Every time I open After Effects the composition preview screen doesn't show.

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
October 3, 2019
2 replies
1238 views

So recently whenever I open After Effects, the composition window won't show anything. I've tried to fix this problem many times now and so far only one method works and I have to repeat the same process every time I open After Effects. I am tired of having to rename my folders every time I want to edit my videos so any help is appreciated!

My specs are:
Windows 10 (64-Bit)

CPU: i9-9900k at 3.6 GHz

GPU: RTX 2070 (8GB)

RAM: 16GB DDR4 at 3200 MHz
240 GB SSD & 1 TB HDD

Preview

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Kyle Hamrick

Community Expert

Can you be more specific about the fix/workaround you've discovered?

If you haven't already, try disabling GPU acceleration to see if that makes a difference.

File > Project Settings > Video Rendering and Effects

Are your video drivers up to date? Do you have any other AV devices installed that might be interfering somehow?

E

evan01Author

Participating Frequently

The fix that I do is renaming the After Effects folder "After Effects CC 2018" to "After Effects CC 2018.old" and when I open After Effects it creates a new folder and that fixes it until I close it and reopen it.
I'll try disabling GPU acceleration. Yes, my graphic drivers are typically always up to date. I don't believe I have anything interfering with it, do you have any examples of what could interfere with it?

Kyle Hamrick

Community Expert

Interesting. It doesn't sound like you've tried a full uninstall/reinstall, but that would be my next guess. If that doesn't work, uninstall and use the Adobe Cleaner Tool to make sure you've fully wiped all preference files, etc. from your system. It's possible your install has been corrupted, and getting a fresh start may be the solution. That said, I'd try one of these other less-extreme avenues first:

GPU acceleration is an easy first thing to try, and while this isn't a long-term solution, it at least helps pinpoint where the issue may be coming from. If your system is self-built, there's potential for the GPU fighting against an on-board graphics chip, which could require tinkering with BIOS settings, etc.

There's always a chance that other software/hardware that interacts with your audio/video devices could create potential conflicts. If we're troubleshooting a video issue (what it sounds like here), we need to go through and eliminate the potential sources of the issue, and that's an easy place to start. If AE was working fine up until a certain point, and then suddenly started misbehaving, retrace your steps and ask yourself what may have changed on your machine around the same time. It's always possible that a system update causes an issue, but most often it's something the user changed or installed, and only later realized the conflict.

It's next to impossible for developers (of anything) to account for every possible combination of devices that a user might create on their machine. We're doing basic troubleshooting here, just trying to start with easy solutions and working our way up to more difficult/annoying ones.