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Participant
February 28, 2025

Problem with VERY HIGH RAM usage with EXTREMELY simple projects

  • February 28, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 271 views

Yesterday I started having problems with the latest version of After Effects. I can't work at all because just by setting 2 or 3 layers in my work line, the program uses almost 100% of my RAM and a warning appears on the screen. The computer crashes and sometimes I have to RESTART so I can continue using it.

I don't know how to solve this problem. I've tried downloading all the other versions before this one (up to 2024) and the problems continue in the same way.

My configuration is

i5 10400f
RTX 3060
32gb ram ddr4 3200mhz

I NEED help. I have a lot of work to deliver and I'm unable to work.

3 replies

Warren Heaton
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 28, 2025

Does the issue occur when After Effects is launched in Safe Mode?

Participant
February 28, 2025

Hello Jenkmeister, thank you for your attention. It is not in a specific project, it happens with absolutely all the projects I create. The RAM problem usually happens after I insert some keyframes in any parameter, it doesn't matter if the project has 1 layer or 20, they can even be simple shape layers... I really don't know what could be causing this.

As an example, to try to understand the problem, I created a new project in HD, I put 1 shape layer on the screen in a 2-second composition, I put 2 keyframes in the composition parameter to make a simple movement on the X axis and... crash, there doesn't seem to be any logical sense in the error.

I tried downloading other old versions... the problem persists, which made me think it was my hardware. I did all possible scans, RAM, system diagnostics, sfc via cmd, I even used advanced systemcare to see if I could find anything wrong and... I found nothing.

To clear up any doubts I had about it being a problem with my machine, I tested it on another computer I have here (this one with a MUCH more powerful configuration, Ryzen 7800x3D + RTX 4090 + 128GB RAM) and incredibly the same thing happens, but with just one time difference. At some point, even if the project is simple, the high RAM usage warning appears, the computer crashes, and it is also necessary to restart the computer to use it...

So this leads me to believe that the error is in fact in the program, but unfortunately I have no idea how to solve this. I don't know if it is a configuration issue or if it is a problem related to the installations.

Here's what I did in my troubleshooting and I still have the problem

- I downgraded to previous versions
- I disabled third-party plugins
- I cleared the disk cache and changed it to a separate SSD from where the program is installed (I allocated 250 GB to it)
- I scanned for possible hardware problems on one machine but found the same problem on another machine that certainly doesn't have any hardware problems.

Finally, I'm focusing my hopes here, because I really don't know what else to do to try to solve this.

February 28, 2025

Are you able to share a project that is causing this to happen to see if we can reproduce what you're seeing?