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Inspira_sm
Inspira_sm
Participant
May 28, 2026

Camera Raw crash in AE 25 and 26

  • May 28, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 31 views

We have some AE licenses in the company. We usually work with raw sequences from Sony and Canon cameras on older versions of AE, but this time we upgraded from AE 24 to 26 (a bad decision). Now, when we import a Raw sequence, Camera raw opens and after we make some adjustements and clic “Save” it crash and AE too. Sometimes it works but if you want to make a new change in Camera raw, both crashes. I have tried all the following steps with several computers and the bug persists:

1. Toggle Hardware Accelerated DecodingA known conflict often occurs when hardware acceleration interacts poorly with raw footage.In After Effects, go to Edit > Preferences > Import (or General on some versions).Uncheck Hardware accelerated decoding.Restart After Effects.

2. Purge the Camera Raw CacheA corrupted or full cache can cause the ACR dialog to freeze or crash.In After Effects, go to Edit > Preferences > Camera Raw (or Media & Disk Cache).Navigate to the Performance tab if prompted.Click Purge Cache (or Empty Disk Cache).

3. Temporarily Disable GPU AccelerationIf ACR crashes when rendering effects, your graphics card or driver may be struggling with stricter ACR GPU requirements.Go to File > Project Settings.Under the Video Rendering and Effects tab, change the renderer from GPU Acceleration to Mercury Playback Engine Software Only.Restart and test if the crash still occurs.

4. Reset Camera Raw PreferencesIf the ACR configuration file itself is corrupted, resetting it can restore stability.Open Photoshop (as Camera Raw settings are shared universally with After Effects).Hold the Ctrl + Alt + Shift keys (Windows) or Command + Option + Shift keys (Mac) while launching Camera Raw preferences.Click Yes in the pop-up dialog that appears to reset the preferences.

Please, contact me if you solve it in a new upgrade. In the meantime, could you advise me on how to downgrade to AE24? We had deleted this version on all the computers except one. Now we can only work on this computer.

    2 replies

    benk34542665
    benk34542665
    Participant
    June 3, 2026

    I’ve been having the exact same issue, Camera Raw keeps freezing my whole project, and I can’t re-open the Camera Raw color window. I tried downgrading AE but that just gave me new problems, so now I’m back using AE Version 26.2.1 

     

    The only thing that seemed to help was turning off cache frames when idling.

     

    Composition > Preview > (uncheck) Cache Frames When Idle

     

    I also increased my Camera Raw Cache size to 30 GBs, and set the cache location to an external drive.

     

    Especially working with very high resolution files, I think having AE create cache frames in the background drastically reduces the overall software performance, which may have been causing frequent crashes. 

     

    Hope some of this helps! 

    Nishu Kushwaha
    Community Manager
    Nishu KushwahaCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    June 4, 2026

    Hi ​@benk34542665,

     

    Was it happening every time, or was it random? What version of Camera Raw is installed? You can try updating it if it’s not updated already. Also, if it crashes again and you see the crash reporter, insert your email id in the crash reporter and submit the report. That way, we’ll be able to find and investigate your crash report.

     

    Thanks,

    Nishu

    Nishu Kushwaha
    Community Manager
    Nishu KushwahaCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    June 1, 2026

    Hi Inspira_sm, thanks for the report and for documenting all the steps you've already tried. Are there any crash reports? Are you on macOS or Windows? What are your system specifications? What version of Camera Raw are you using? Can you try updating it if it hasn't been updated yet? Here's how: https://adobe.ly/4fdBk4p

    Let me know how it goes.


    Thanks,

    Nishu

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