After Effects 2023 crashes on "Initializing Required Components"

[ExoBlit]

I've tried basically everything to fix the issue. I reinstalled AE, resetted my preferences, de-activated all of my fonts, deleted all plugins (including 3rd parties), deleted all of my cache manually, booted AE in "safe mode", and restarted my computer countless of times with no crash logs.

My PC Specs:

RTX 3080 w/ latest NVIDIA drivers

Intel Core i7-8700K

32GB RAM

Windows 11 Home

[jenkmeister]

When you say Crash, do you mean the application hangs or does it result in a crash dialog appearing? 

What version of AE 2023 are you running?

Do you have any other hardware installed (tablets, transmit devices, etc.)? 

[ExoBlit]

It stays stuck on "Initializing Required Components" splash screen and shows as "Not Responding" in Task Manager.

I am running After Effects v23.4.0.53 and would not like to update to the latest version.

I have no other hardware installed.

[jenkmeister]

Did this start happening after updating to 23.4? Or any other change to your OS, other software, etc? 

We will likely need a log file to help further here. Navigate to  OS:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\After Effects\23.4\logs

and create a blank file called After Effects Log.txt

Now start up AE until it gets stuck on the Initializing Required Components, and go back to the logs folder and there should be a new After Effects Log.txt file. Copy the contents of that file and paste it back here so we can see where AE is getting stuck. 

[ExoBlit]

Log file created: 07/27/23 07:00:15
-------------------------------------
Ticks = 0 <37276> <AppVers> <5> App Version = 23.4x53 release
Ticks = 0 <37276> <AppDirs> <5> App Dir = C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects 2023\Support Files
Ticks = 0 <37276> <AppDirs> <5> Executable Dir = C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects 2023\Support Files
Ticks = 0 <37276> <AppDirs> <5> Resources Dir = C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects 2023\Support Files
Ticks = 0 <37276> <AppDirs> <5> Package Dir = C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects 2023\Support Files
Ticks = 0 <37276> <AppDirs> <5> Plugin Dir = C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects 2023\Support Files\Plug-ins
Ticks = 0 <37276> <AppDirs> <5> Required Dir = C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects 2023\Support Files\Required
Ticks = 0 <37276> <ALOG> <5> EGG STARTUP
Ticks = 31 <37276> <ALOG> <5> U Birth U Birth
Ticks = 31 <37276> <ALOG> <5> U CPU Data LogicalCores:12, PhysicalCores:6, MMX:1, SSE:1 SSE2:1, SSE3:1, SSSE(MNI):1, SSE4_1:0, SSE4_2:1
Ticks = 31 <37276> <ALOG> <5> U Birth U Hog Birth
Ticks = 750 <37276> <ALOG> <5> FILE Birth FILE Birth
Ticks = 750 <37276> <ALOG> <5> M Birth M Birth
Ticks = 750 <37276> <ALOG> <5> RND Birth RND Birth
Ticks = 127125 <37276> <ALOG> <5> PREF Birth PREF Birth
Ticks = 127141 <37276> <ALOG> <5> VAL Birth VAL Birth
Ticks = 127141 <37276> <ALOG> <5> MC Birth MC Birth
Ticks = 127141 <37276> <ALOG> <5> aelib InitIterator AXE8 v:4.1.0 Loaded
Ticks = 127203 <37276> <ALOG> <5> EGG IEggApp Splash screen shown
Ticks = 127203 <37276> <ALOG> <5> EGG BIRTH Beginning Verify Environment
Ticks = 127203 <37276> <ALOG> <5> COR Birth COR Birth
Ticks = 127235 <37276> <ALOG> <5> COR Birth COR Birth Complete
Ticks = 127297 <37276> <ALOG> <5> PLUG Birth PLUG Birth
Ticks = 127297 <37276> <ALOG> <5> TDB Birth TDB Birth
Ticks = 127297 <37276> <ALOG> <5> TDB Birth TDB StreamBase Birth
Ticks = 127297 <37276> <ALOG> <5> PF Birth PF Birth
Ticks = 127297 <37276> <ALOG> <5> P Birth P Birth
Ticks = 127297 <37276> <ALOG> <5> TXT Birth TXT Birth

[jenkmeister]

Thanks. So based on where it is stopping, this looks very much like a bad font issue, which is likely handled more robustly in 23.5 (literally we just finished the rewrite of the font system in AE in 23.5). So if you can try installing 23.5, you may find AE works. If you can't, then I'd suggest looking further at the fonts you have installed, especially around OpenType variable fonts, to see if one of those is causing the issue. 

[jenkmeister]

One other option in terms of where this is failing maybe with a plugin that has been installed into the common plug-in folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Common\Plug-ins\7.0\MediaCore

Perhaps move any plugins out of that folder and see if starting AE works then.

[ExoBlit]

Updating the latest version of After Effects didn't fix the issue. I have already removed all of the MediaCore plugins manually.

[nishu_kush]

Are you still having the issue? Let us know.

I am moving this thread from Bugs to Discussions for now.

Thanks,

Nishu