOS 14. 

                A
                Alice32989354g8hl
                Participant
                October 17, 2023

                /Applications/Adobe\ After\ Effects\ 2020/Adobe\ After\ Effects\ 2020.app/Contents/MacOS/After\ Effects ; exit;

                /Users/alicebattaglia/.zshrc:1: module_init: function definition file not found

                alicebattaglia@MacBook-Air-di-alice ~ % /Applications/Adobe\ After\ Effects\ 2020/Adobe\ After\ Effects\ 2020.app/Contents/MacOS/After\ Effects ; exit;

                objc[2351]: Class AdobeSimpleURLSession is implemented in both /Applications/Adobe After Effects 2020/Adobe After Effects 2020.app/Contents/Frameworks/pie.framework/Versions/A/pie (0x16c8c4540) and /Applications/Adobe After Effects 2020/Adobe After Effects 2020.app/Contents/Frameworks/cclibmanager.framework/Versions/A/cclibmanager (0x163ec63a8). One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.

                2023-10-17 22:19:01.628 After Effects[2351:67433] AdobeCrashReporterInitialize: executionTime = 0.004755 seconds

                <8594301504> <AppVers> <5> App Version = 17.0.6.6x35 release

                <8594301504> <AppDirs> <5> App Dir = /Applications/Adobe After Effects 2020/Adobe After Effects 2020.app/Contents

                <8594301504> <AppDirs> <5> Executable Dir = /Applications/Adobe After Effects 2020/Adobe After Effects 2020.app/Contents/MacOS

                <8594301504> <AppDirs> <5> Resources Dir = /Applications/Adobe After Effects 2020/Adobe After Effects 2020.app/Contents/Resources

                <8594301504> <AppDirs> <5> Package Dir = /Applications/Adobe After Effects 2020

                <8594301504> <AppDirs> <5> Plugin Dir = /Applications/Adobe After Effects 2020/Plug-Ins

                <8594301504> <AppDirs> <5> Required Dir = /Applications/Adobe After Effects 2020/Adobe After Effects 2020.app/Contents/Required

                2023-10-17 22:19:01.636 After Effects[2351:67433] AdobeCrashReporterInitialize: executionTime = 0.001645 seconds

                2023-10-17 22:19:01.684 AdobeCRDaemon[2353:67477] CR dialog Preference for force quit 1

                <8594301504> <NGL> <5> InitializeProfileUpdates returned mErrorCode = NglStatusCode:401 Workflow Required

                <8594301504> <NGL> <5> GetAMTData returned mErrorCode = NglStatusCode:401 Workflow Required

                 

                Saving session...2023-10-17 22:19:11.386 AdobeCRDaemon[2353:67480] exitStatus: 0

                 

                ...copying shared history...

                ...saving history...truncating history files...

                ...completed.

                 

                [Processo completato]

                 

                B
                Borys Yankovoy
                Participant
                October 17, 2023

                Same problem(((

                  J
                  Community Manager
                  jenkmeister17177426Community ManagerAuthor
                  October 16, 2023

                  @valeriop34063594 

                   

                  1. Have you followed the steps at the start of this post to update the folder permissions?

                  2. Can you video record the entire process from start to finish of starting up AE so we can make sure we can see the entire experience? 

                  3. Can you also start up AE by going into the Applications folder, open the Adobe After Effects 2024 folder, right-click on the Adobe After Effects 2024 application and selecting Show Package Contents, go into Contents, go into MacOS, and then double-clicking "After Effects". That should produce a Terminal window with log messages. If you can copy that information and post it back here, that'll also help us.

                   

                   

                  V
                  valeriop34063594
                  Participant
                  October 16, 2023

                  @jenkmeister17177426 I have the same issue, can you help me as well?

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