After Effects 25.3 freezing while working from dropbox or different drive

[jordank24770238]

So I just built a new PC, here are the specs:

• RTX 5090 32GB
• intel ultra core 9 
• Asus proart z890 MB
• running windows 11
• 192 GB RAM
• 4 separate 1TB internal Samsung 990 pro SSDs (totalling 4TB, all formatted NTFS)

AE pugetbench checks with scores above 16000 when everything is run from C:drive, ran read/write speed checks on drives, all fine, cooling and cinebench all fine.

I downloaded dropbox to my secondary internal drive(Y: drive) and run into a problem when I open a file and try to save/render/import footage files from dropbox, it freezes the ram preview (still image, solid green bar, no refresh) after seeming ok for a couple minutes after those actions take place. After the preview freezes, a couple minutes later the whole program locks up and sometimes won't even allow a force quit. Things I've tried but didn't work:

• Moving dropbox to the main C: drive where the OS and programs are
• Turning off hardware aceleration AND multiframe rendering
• reinstalling the GPU drivers from scratch and ensuring they are the studio version. 
• reinstalling After Effects and dropbox
• removing extended programs that might mess with GPU settings (Asus armoury crate, Proart for creators, etc.)
• ensuring there is no active syncing happening via dropbox while working

Thought maybe the problem was specific to dropbox but I've tried running the same import/render tests with Premiere and davinci, and After effects v 24.6.7 with no issues. 
I was also able to recreate this issue once by copying the collected project to a different internal drive(Z: drive) and then importing a video file from my C: drive, it froze and crashed but this only happened once after waiting awhile. I did try only rendering from that same file and it was perfectly fine.
Cache is connected to my X: drive, not used for anything else.

If I collect a project and save it to C: drive I can work fine, but understandably I'm frustrated I can't utilize my other internal drives as I use dropbox very frequently for work and it adds an extra unecessary step to have to move all my assets locally and then reconnect them in dropbox. I'm running out of ideas to test out and hoping anyone can offer a possible solution.

Please help!

[caroline_edits]

Hey Jordan,

Thanks for sharing all these details and the steps you tried! Sorry to hear it's freezing when you're importing from Dropbox.

Would it be possible to share a screenshare of the way it works in After Effects 24.6.7 as well as a screen recording of how it performs in 25.3? These side-by-side comparisons help us determine the cause of the issue. 

I know your footage needs to stay on Dropbox, but where is your .AEP file stored?

Our typical guidance would be to not import from any cloud services if it's causing you problems, but if you can show us that it worked as expected in AE 24 it may help us find an alternate recommendation!

Thanks,

Caroline

[jordank24770238]

So I've been trying a handful of other things and have some updates. The issue seems to definitely persist beyond the dropbox, unfortunately, I can recreate it locally by just importing an mp4 from the project window and playing through the timeline a few times. Don't think I can record it in 2024 because it's just working perfectly fine with no lagging or pausing or anything. In 2025, once the image freezes the timeline looks like this, red bar caches a couple frames, sticks, but no changes happening in preview:

Sometimes the cache bar goes solid green, I can still click around/save but the preview image is stuck on one single frame. Other times the program freezes completely and needs a force quit. Checked GPU temperatures, checked memory, no errors. Tried a complete reinstall of creative cloud which didn't change anything. Switched all cache files to my local C: drive which also didn't do anything. 

[jordank24770238]

Returning with a video of the crash happening in 2025, test file started from scratch and saved on desktop, imported elements also coming from desktop.
I feel like almost always to make the crash happen there is usually a video element. A few minutes after the preview pauses the rest of the program went non responsive.

DRIVE LINK 

[jordank24770238]

I found the issue, after much trial and error. I had to rollback my nvidia driver to 572.83(March 2025)
Something in After Effects (25 AND 24) was conflicting with the newest driver update 576.80 and causing the timeline to crash. 
Found this error pop up after experiencing a couple more crashes which motivated me to run a clean uninstall with DDU, redownload the older studio driver and thankfully solved the problem.