After Effects 23.6 and 24.0 Not Starting on MacOS 14/Sonoma

[jenkmeister]

Issue

Users upgrading to MacOS Sonoma (version 14) may find that After Effects will not startup and will report errors such as:

• After Effects can't continue: internal structure inconsistency (g) ( 25 :: 2 )
• After Effects error: globals unborn. ( 21 :: 3 )
• After Effects can't continue: unexpected failure during application startup
• After Effects can't continue: ... check for permissions or other error messages

Users may also find installed plugins are failing to load or exports from the Render Queue are failing in ways they did not before upgrading to Sonoma.

Resolution

The cause of the issue appears to be Sonoma adjusting the permissions and access to folders that After Effects requires to run. These include:

• /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/Plug-ins/7.0/MediaCore
• /Users/[Username]/Library/Preferences/Adobe/After Effects/[Version]
• /Users/[Username]/Library/Preferences/[com.Adobe.After Effects.23x-24.plist(s)]

To check for the appropriate permissions:

1. Navigate to /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/Plug-ins/7.0

• Right-click on the MediaCore folder and choose Get Info from the context menu.
• Open the Sharing & Permissions section and make sure “everyone” has at least Read Only Privilege set.
• If the account you are launching After Effects with is listed in the Name column, make sure it has at least the Read Privilege set as well.

2. Navigate to /Users/[Username]/Library/Preferences/Adobe/After Effects/
   • Right-click on the appropriate [Version] folder and choose Get Info from the context menu.
   • Ensure Locked is not checked. Uncheck it if necessary.
   • Open the Sharing & Permissions section and ensure the account you using to launch After Effects has both the Read & Write Privilege.

If after completing steps 1 & 2 After Effects will still not load, please make a backup of the above folders, then delete the folders at the paths above. Then uninstall and re-install After Effects.

Additional Step, thanks to @Mike Wills Makes 

3. Navigate to /Users/[Username]/Library/Preferences/

• Find the com.Adobe.After Effects.23*.plist files 
• Backup a copy of them to a safe location
• Delete the files. 
• Repeat these steps for any com.Adobe.After Effects.24*.plist files 

[guillaumec59646852]

Thanks for these solutions but they don't work (AE 22.5 / Sonoma)

[jenkmeister]

AE 22.5 will not be supported on Sonoma. The only supported versions are 24.0 and 23.6. 

[Rick Gerard]

Try these steps: https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/kb/known-issues-after-effects.html

[victoria27459592leoa]

I've tried these fixes a few times and I'm still not able to open AE (Sonoma 14.0 / AE 24.0)

[jenkmeister]

@victoria27459592leoa 

We'll need a log file to help further.

Navigate to 

/Users/[Username]/Library/Preferences/Adobe/After Effects/[Version]/logs Create an empty text file called "After Effects Log.txt" and save it in that folder.

Now startup After Effects and let it go through all the errors until it quits/crashes

Find the log file you created above and paste the contents of it back into this thread. 

[victoria27459592leoa]

Log file created: Mon Oct 9 23:35:04 2023
-------------------------------------------
Ticks = 1 <25084> <AppVers> <5> App Version = 24.0x55 release
Ticks = 1 <25084> <AppDirs> <5> App Dir = /Applications/Adobe After Effects 2024/Adobe After Effects 2024.app/Contents
Ticks = 1 <25084> <AppDirs> <5> Executable Dir = /Applications/Adobe After Effects 2024/Adobe After Effects 2024.app/Contents/MacOS
Ticks = 1 <25084> <AppDirs> <5> Resources Dir = /Applications/Adobe After Effects 2024/Adobe After Effects 2024.app/Contents/Resources
Ticks = 1 <25084> <AppDirs> <5> Package Dir = /Applications/Adobe After Effects 2024
Ticks = 1 <25084> <AppDirs> <5> Plugin Dir = /Applications/Adobe After Effects 2024/Plug-Ins
Ticks = 1 <25084> <AppDirs> <5> Required Dir = /Applications/Adobe After Effects 2024/Adobe After Effects 2024.app/Contents/Required
Ticks = 59 <25084> <ALOG> <5> Egg Mac Startup
Ticks = 83 <25084> <ALOG> <5> U Birth U Birth
Ticks = 83 <25084> <ALOG> <5> U CPU Data LogicalCores:0, PhysicalCores:0, MMX:1, SSE:1 SSE2:1, SSE3:0, SSSE(MNI):0, SSE4_1:0, SSE4_2:0
Ticks = 83 <25084> <ALOG> <5> U Birth U Hog Birth
Ticks = 160 <25084> <ALOG> <5> FILE Birth FILE Birth
Ticks = 160 <25084> <ALOG> <5> M Birth M Birth
Ticks = 160 <25084> <ALOG> <5> RND Birth RND Birth
Ticks = 681 <25084> <ALOG> <5> EGG Startup Caught exception, report as Err_Generic and aborting launch
Ticks = 681 <25084> <ALOG> <5> EGG IEggApp Done.
Ticks = 684 <25084> <ALOG> <5> EGG Constructor IEggApp failed, about to go away
Ticks = 684 <25084> <ALOG> <5> MC MC_StopAllAsyncWork MC_StopAllAsyncWork
Ticks = 684 <25084> <ALOG> <5> FLT Death FLT Death
Ticks = 684 <25084> <ALOG> <5> U U_Sev_FATAL After Effects can’t continue: internal structure inconsistency (g) ( 25 :: 2 )
Ticks = 707 <25084> <ALOG> <5> ReportError StackCrawl Up_ReportError
FLTp_InsaneMagicChecker(short, short, FLT_Globals*, FLT_FCSeqSpec const*, FLTp_FrSpec*, FLT_FCAudSpec**, short, boost::shared_ptr<FLT_FCSpec>*)
FLT_Death()
CEggApp::Cleanup()
CEggApp::FastExit()
CEggApp::CEggApp(aelib::InitIterator&, bool, bool, boost::shared_ptr<StartupTimeTelemetry>)
MainMain(bool, bool, bool, bool, bool, bool, bool, unsigned short const*, bool, void**, int, unsigned short const*)
EggMain(bool, bool, bool, bool, bool, bool, bool, unsigned short const*, bool, unsigned short const*)
main
start
??? <0>

Ticks = 4176 <25084> <ALOG> <5> PREF Death PREF Death
Ticks = 4176 <25084> <ALOG> <5> U U_Sev_PROBLEM After Effects error: globals unborn. ( 21 :: 3 )
Ticks = 4179 <25084> <ALOG> <5> ReportError StackCrawl Up_ReportError
PREF_Death(unsigned char)
CEggApp::Cleanup()
CEggApp::FastExit()
CEggApp::CEggApp(aelib::InitIterator&, bool, bool, boost::shared_ptr<StartupTimeTelemetry>)
MainMain(bool, bool, bool, bool, bool, bool, bool, unsigned short const*, bool, void**, int, unsigned short const*)
EggMain(bool, bool, bool, bool, bool, bool, bool, unsigned short const*, bool, unsigned short const*)
main
start
??? <0>

Ticks = 5766 <25084> <ALOG> <5> U U_Sev_FATAL After Effects can’t continue: unexpected failure during application startup
Ticks = 5768 <25084> <ALOG> <5> ReportError StackCrawl U_ReportError(unsigned int, unsigned short, std::__1::basic_string<unsigned short, std::__1::char_traits<unsigned short>, dvacore::allocator::STLAllocator<unsigned short>> const&)
MainMain(bool, bool, bool, bool, bool, bool, bool, unsigned short const*, bool, void**, int, unsigned short const*)
EggMain(bool, bool, bool, bool, bool, bool, bool, unsigned short const*, bool, unsigned short const*)
main
start
??? <0>

Ticks = 7298 <25084> <ALOG> <5> U U_SetMemoryInUseAdjustment setting adjustment from 0 to 0
Ticks = 7299 <25084> <ALOG> <5> U Death U Death
-------------------------------------------
Log file closed: Mon Oct 9 23:35:11 2023

[jenkmeister]

Thanks @victoria27459592leoa - the log file indicates the failure likely occurred trying to get access to the Preferences which is this folder: 

• /Users/[Username]/Library/Preferences/Adobe/After Effects/[Version]

I know you mentioned you'd tried the permissions and locked state. Did you try backing up and deleting  /Users/[Username]/Library/Preferences/Adobe/After Effects/[Version] from your machine. AE for some reason cannot read/write to the preferences folder which is why it is failing to startup. 

[victoria27459592leoa]

thank you - yes, I tried that but I'll do it again

[dan32818533vh5h]

i tried to open up after effects a couple hours ago today, and it said "After Effects can't continue: unexpected failure during application startup". I use the 2020 version of after effects. Is the 2020 version not supported for the new mac sonoma 14.0 update?

[jenkmeister]

The only truly supported AE version for Sonoma is 24.0. Any other AE version was released before Sonoma was released and as such there is no guarantee it will work.

[f7tality]

Just to confirm— adobe IS trying to put out some sort of update to where ALL versions and softwares is compatible for sonoma, correct?

[jenkmeister]

It is unlikely any versions before 24.0 will be updated to officially support Sonoma. The only officially supported versions in general is 24.0 and 23.6, and 23.6 is updated only for security issues. 

The current issue with Sonoma however appears to be the OS making changes to permissions on folders unexpectedly. We are going to try to improve that situation with 24.1 however we can. 

[victoria27459592leoa]

@jenkmeister is someone from adobe able to contact me / take over my device remotely and fix this issue? i've gone through the steps multiple times to no avail and I need after effects for work. thanks! 

[jenkmeister]

@victoria27459592leoa Yes, let's see if we can get something organized. It'd be helpful to us to be able to see a machine with the issue directly. We'll reach out to the email associated with this forums profile to set something up.

[valeriop34063594]

I have the same issue. Can you help me as well?

[valeriop34063594]

@jenkmeister I have the same issue, can you help me as well?

[jenkmeister]

@valeriop34063594 

1. Have you followed the steps at the start of this post to update the folder permissions?

2. Can you video record the entire process from start to finish of starting up AE so we can make sure we can see the entire experience? 

3. Can you also start up AE by going into the Applications folder, open the Adobe After Effects 2024 folder, right-click on the Adobe After Effects 2024 application and selecting Show Package Contents, go into Contents, go into MacOS, and then double-clicking "After Effects". That should produce a Terminal window with log messages. If you can copy that information and post it back here, that'll also help us.

[Borys Yankovoy]

Same problem(((

[Alice32989354g8hl]

/Applications/Adobe\ After\ Effects\ 2020/Adobe\ After\ Effects\ 2020.app/Contents/MacOS/After\ Effects ; exit;

/Users/alicebattaglia/.zshrc:1: module_init: function definition file not found

alicebattaglia@MacBook-Air-di-alice ~ % /Applications/Adobe\ After\ Effects\ 2020/Adobe\ After\ Effects\ 2020.app/Contents/MacOS/After\ Effects ; exit;

objc[2351]: Class AdobeSimpleURLSession is implemented in both /Applications/Adobe After Effects 2020/Adobe After Effects 2020.app/Contents/Frameworks/pie.framework/Versions/A/pie (0x16c8c4540) and /Applications/Adobe After Effects 2020/Adobe After Effects 2020.app/Contents/Frameworks/cclibmanager.framework/Versions/A/cclibmanager (0x163ec63a8). One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.

2023-10-17 22:19:01.628 After Effects[2351:67433] AdobeCrashReporterInitialize: executionTime = 0.004755 seconds

<8594301504> <AppVers> <5> App Version = 17.0.6.6x35 release

<8594301504> <AppDirs> <5> App Dir = /Applications/Adobe After Effects 2020/Adobe After Effects 2020.app/Contents

<8594301504> <AppDirs> <5> Executable Dir = /Applications/Adobe After Effects 2020/Adobe After Effects 2020.app/Contents/MacOS

<8594301504> <AppDirs> <5> Resources Dir = /Applications/Adobe After Effects 2020/Adobe After Effects 2020.app/Contents/Resources

<8594301504> <AppDirs> <5> Package Dir = /Applications/Adobe After Effects 2020

<8594301504> <AppDirs> <5> Plugin Dir = /Applications/Adobe After Effects 2020/Plug-Ins

<8594301504> <AppDirs> <5> Required Dir = /Applications/Adobe After Effects 2020/Adobe After Effects 2020.app/Contents/Required

2023-10-17 22:19:01.636 After Effects[2351:67433] AdobeCrashReporterInitialize: executionTime = 0.001645 seconds

2023-10-17 22:19:01.684 AdobeCRDaemon[2353:67477] CR dialog Preference for force quit 1

<8594301504> <NGL> <5> InitializeProfileUpdates returned mErrorCode = NglStatusCode:401 Workflow Required

<8594301504> <NGL> <5> GetAMTData returned mErrorCode = NglStatusCode:401 Workflow Required

Saving session...2023-10-17 22:19:11.386 AdobeCRDaemon[2353:67480] exitStatus: 0

...copying shared history...

...saving history...truncating history files...

...completed.

[Processo completato]

[jenkmeister]

@Alice32989354g8hl Only AE 23.6 and 24.0 are supported versions of After Effects now. Version 17.0.6 is not something we will be able to make work with MacOS 14. 

[MaxLuczynski]

I'm on Sonoma with AE 24 – I tried that fix but it didn't work.
 
BUT:
then I deleted the preferences of all 23.x versions as well, as I thought AE might look through these after a fresh install, which might result in the same error. 

Worked like a charm, and AE is up and running again.

[Mia3302601453gf]

Is there anyway you can explain how you did that? Very desperate to make my AE work again!

[ch&h]

I went into Library/Preferences/ (then deleted all) com.Adobe.After Effects.23x-24.plist(s)

Then it worked for me! Thanks MaxLuczynski!

[jack! :D]

Same here! I downloaded macOS Sonoma 14.0 a couple weeks back and I realised After Effects won't open; the rest of my Adobe apps were fine though. I use AE 2020 fyi!

[Kuzu33071243kjcr]

How did you fix that? @jack! 😄