Question

After Effects crashes when I switch to another app and come back.

Forum|Forum|6 months ago
December 2, 2025
2 replies
143 views

Hi, I’m on a Mac and After Effects keeps showing a playback error and then crashes whenever I switch to another application and return to AE. It happens consistently during previews.
Why is this happening and how can I fix it?

Others

ToolfarmJP

Community Expert

You also check the permission of the folder. You use the command of sudo open by Terminal.app when you run After Effects. If After Effects works without problem, the issue is related to the folder permission.

R

RobShultz

Community Expert

Could we please have more information like your system specs and what version of AE you're using?

Thank you.

nishu_kush

Legend

In addition to what Rob suggested, please share a screenshot of the error that you're getting. Also, it'd be helpful to get to the root cause if you could share the logs. Here's how you can collect them:

1. Start AE
2. Help Menu > Enable Logging
3. Restart AE
4. Replicate the issue
5. Help Menu > Reveal Logging Files...
6. Find the "After Effects Log.txt" file and copy/paste the content back to this forum thread.

Looking forward to your response.

Thanks,
Nishu

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