When importing certain .mov files into After Effects, the program freezes and must be force-quit. If a project containing one of those assets is attempted to be opened on the same computer, After Effects freezes without being able to open the project file, and must be force-quit.
The problem is caused by some (but not all) mov files that contain media in H.264 encoding. The solution is to change the file extension to .mp4. This is a workable solution for media import, but it is not a workable solution when trying to open a project file because it is impossible to know what the problematic asset might be if the project file cannot be opened.
This issue occurs on Mac computers running Mac OS 15 - Sequoia. It does not occur on older operating systems such as Mac OS 14 - Sonoma. Projects that have been created, used, and saved successfully on a Sonoma computer are one potential source of project files containing assets that cause the problem on Sequoia. But directly importing these same assets on Sequoia also causes the problem, so it is the asset that is the issue, not the project file.
Observed in: After effects 25.4 as well as previous versions of After Effects.
When running on: Mac OS 15 - Sequoia
I have tried opening After Effects in safe mode, and this does not solve the problem. I have observed the problem on multiple computers.
In multiple cases, I have observed After Effects successfully working with certain assets on a computer running Sonoma or Ventura, and then upon upgrading to Sequoia, After Effects then has this issue with those same assets.
This happens on all project files and empty projects.
Some .mov files containing H.264 media do not have this problem, and others do. For the .mov files that show this problem, in 100% of the cases where I was able to identify the problematic file, changing the extension to .mp4 solved it.
I have not been able to find any pattern of difference between files that work and files that don't.
If any Adobe reps are looking for samples of media files that cause the issue, I can send, if there is a secure way to submit files without a size limit.
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