After Effects constantly crashing

[Mykhailo Sherdyts]

During the last two weeks, my After Effects has been completely unworkable. It’s constantly crashing in almost all my projects, whether it’s a newly created project or one I’ve worked on long ago.

The crashes appear very randomly. It can occur when I’m moving an object in a 3D scene, or it can just crash when I’m watching a previewed scene. Sometimes it shows a crash log, sometimes it just goes dead, and I’m not even able to close it with Task Manager.

My PC specs:

• Windows 10
• Intel i9-14900k
• RX 3090
• DDR5 128GB
• Motherboard: Asrock B760M Steel Legend WiFi
• 3 M2 SSDs, 1TB each
•  

I’ve reinstalled Windows multiple times. Tried using legacy versions of the program such as AE 2019 and 2022. No overclocking, tried to undervolt even. No result.

I also tried every single solution I found on the internet. Nothing helps.

I desperately need help with this issue…

Thanks to everyone in advance.

[DaciaSaenz]

Hi @Mykhailo Sherdyts, 

That is so frustrating! I have a feeling it may have something to do with the integrated GPU. We've been chasing a bug where the 3D engine goes haywire when there are two GPUs on a system. 

Unfortunately, the UXP logs are not helpful. There are a couple of things that would give us some information that could be really useful though. 

1. Have you seen this Crash Reporter dialog (this is Premiere Pro's but its the same in After Effects)? 

If so, can you please share the email address that you sent it with. This will help us look at your crashes and get a better idea of what is going on. 

You also mentioned seeing a crash report. You can copy and paste that into a text file and send it to me if you see that again.

2. Can you please launch AE, go to the Help Menu, click on "Enable Logs", close and re-launch AE. 

Then when you crash, you can re-open AE, go to the Help Menu and select "Reveal Logs." 

Those logs can also give us some info we can decipher. 

3. Have you tried to launch in "Safe Mode"? There is a dialog that comes up after a crash that asks you if you want to run in Safe Mode -- meaning that AE will launch without third-party plugins and with default preferences without messing with your third-party plugins or prefs. It's like a non-destructive way to see if the issue is with AE or some conflict with your 3rd-party effects. 

4. There is a really weird workaround that has been working for some people.... Can you press CTRL + SHIFT + Right-click on the AE App Icon and choose "Run as Administrator" at launch and see if that resolves the issue please? 

Thank you so much and apologies for the issues. 

Hope to get you back on track soon, 

Dacia

[Mykhailo Sherdyts]

Hi @DaciaSaenz

Thank you so much for such a quick response!

To avoid wasting your time, I’ve taken several steps you mentioned before writing this post.

• I’ve set AE to “Run as Administrator” mode at launch.

• You mentioned the integrated Intel graphics. Even though it wasn’t listed in my device manager, I still disabled it via BIOS.

• I’ve tried safe mode before. Unfortunately, it didn’t help. Now, I’m testing an absolutely clean AE without any third-party plug-ins on a completely freshly installed Windows.

• I turned on “Enable Logs” and sent the report during my latest crash that happened a couple of minutes ago.

The crash itself was as follows:

After Effects error: Crash occurred while invoking plug-in: Classic 3D

Another piece of information that might be useful/

I have two working laptops with more humble but similar specs:

• Asus TUF Dash 15
• i5-11300H
• DDR4 - 32GB
• RTX 3060

Both laptops experience absolutely no issues with the projects that my PC struggles with and crashes constantly.

Thanks for your help, and I look forward to hearing your feedback about my crash report.