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Nesisart32136549
Inspiring
July 10, 2025
Answered

Playback freeze in after effect, I tried everything...

  • July 10, 2025
  • 9 replies
  • 812 views

I’m experiencing a recurring issue with After Effects (v24.5 / 2025) on a brand new machine built for motion design and 3D. AE consistently freezes during preview after a few minutes — the interface remains responsive, but the preview image stays locked. No crash, no error message, no way to report the bug.

🖥️️ My setup:

  • GPU: NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti (Studio Driver)

  • Power: 330W adapter

  • RAM: [insert amount, e.g. 32 GB DDR5]

  • OS: Windows 11 Pro

  • AE Version: 24.5 (2025 release)

🧪 What I’ve already tried:

  • Mercury GPU AND Mercury Software Only rendering modes (same result)

  • Different AE versions, projects, and compositions

  • No third-party plugins

  • Clean cache & preferences reset

  • Updated NVIDIA drivers (Studio and Game Ready)

  • Disabled all sync services, antivirus, background apps

Observations:

  • Preview freezes after several minutes regardless of project size

  • RAM usage stays stable / doesn’t max out

  • No GPU or CPU spikes before freeze

  • AE doesn’t detect this as a crash or bug, so no report is generated

 

Recap: What We’ve Eliminated

Area ✅ Tested Result
AE version2024 & 2025 freeze
GPU accelerationDisabled → still freezes
RAMNot maxed out (17/83 GB used)
ProjectsHappens across all
PluginsNo third-party
DriversAll up-to-date
Reinstall AETried
Preferences resetDone
Power supply

330W (confirmed okay)

    Correct answer Nesisart32136549

    Final update: My computer has been sent for repair, and the SSD disk has been identified as defective.
    I don't have any problem with After Effects anymore.

    9 replies

    N
    Nesisart32136549AuthorCorrect answer
    Inspiring
    August 29, 2025

    Final update: My computer has been sent for repair, and the SSD disk has been identified as defective.
    I don't have any problem with After Effects anymore.

    nishu_kush
    nishu_kush
    Legend
    September 3, 2025

    Thanks for updating the thread. Feel free to reach out if there are any other questions.

    Moving this thread from Bugs to Discussions.


    Thanks,
    Nishu

    G
    Gilly_9
    Participant
    July 30, 2025

    I also have the exact problem. new PC that also uses NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti. After a while the play head just stops working and every time you press spacebar it moves 1 frame at a time and really you can't do anything after that except close application again  which will then only repeat the same problem. one my older pc with the same projects files it works just fine on the same version of After effects. if you have resolved the issue please share, thank you

    J
    jenil_kothari
    Participant
    July 23, 2025

    I have the exact same issue on my laptop Zephyrus G14 with RTX 5060. Tried everything and the laptop is brand new.

    N
    Nesisart32136549Author
    Inspiring
    July 21, 2025

    I don't know if that can be useful, but going into logs, not specific to a version of After effects, I found an automatic log for today.
    Only copying the last lines but the crash is clearly appearing there :

     

     [2025-07-21_09-33-04][3904][Default] [console] Mon, 21 Jul 2025 07:33:04 GMT [HS] [LicenseChiclet] NGL: Showing no chiclet.
    [2025-07-21_09-33-04][3904][Error] [console] Mon, 21 Jul 2025 07:33:04 GMT [HS] [FallbackComponent] Failed to render layout for home route! Falling back... Error: Home Yukon data is corrupt or not present: undefined
    [2025-07-21_09-33-04][3904][Warn] [console] [HS] [StartIngestUtil]
    [2025-07-21_09-33-04][3904][Warn] [console] Mon, 21 Jul 2025 07:33:04 GMT [HS] [StartIngestUtil] Analytics event missing Sophia data:
    [2025-07-21_09-33-10][3904][Error] [console] [Hu-1] Failed to create/get SAMAssetContext: SAM init timed out
    [2025-07-21_09-33-10][3904][Error] [console] [Hu-1] Failed to create/get SAMAssetContext: SAM init timed out
    [2025-07-21_09-33-10][3904][Default] [console] Mon, 21 Jul 2025 07:33:10 GMT [HS] [AnalyticsCacheController] Removed the latest batch (20 size) from the local cache key: analytics_cache_hs-486967
    [2025-07-21_09-33-10][3904][Default] [console] Mon, 21 Jul 2025 07:33:10 GMT [HS] [AnalyticsCacheController] There are currently 5 payloads in temp cache, will send a batch of size 5
    [2025-07-21_09-33-21][3904][Default] [console] Mon, 21 Jul 2025 07:33:21 GMT [HS] [AnalyticsCacheController] Clearing cache key: analytics_cache_hs-486967
    [2025-07-21_09-33-21][3904][Default] [console] Mon, 21 Jul 2025 07:33:21 GMT [HS] [AnalyticsCacheController] No events in local cache, stopped processing it

    N
    Nesisart32136549Author
    Inspiring
    July 21, 2025
    Please download the attached file to view this post
    nickgripton
    nickgripton
    Inspiring
    July 14, 2025

    Also having similar problem with an Nvidia Geforece 5070ti + 330W PSU on a laptop. After Effects or Media Encoder doing any render with GPU or Multiframe rendering activated will crash WINDOWS. The whole machine becomes unresponsive, can't even force shutdown. 

    N
    Nesisart32136549Author
    Inspiring
    July 11, 2025

    Hi again, so the reset didn't work unfortunately. The reset was not complete though because I chose the option to keep my documents.

    Unfortunately, I cannot even share a log because somehow the problem got worse, and not when this happens, After Effects completely freezes, and I cannot even force quit it... 

     

     

    nishu_kush
    nishu_kush
    Legend
    July 11, 2025

    That's not a problem. The log created during the After Effects freeze should be helpful. Please collect the logs and share.


    Thanks,
    Nishu

    N
    Nesisart32136549Author
    Inspiring
    July 11, 2025

    Thank you for the fast answer! 
    I have disabled the multi-frame rendering, but the problem remains. 
    I have a 330W power supply, but I'm using a laptop, not a desktop.
    The problems started after I used After Effects for files on my Dropbox, the problem still remains after uninstalling it. 
    I just resetted my computer today hoping it will solve the issue. I hope it did, if it doesn't I'll send you the log file.
    Thank you so much for your support

    nishu_kush
    nishu_kush
    Legend
    July 10, 2025

    Thanks for creating the detailed post, Nesisart. Sorry to hear that you're encountering the issue.

     

    I've seen a few other reports of similar issues. Can you try disabling Multi-Frame Rendering (After Effects Preferences > Memory & Performance) and see if that makes any difference? Besides that, I think the power supply (330 W) might not be sufficient for the Nvidia 5070 Ti. I am not 100% sure if that's what is causing the issue (we're still investigating it), but it can cause performance issues. I'd recommend doing your own research before buying a new PSU. Also, do you mind collecting and sharing a log file from your machine that might give us a hint on what's happening?

    Here are the steps to collect the log file:

    1. Start AE
    2. Help Menu => Enable Logging
    3. Restart AE
    4. Start working in After Effects until the issue starts happening. 
    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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