After Effects crashes during start up

Report · Nov 25, 2025

No crash UI shows as startup image hangs after "Initializing Audio Devices" text disappears:

I have tried:

tried safe mode and no plugins
opening from a project
opening as admin
updated my NVIDIA studio driver
install older version
re-updated to current version
moving out plugins from commons folder
turned firewall off
restarting computer

Here's the logs:

-------------------------------------

Ticks = 0 <43448> <AppVers> <5> App Version = 25.6x101 release

Ticks = 0 <43448> <AppDirs> <5> App Dir = D:\Programs\Adobe\Adobe After Effects 2025\Support Files

Ticks = 0 <43448> <AppDirs> <5> Executable Dir = D:\Programs\Adobe\Adobe After Effects 2025\Support Files

Ticks = 0 <43448> <AppDirs> <5> Resources Dir = D:\Programs\Adobe\Adobe After Effects 2025\Support Files

Ticks = 0 <43448> <AppDirs> <5> Package Dir = D:\Programs\Adobe\Adobe After Effects 2025\Support Files

Ticks = 0 <43448> <AppDirs> <5> Plugin Dir = D:\Programs\Adobe\Adobe After Effects 2025\Support Files\Plug-ins

Ticks = 0 <43448> <AppDirs> <5> Required Dir = D:\Programs\Adobe\Adobe After Effects 2025\Support Files\Required

Ticks = 0 <43448> <ALOG> <5> EGG STARTUP

Ticks = 31 <43448> <ALOG> <5> U Birth U Birth

Ticks = 31 <43448> <ALOG> <5> U CPU Data LogicalCores:24, PhysicalCores:16, MMX:1, SSE:1 SSE2:1, SSE3:1, SSSE(MNI):1, SSE4_1:0, SSE4_2:1

Ticks = 31 <43448> <ALOG> <5> U Birth U Hog Birth

Ticks = 109 <43448> <ALOG> <5> FILE Birth FILE Birth

Ticks = 109 <43448> <ALOG> <5> M Birth M Birth

Ticks = 109 <43448> <ALOG> <5> RND Birth RND Birth

Ticks = 4312 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PREF Birth PREF Birth

Ticks = 4359 <43448> <ALOG> <5> VAL Birth VAL Birth

Ticks = 4359 <43448> <ALOG> <5> MC Birth MC Birth

Ticks = 4390 <43448> <ALOG> <5> EGG IEggApp Splash screen shown

Ticks = 4609 <43448> <ALOG> <5> EGG BIRTH Beginning Verify Environment

Ticks = 4609 <43448> <ALOG> <5> COR Birth COR Birth

Ticks = 4656 <43448> <ALOG> <5> COR Birth COR Birth Complete

Ticks = 4671 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PLUG Birth PLUG Birth

Ticks = 4671 <43448> <ALOG> <5> TDB Birth TDB Birth

Ticks = 4671 <43448> <ALOG> <5> TDB Birth TDB StreamBase Birth

Ticks = 4671 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PF Birth PF Birth

Ticks = 4671 <43448> <ALOG> <5> P Birth P Birth

Ticks = 4671 <43448> <ALOG> <5> TXT Birth TXT Birth

Ticks = 4687 <43448> <ALOG> <5> EGG IEggApp About to Init Media Core

Ticks = 4703 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PREM MediaCoreData About to Init PRM

Ticks = 4703 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PREM MediaCoreData About to Init BE

Ticks = 4718 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PREM MediaCoreData About to Init ImporterHost

Ticks = 4718 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PREM MediaCoreData About to Init ExporterHost

Ticks = 4718 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PREM MediaCoreData About to Init VideoRenderer

Ticks = 4718 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PREM MediaCoreData About to Init AudioFilterHost

Ticks = 4718 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PREM MediaCoreData About to Init AudioSupport

Ticks = 4718 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PREM MediaCoreData About to Init ProjectConverterHost

Ticks = 4718 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PREM MediaCoreData About to Init VideoFilterHost

Ticks = 4718 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PREM MediaCoreData About to Init Player Host

Ticks = 4718 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PREM MediaCoreData About to Init AccleratedRendering

Ticks = 4718 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PREM MediaCoreData About to Init DynamicLinkMedia

Ticks = 4718 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PREM MediaCoreData About to Init TransmitHost

Ticks = 4718 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PREM MediaCoreData About to Init DisplaySurface

Ticks = 4734 <10944> <DynamicLink> <5> Increase wait time to 2

Ticks = 6890 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PREM MediaCoreData About to Init DVAMediaBrowser

Ticks = 6890 <43448> <ALOG> <5> EGG IEggApp Finished Initing Media Core

Ticks = 6890 <43448> <ALOG> <5> EGG IEggApp Media Core initialized successfully

Ticks = 7093 <10944> <GPUFoundation> <5> Done loading modules, sec: 0.149064, device: CUDA(0)

Ticks = 7093 <10944> <GPUFoundation> <5> Done loading modules, sec: 0.296243, device: OpenCL(1)

Ticks = 7125 <10944> <AnywhereLocalClient> <5> Local Hub HTTP port retrieved, port: 49316

Ticks = 7125 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PIN Birth PIN Birth

Ticks = 7125 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PIN Birth PIN PS3 Birth

Ticks = 7125 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PIN Birth PIN TIFF Birth

Ticks = 7125 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PIN Birth PIN RLA Birth

Ticks = 7125 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PIN Birth PIN CIN Birth

Ticks = 7125 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PIN Birth PIN EI Birth

Ticks = 7125 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PIN Birth PIN ZPIC Birth

Ticks = 7125 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PIN Birth PIN JSX Birth

Ticks = 7125 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PIN Birth PIN YM Birth

Ticks = 7125 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PIN Birth PIN PS Birth

Ticks = 7125 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PIN Birth PIN D_MC Birth

Ticks = 7140 <43448> <ALOG> <5> SND Birth SND Birth

Ticks = 7140 <43448> <ALOG> <5> OM Birth OM Birth

Ticks = 7140 <43448> <ALOG> <5> FLT Birth ALOG Birth

Ticks = 7140 <43448> <ALOG> <5> PR Birth PR Birth

Ticks = 25437 <22980> <ALOG> <5> EGG PromptUserThenDie lastmesg="<43448> <ALOG> <5> PR Birth PR Birth

"

Ticks = 25437 <22980> <ALOG> <5> U U_Sev_PROBLEM After Effects error: Crash in progress. Last logged message was: <43448> <ALOG> <5> PR Birth PR Birth

Ticks = 25484 <22980> <ALOG> <5> ReportError StackCrawl dvacore::debug::GenerateStackTrace ( @ 0) (dvacore.dll+0x0000000000169E26)

U_ScErrorDialogAggregation::~U_ScErrorDialogAggregation ( @ 0) (U.dll+0x000000000003A5E6)

Up_Report16 ( @ 0) (U.dll+0x000000000003D895)

U_ReportError ( @ 0) (U.dll+0x000000000003C0A0)

GetWorkQueuePalSuite ( @ 0) (AfterFXLib.dll+0x00000000009263E5)

U_UnregisterExceptionTranslator ( @ 0) (U.dll+0x000000000000C8A6)

dvacore::config::PanicFromUnrecoverableSignalHandler ( @ 0) (dvacore.dll+0x00000000000FBE21)

dvacore::config::LimitedDLLHijackFix ( @ 0) (dvacore.dll+0x00000000002B0DCD)

dvacore::config::UninstallUnhandledExceptionHandler ( @ 0) (dvacore.dll+0x00000000002B1850)

dvacore::threads::ThreadSafeQueueBase::operator= ( @ 0) (dvacore.dll+0x000000000002E6DE)

dvacore::allocator::SetBadAllocNotificationCallback ( @ 0) (dvacore.dll+0x000000000007EB2D)

dvacore::config::ExecuteTopLevelFunction ( @ 0) (dvacore.dll+0x00000000000D3F1D)

MEE_HardcodedPluginsCache::HasHardcodedCache ( @ 0) (MEE.dll+0x000000000001C9BE)

egg::dvainit::AE_DVA_ErrorManager::ExecuteFunctionWithTopLevelExceptionHandler ( @ 0) (MEE.dll+0x000000000001DDA0)

dvacore::config::ExecuteTopLevelFunction ( @ 0) (dvacore.dll+0x00000000000D3DFB)

dvacore::threads::CreateAsyncThreadedExecutor ( @ 0) (dvacore.dll+0x000000000003093F)

dvacore::threads::NamedThreadInstance::Join ( @ 0) (dvacore.dll+0x000000000025AEA3)

dvacore::threads::NamedThreadInstance::Join ( @ 0) (dvacore.dll+0x000000000025B0DC)

dvacore::threads::SyncPoint::Wait ( @ 0) (dvacore.dll+0x0000000000259FE8)

wcsrchr ( @ 0) (ucrtbase.dll+0x00000000000037B0)

BaseThreadInitThunk ( @ 0) (KERNEL32.DLL+0x000000000002E8D7)

RtlUserThreadStart ( @ 0) (ntdll.dll+0x000000000008C53C)

Ticks = 25484 <22980> <ALOG> <5> EGG PromptUserThenDie start

Ticks = 25484 <22980> <ALOG> <5> U U_Sev_FATAL After Effects canâ€™t continue: sorry, After Effects has crashed. For After Effects Help and Support, go to http://www.adobe.com/go/learn_ae_support. If you still canâ€™t resolve the issue, please contact Adobe Technical Support (2). ( 0 :: 42 )

Ticks = 25484 <22980> <ALOG> <5> ReportError StackCrawl dvacore::debug::GenerateStackTrace ( @ 0) (dvacore.dll+0x0000000000169E26)

U_ScErrorDialogAggregation::~U_ScErrorDialogAggregation ( @ 0) (U.dll+0x000000000003A5E6)

Up_Report16 ( @ 0) (U.dll+0x000000000003D895)

Up_ReportError ( @ 0) (U.dll+0x0000000000042383)

Up_ReportSyserrString ( @ 0) (U.dll+0x000000000004243B)

AbortInQueue ( @ 0) (AfterFXLib.dll+0x0000000000D1FF75)

GetWorkQueuePalSuite ( @ 0) (AfterFXLib.dll+0x0000000000926434)