AE 2026 crash out of memory possible workround
Good evening everyone.
I'm using ChatGPT because my English isn't very good.
Like many other users, i've been experiencing major issues with the latest version of After Effects. Despite working on a PC with 128 GB of RAM, a 32-core CPU, an RTX 4090, and an ultra-fast SSD dedicated to the cache, After Effects has become practically unusable.
Not only am i constantly running into "Out of Memory" errors, but the entire system eventually becomes unstable and unresponsive. It's been a complete disaster.
After searching all over the internet, i finally managed to get things working again by applying the following changes. i have no idea whether all of them are related to the fix or if only one of them is actually responsible, but it certainly doesn't hurt to try:
- Disable idle caching in the Composition Preview: Composition > Preview > Cache Frames When Idle.
- Disable Enable Compressed Frames in the Disk Cache options.
- Reduce the Idle Delay value in Preferences > Preview to a very low number (i set it to 3 seconds). This is where i experienced the worst crashes: increasing the delay would literally cause the entire system to become unresponsive.
- In the same window, set Cache Frames to Around Current Time and Cache Range to Work Area.
- Reserve 32 GB of RAM (out of 128 GB) for other applications.
After making these changes, i'm finally able to work again—at least for now.
As someone who has been using After Effects for about 15 years, i never expected to still be dealing with issues like this on a workstation built according to Adobe's recommended specifications.
i hope these workarounds help anyone else experiencing the same problems. Good luck!
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