After Effects crashes when I highlight a text layer and type certain letters in the font search

Question

I’m having a very specific crash in After Effects and I can’t find a real fix anywhere.

When I try to change the font on a text layer, AE crashes ONLY when the text layer is highlighted AND I type certain letters in the font search box (for example “a”). I can type those letters normally in the Character panel, and I can scroll fonts normally. The crash only happens when the text layer is selected and I type into the font search field.

AE does NOT freeze or lag — it instantly closes or gives a controlled crash
Reset Preferences does NOT fix it
Clearing cache does NOT fix it
Safe Mode does NOT fix it
Reinstalling AE does NOT fix it
I did NOT modify AE or install plugins
This only happens on text layers that already exist in the comp
Creating a new text layer sometimes avoids the crash, but the problem returns when searching fonts
I recently activated some Adobe Fonts, but the crash still happens even after deactivating them
Other Adobe apps (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.) do NOT have this issue

Nishu Kushwaha · Answer

Hi w1cketone, the pattern you're describing sounds like there’s a corrupted font on your system. When the font search narrows to that font, AE tries to live-preview it on the selected text and crashes on the bad font data.

To isolate which font is causing it:

1. Note exactly which letters trigger the crash (you mentioned "a" - are there others?). The corrupted font's name likely starts with those letters.
Open Windows Settings > Personalization > Fonts and scroll through fonts starting with that letter. Look for any with broken thumbnails or warning icons.
If that doesn’t help, you can move the fonts out of Windows Fonts folder to temporarily uninstall them.
Also, temporarily disable batches of third-party fonts you've installed and see if the crash stops. If it does, re-enable in smaller batches to find the culprit.

The next time it crashes, include your email in the crash reporter when submitting. We can pull the exact crash log from our end.

Let us know what you find!

Thanks,

Nishu

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