After Effects 2026 issues + no access to older versions?

Hi everyone,

I recently updated After Effects, and performance has been much worse than before. It got very slow, and now it doesn’t even open — even though it was working (just slowly) last week on the same machine.

I have 16GB RAM, and while I know that’s not high-end, but I used to run Photoshop, After Effects, and Illustrator (and sometimes even InDesign) simultaneously on an older, weaker laptop without major issues, so this is a beyond disappointing.

I also upgraded to this laptop just last year, so replacing it isn’t really an option — especially when the issue seems tied to Adobe’s updates rather than my hardware.

What’s frustrating is that I can’t access older, more stable versions through Creative Cloud. I’m paying for a subscription, and part of that value (from a user perspective) is being able to use versions that actually work on your system.

If anyone from Adobe happens to read this, I’d really appreciate being contacted directly to possibly get access to a 2022 or 2023 version.

P.S. I’m aware there are other threads about this, but I wanted to post to hopefully get a response as soon as possible, since I’m currently unable to work due to what seems like an executive decision limiting access to older versions.

Thanks.