preview pane completely freezing yet assets still editable

Forum|Forum|5 months ago
January 20, 2026
5 replies
64 views

hello all,

i have been having an issue with after effects that has been genuinely confusing. i will open the app and start editing, and at some point the preview panel will freeze. not just the frame that the preview is on, but i can't zoom, pan, or see any edits i make. however, i did notice that the changes are still made. that panel just won't let me see it. i've seen this issue posted before, but i haven't noticed any with my specifications. i purge my cache, turned up hardware acceleration, restarted, reset preferences, tried in different projects, etc. it doesn't crash per se, it just freezes. there is no exact behavior that causes it, also. sometimes it happens before i even start working on it. other times it happens just a few minutes into it. i haven't been able to make any progress on my projects as it continually does this, regardless of the countless things ive done to try to fix it. if anyone has any idea what's going on, i'd appreciate the help. thank you.

VERSION: Adobe After Effects 25.6.4 (Build 3)

device specifications:
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D 8-Core Processor (4.70 GHz)
Installed RAM 32.0 GB (31.2 GB usable)
Device ID C9EA3111-F32D-4924-9CB6-2AB349C9E3FF
Product ID 00342-21409-18112-AAOEM
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Pen and touch No pen or touch input is available for this display

Edition Windows 11 Home
Version 24H2
Installed on ‎8/‎12/‎2025
OS build 26100.7623
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.26100.275.0

A

Anonymous

nope. and that would just disable rendering, the whole preview panel is Entirely frozen

A

Anonymous

my reply is below. I don't know why it didn't attach, but oh well

A

Anonymous

Hello nishu,

I didn't have any third party plugins installed, but i went ahead and used the adobe cleaner tool anyway. unfortunately, it did not make a difference. i opened after effects and made an entirely new project, and i was going to just work with solids at first to not import files. before i could even add a solid, it froze again.

nishu_kush

Legend

Hi Andrea,

Sorry for the issue. Are there any third-party plug-ins installed? If so, can you disable the plug-ins (Effects > Manage Effects) and see if that makes a difference? If it doesn't or you don't have any plug-ins installed, try uninstalling After Effects using the Adobe Cleaner tool and then reinstalling it.

Let me know how it goes.

Thanks,
Nishu

M

markoconnell

Known Participant

Did you hit the Caps Lock key on your keyboard?

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