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EditorJohn
Participant
December 19, 2024

Latest AE version (25.1) crashes my iMac

  • December 19, 2024
  • 5 replies
  • 520 views

The latest version of After Effects freezes up my intel iMac. I have to switch off and restart the computer as everything - even the mouse - freezes. I've never had any issues at running AE on this machine before nor in the many, many years I've been using it. It's driving me crazy as I can't do any work with AE. 

I don't have any 3rd party plug-ins installed so that's not the issues. I don't have any issues with any other software.

My iMac spec is 3.8Ghz 8-Core i7, with 128GB RAM

I'd be grateful for any solution to this? 

5 replies

C
Creative_5123
Participant
November 20, 2025

100%, yet they don't get the message.

R
Russell23628593tjg5
Participating Frequently
March 13, 2025

Always keep older versions of AE installed on your machine, every single new After effects update I have used are riddled with weird buggy crashes, I think us motion designers would much prefer emphasis on stability instead of "new bells and whistles". Older versions of AE seem to have fixed the issues experienced by previous users, I generally work in the version just before the current one and experience a lot less crashes. 

JohnColombo17100380
Community Manager
JohnColombo17100380Community Manager
Community Manager
January 6, 2025

Hi @EditorJohn,

Thank you for those details, sorry you're experiencing so many crashes with After Effects.

 

When the crashes occurs, have you been prompted to submit a crash report wiht your email? Please do submit those with as much info as possible—they are critical as we investigate crashing issues.

 

Most of the crashing scenarios you've described include rendering a frame, so an application log may help to shed further light on what is happening. To enable logging, select Enable Logging from the Help menu and restart After Effects as prompted. Work like you usually would until After Effects crashes, then go to "'/Users/<your username>/Library/Preferences/Adobe/After Effects/<current AE version>/logs" and share the After Effects Log.txt file. I'd recommand DMing it to me here in the forum versus posting it here since the log will contain file path information.

 

Thanks for any further information you can provide,

- John, After Effects Engineering Team 

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EditorJohnAuthor
Participant
December 22, 2024

Here's an update on my AE crash situation. Despite running in Safe Mode, AE continues to randomly crash on my iMac. It will work fine for a while and then suddenly freeze up - locking the app and even the mouse. I have to reboot the iMac. The latest freeze up today happened as I was changing the level of Gausian blur on an adjustment layer. Previously, it's crashed while attempting to render out a composition, and also while creating a simple rectangle - i.e. creating really basic stuff. I really don't know what to do other than to start using alternatives to AE. I have no issues running any other app, Adobe or otherwise on my Mac - only AE displays this issue. In addition to the computer spec I gave in my earlier post, I can add that I'm running Sonoma 14.6.1 OS. 

    nishu_kush
    Community Manager
    nishu_kushCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    December 19, 2024

    Sorry to hear about the issue. Do you mind sharing the following details:

    1. Does it happen on a specific project or all of them?
    2. Is there a specific command/action that triggers it or does it happen randomly?
    3. What happens if you run After Effects in Safe Mode? Does that help?

    Let us know.


    Thanks,
    Nishu

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    EditorJohnAuthor
    Participant
    December 19, 2024
    Hi Nishu
    I initially thought it might have been a project / composition that had
    been corrupted somehow so I created a new project - for a new job and
    built everything from scratch. However, the crash recurred in the same way
    - freezing up the iMac.
    The first crash, a couple of weeks ago, happened when I imported a video
    clip to act as a background layer - as I've done hundreds of times before.
    Everything was okay but when I
    tried to render out the comp, I got the spinning wheel of death and the
    system crashed. I restarted it all and, thinking it may have been a bad
    file, imported a still image in place of the video to test it. It rendered
    out okay, but when carrying out a subsequent render
    using still images, the system crashed/froze up as before. On that
    particular project I did eventually manage to render out simple, animated
    lower third graphics boxes with text that I needed.

    In the project I'm currently working on, I've had several random freezes /
    crashes - all of the same nature; I was using simple shapes and text layers
    (so not a lot of processing needed), when everything crashed again.
    I had not attempted to render anything. Totally random.
    I've not run anything in safe mode yet but I have wound back to AE version
    25.0 - (the last version I know was running just fine on my machine). I
    hope that works. If not, I'll run in safe mode and see.
    Of course, I have no way of running a diagnostic on this so even in safe
    mode I'm not sure I would be any the wiser.
    Hope that gives you enough information.
    John
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