AE crashes when I add more items to composition

[NoyelumH]

Like the title says, I keep getting this error not even 10 mins in when working with AE. I don't know whats wrong and why it's happening. Can anyone help me troubleshoot this please? 

[Peru Bob]

If NVIDIA graphics,, make sure to use the latest Studio Driver from NVIDIA (NOT the Game Driver).

[Byron Cortez]

FAQ: What information should I provide when asking a question on this forum?

[Teutonic Pictures]

Perhaps try clearing your cache?

[NoyelumH]

Adobe After Effects version 18.1

Windows 10 (64 bit)

It crashes when I click to enter a folder in my composition. When I open AE after the crash, I get the same error report on start up and it won't open until some time later. Any file that crashes in this manner won't open again and will show the same error report.

AE has worked before, for a week and a half on a previous project. After leaving AE for a few days and opened, the file I was working on had been corrupted (my desktop is clean). 

Since this time to now, I have upgraded my Intel Driver to the latest version 0603 (please tell if you need more info, I don't know what exact information I need to post about this). I have also downloaded a plug-in(MotionBro) and graphics pack.

 I have two 21" connected monitors, Hp and ACER.

Format options for codecs are greyed out because I export as an AVI file.

I also made a mistake of forgetting to close AE when I was updating my Driver.

Please tell me if you need any more information, I will try provide it

[Byron Cortez]

Try updating the GPU Drivers. If it doesn't work for you, you should try uninstalling the MotionBro plig-in. Also I try to drag individual files into the composition, that is, not a whole Bin or folder. 

[NoyelumH]

Please I really need help with this, I'm using AE to work. I really don't know what to do

[David Arbor]

In addition to updating your GPU drivers, try uninstalling After Effects and making sure you do not retain your preferences, then reinstall.

As a sanity check, you can also install the AE Public Beta (available from the sidebar of the Creative Cloud Desktop app) to see what happens. This version will install alongside AE 2021 with its own preferences and will not affect AE 2021. In fact, you can even open the same project in both versions. 

[NoyelumH]

I've uninstalled/reinstalled many times without preferences and it doesnt work. Is AE P Beta like an app on its own? I will give it a try

[David Arbor]

Yes, it's completely standalone and installs in its own directory. 

[NoyelumH]

I really can't thank you enough., The Beta works really well and I can use it for work. I would still like to know why the original isn't working though. Hopefully someone still replies to this post

[David Arbor · Accepted solution]

I'm glad to hear the beta worked! This very likely means that some preferences files or associated files cache files associated with the "public" version are still sitting on your drive after you uninstall that version. When this type of thing happens to me, I uninstall the app, make sure I clear the preferences, then I search in the standard folders where Adobe files are stored, like Application Data (Win) or Application Support (macOS) and completely remove the folders associated with the version of AE that's causing you the problem. 

For example, on Windows, the path C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\After Effects contains folders with each set of prefs for various version of AE. Deleting any of these after uninstalling won't affect the beta because the beta files are stored in C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\After Effects (Beta)

There are several other folders, including in your user Documents folder that also contain files associated with the app, but I like to use the program "Everything" from Voidtools to search for, and wipe out files that could be causing problems.

[NoyelumH]

It works!Thank you so much! I think I'll still use the beta for now though, I've gotten used to it  /o/ /o/