Preview is stuck in a loop and is unresponsive

[ticher2008]

RAM Preview becomes unresponsive to clicks, spacebar, Num0, ESC, etc. Playback continues on loop and the only way I've found to regain control is to minimize/maximize AE or close the application.

Build 17.0.4 Build 59

[Andreas24552994txt1]

same issue occurs when dragging files into a project to import. This is a very old bug dating back at least 2 if not 3 versions. whenever you try to import via drag and drop while it's running it crashes.
I bought a brand new win10 dell system used exclusively for after effects, less than 3 months old.

[dennis.film]

Happens in 17.1.3 (Build 41) too.

This should be the highest voted issue, as it occurs constantly—even in basic comps—and coincides often with the comp not being played back in realtime (even though it should, given the basic animation).

MacBookPro Retina 15’’ Mid 2014 – 16GB RAM – 2,8 GHz i7 – GeForce GT 750M 2 GB

[adam_singer]

Similar issue here on 17.1.3
the RAM preview will stop but the whole program hangs for about 5 to 10 seconds before becoming responsive again. Doesn't matter if it's a long preview or a short one. On Windows 10 with 2x NVIDIA 1080Ti, 64gb ram, AMD threadripper 1920x

[gregm49195544]

This makes it impossible to use Aftereffects for my work. Very frustrating.

[JoaoMorgado]

A similar issue has happened to me when a "hardware" change happens with AE open.
Say you plug/unplug your headphones. This causes Windows to switch the audio output, but AE apparently doesn't like this and the preview stops working. Restarting AE switches the audio mapping and so everything works normally again.

[eclecticscribe]

Same problem. Even on a short RAM preview (57 frames) I can rarely break the looping animation. Occasionally it will respond, but it may take more than a minute to do so after I hit the stop button (and if I get impatient and hit it again, if it responds at all, it will do a double click and start all over again). I often have to reboot the computer, and if I forgot to save, that doubles the problem.

AE 17.1.4 (Build 37)
Mac (27 inch, late 2013) 3.5 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 32 GB RAM, OSX 10.15.7

[Selim Mete]

One tip that might help is that when I switch to different application, that'll stop to ram preview in most cases. So command+tab on a mac will at least break this cycle of madness for me.

[icecreamofdeath]

Same here. macOS Catalina, Adobe 2020, can't stop RAM preview without force close. Making After Effects completely unusable. Have to go back to 2019 until this is addressed.

[adrianr42844034]

Programme becomes laggy and a lot of the time unresponsive during playback. I can start playback on a section and then it won't stop (clicking the playhead, clicking button in Preview menu or hitting Space)

After Effects CC 2020 17.1.4 (Build 37)
Macbook Pro 15" 2016
Processor 2.9GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i77
Memory 16GB
Graphics Radeon Pro 460 4GB - Intel HD Graphics 530 1536MB

[gvn.cmpbll.wlsn]

Yep, same issue.

iMac 5k, 27-inch
Processor: 4 GHz Quad-Core Intell Core i7
Memory: 32 GB 1867 MHz DDR3
Graphics: AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4 GB

Using AE 17.1.4

If I'm editing a large 4k comp it freezes and is unresponsive and keeps looping. Sometimes I can press spacebar or click the timeline to pause it but most of the time I have to close the app.

I can't preview my work so this makes AE useless.

Fix please Adobe!!!!!!!!!!

[noisy_doll]

Yep, same thing. I'm just doing the first tutorial and I'm getting this problem.

Mac Mini Late 2014
3 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Intel Iris 1536 MB graphics

Using macOS Mojave 10.14.5,

After Effects 17.1.4

[Michael Rogowski]

This is happening to me as well and I have a theory on what's causing it - if you are working in full resolution on a 4k project, and the comp viewer scale is at 25%, the comp viewer falls behind struggling to downscale each frame from RAM.

The info panel can say it's playing at real-time, but it actually isn't due to the extra time spent downscaling and I think this causes a desync. So let's say RAM is running real-time and you press space while it's at frame 50, but the comp view hasn't even gotten to frame 30 yet: the input gets delayed until the comp view catches up to frame 50.

This delay grows the longer you let the preview run, and gets worse the smaller the comp viewer scale is. So the delay until your input is finally recognized could be seconds to minutes long depending.

The workaround is to lower the preview resolution or only preview at 100% scale

[Josh I]

Same issue. Especially on short sequence lengths I can't get it to respond/stop without force closing. I've restored all the way back to 17.0.5 and it still happens. I've even downgraded drivers with the same issue.

Especially an issue with 32bpc.

AE 17.0.5 and later (i believe all later but haven't tried all)

WIn 10 64
i7 5930K
32gb ram
GPU 980TI
Also happens with 2x980TI + 1x 980

Doesn't happen on my Razer 2019 Laptop w 2080

[ChrisDAQ]

Same issue:
MacBook Pro 15" Retina Mid-2015, macOS Catalina 10.15.7
2.2 GHz Quad-Core i7
16 GB RAM
Graphics: Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

AE: 17.5.0 (build 40)

[ChrisDAQ]

Same issue:
MacBook Pro 15" Retina Mid-2015, macOS Catalina 10.15.7
2.2 GHz Quad-Core i7
16 GB RAM
Graphics: Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

AE: 17.5.0 (build 40)

[Scott5C38]

same issue:
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020)
8 GB 2667 MHz DDR4
Macintosh HD
AMD Radeon Pro 5300 4 GB

[nigel kirkbyk71537417]

Similar issue. 17.5.1 (but has been going on for months now) Windows 10, RTX 2060, 32GB RAM, 400GB external T7 SSD for cache

Seems to be consistent that if you preview, then don't edit anything but preview again, then it seems to go into this unresponsive state where it will build the preview in RAM (green line gets filled in if it isn't already) but then AE refuses to play back the preview until you close/restart AE (and AE usually goes completely unresponsive at this point too)

[Alectriciti]

I'll even take a preference option: Pause Preview when importing new files, as it always crashes when importing an item if the preview is already running.
I have to restart every time.
Incredibly annoying.




Windows 10, Ryzen 7 3800x, RTX 2070 super, 32GB RAM, SSD

[mattcrage]

Same problem, updating to v17.7 doesn't solve. Happens across multiple projects, resolutions, etc. I have to force close the application every time I accidentally drag footage into the project window while RAM previewing.

Windows 10 Pro, i7-5960x, RTX 3090, 32GB RAM, SSD

[josepht7460149]

I have lost HOURS AND HOURS to this bug that Adobe has been saying it fixed since 2016 though it still arises in every version. AE and Premiere are the most expensive beta software in history, and this company will only spend money on new (also broken) programs.....

[josepht7460149]

And if another forum user starts with "you must be new to AE...." or the like, please just leave. If you use Premiere or AE and DON'T experience scores of bugs and crashes, you're the one who's new......

[ChrisDAQ]

@joseph Terrasi: Do you at least have them set to AutoSave every 20 minutes or so? You shouldn't be losing hours and hours. (well, I guess if that's cumulative, I can understand that)

[ONRI]

Hey Adobe, if you are listening, can you please fix this rampant software bug?

[default2orkj0zsuz8v]

I've read through many threads reporting this same problem. Essentially as soon as I start a preview, it will loop forever without end. No way to stop it. It also brings the entire computer to a crawl. This happens even if all I do is create a shape layer and do nothing to it. Previewing that alone loops. Only way to stop it is to kill the program.

I'm on a mac using the latest version of Catalina.
AE is version 18.0.0.

Happy to share anything else needed.

[bearfly]

Spacebar preview looping never end !
Adobe never want to fix it.