AE crashes on startup, won't open projects

[defaultu8lfak5kkdwe]

AE gave a warning (I wasn't there - helping an employee - so I don't know exact verbiage, and he didn't pay close attention to it) that was something about a "Full Disk" and then crashed. 

Subsquently, AE will crash and will not open ANY ae projects within that client project file. Not just the one file that caused the crash. File will begin to open, get to 1% and then crash. I have tried importing the file into a new project file and it will still crash.

Any suggestions? Please help! Project is due to client today and of course this is when it decided to completely act up.

On a side note, when tested, other ae project files outside of that client folder will open in AE but it takes a while. Computer was restarted, cache's emptied and there is over 75GB full space on the HD. It shouldn't be due to a hardward problem. Graphic cards are outdated from 2011, but doesn't seem to be an issue with other projects, and otherwise everything is up to date, but may be the cause of the slow open for other projects to open.

[defaultu8lfak5kkdwe]

Side note - computer is Windows. AE 2021 was recently installed, but only AFTER this problem started, so I think it's something in perhaps the preferences or something for the project?

[nishu_kush · Accepted solution]

Hi defaultu8lfak5kkdwe,

Sorry for your issue.

I agree, it could be the preference or the project file itself. Here's what you can try:

1. Reset the preference of After Effects: https://community.adobe.com/t5/after-effects-discussions/faq-how-to-reset-trash-preferences-in-after... 
2. Try opening the Auto Save project files.
3. Copy the project file locally (if it's not already) and try to open.

Let us know how it goes.

Thanks,

Nishu

[defaultu8lfak5kkdwe]

Update:
 Auto saves won't open, but copying the file to the desktop worked!
Thank you!

[Kartika Rawat]

Glad to hear that! Feel free to reach out if you run into any other questions or issues in the future.

Thanks!

Kartika

[DDaker]

The solution:

Go to your desktop, right click on Recycle bin > "properties" > then selecet each drive and click on the option "Don't move files to the Recycle bin, remove files immediatley when deleted.

This will prevent all your deleted files from clogging up your drives and will allow Adobe programs to store temporary files they need to open files with in the programs or save files. (basically any action that requires Windows Explorer.)

This solution is for Windows, I'm not sure if this applies to Mac users.

The recycle bin in Windows uses hidden space on all the drives on your computer to store deleted files. And they're hidden! So when you try to open an Adobe program, more likely than not it will crash if your drive is "fake full". even saving files will hang and crash these programs. Also note, if your drives are normally full, this will happen too. Make sure to always leave some spare space on drives for temporary files.

More solutions:

You can also delete cache and media files in after effects under "Edit > Purge"
If this doesn't work you may have other programs using too much RAM like your browser. (even if it's closed it may still ahve tabs stored in memory(be sure to close all Chrome programs running by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ESC and looking for each one right clicking and close.
Or you might have faulty RAM. Or Services that are not running (Adobe core services).
Or Antivirus software preventing saving, or a Security setting in Windows that has exploit protection on folders (highly unlikely but user error could have changed these settings).
Or Drivers for your graphics card or Adobe cloud may need to be updated, or finally one of your plugins needs an update or is not compatible. And may need to be switched off or deleted.

I'm sure there are more solutions, good luck.