After Effects 2025 freezes when using video assets

[JuMagne974]

Hi there,

Here's a very annoying issue I'm experiencing...

After Effects freezes randomly when working on compositions containing video assets. Freeze starts with composition playback or scrubbing, then affects the whole UI, so I have to force exit the app.

Composition settings : 1920 x 1080 25 fps.

Footage : H264 or Apple ProRes (422 or 4444).

After Effects version 25.1.0
MacOS Sequoia 15.3.1
Mac Studio 2023 - Apple M2 Max - 32 GB RAM - 512 GB SSD

Thanks for your support, best regards,

Julien

[Mohammad.Harb]

Have you tried reseeting AE preferences ? 

[JuMagne974]

Hi Mohammad, thanks for your feedback.

I just tried to reset the preferences ; unfortunately there's no improvement.

Working on huge projects with tons of shape layers and expressions is not an issue. The app freezes every time I work on a comp containing a single video footage.

[JuMagne974]

Another interesting fact: having a disable video footage in the comp stops the issue. It only happens when it is enabled/visible.

Please note that Media Encoder manages to render the comp while After Effects always crashes.

[nishu_kush]

Thanks for writing in, Julien and sorry for the issue.

It sounds like it is either a media-specific or project-specific issue. Is it happening with all media files or a particular one? Please test in a new project to see if it's the specific project. Also, where are your media files stored? Are they stored on a server or external drive? If so, try bringing them to the local drive and testing.

Looking forward to your response. Moving this thread from Bugs to Discussions for troubleshooting.

Thanks,
Nishu

[JuMagne974]

Hi Nishu,

I've been running a few tests on a brand new project, using brand new media files from a stockshot provider and storing them on my local drive (instead of my usual thunderbolt nvme).

I also tried to transcode the media from the stockshot provider with AME, to avoid any encoding issue.

All this doesn't help. 😞

It seems the problem appears faster and more frequently when using UHD media fitted in an HD comp.

[nishu_kush]

That's not ideal. Thanks for testing. Are any third-party plug-ins installed? Can you test After Effects in Safe Mode with third-party plug-ins disabled? Let us know if that brings any change. Have you installed a new font recently? If so, can you remove them temporarily and check?

Let us know.

Thanks,
Nishu

[Mohammad.Harb]

In this case, I highly recommend creating a "proxy" for any UHD footage you use.

check this YouTube video from motion science 

youtu.be/y3Qgs2N5z1Y?si=P--B9CJbAVnDWWbc

let us know if that helps.

[matt_b_732]

Just chiming in that I've been experiencing the exact same issue as this. It just started today and I was using AE last week no problem.

Adding any kind of video media to any project will cause AE to freeze up and crash. I've reset preferences, cleared all caches etc, manually uninstalled all plugins and tested with a variety of media types and storage locations, starting from a fresh project. So far haven't been able to resolve the issue.

This is an urgent issue for me as it's preventing me from completing my work for a client.

I have a couple of screenshots showing the crashes that occured, the actual crashes are regular and predicatble - occuring pretty much anytime I ram preview video files in the timeline.

The crash report popups say different things each time. Even though it says 'generating crash log' I was unable to track the crash log down on my computer.

Any help with this is greatly appreciated.

[JuMagne974]

Well I see we have the exact same issue. This is critical. 

[matt_b_732]

Thanks for confirming it sounds the same as your issue. I noticed a few other similar posts to this one as well. I've been digging into it some more since I posted and disabling multi-frame rendering was suggested in another thread which seemed to avoid the crashes for me (so far). Could indicate a possible bug with that feature.

[JuMagne974]

Thank you Matt. Following your advice, I disabled this option in AE's preferences and indeed it seems to avoid crashes for me too.

@nishu_kush There may be something to investigate right there. 😉

[Beatriz27355675mivm · Accepted solution]

Hi all. Had this exact same issue and tried everything under the sun. Disabling multi-frame rendering is the only thing that helped. You just saved a huge client project @matt_b_732 thank you!

[Mr. Dale]

Thanks for this, we've been having serious issues and disabling multi-frame rendering helped.

No amount of cache cleared and reboots or media re-conversions helped, but this did the trick.

[daniel_8852]

Hi @JuMagne974 

After Effects relies on hardware acceleration for certain tasks, especially with video playback. Sometimes, hardware acceleration can cause issues depending on your system’s configuration, particularly with newer Apple Silicon Macs like your M2 Max.

Solution:

Try disabling hardware acceleration in After Effects.
Go to Preferences > Preview and uncheck the option for "Hardware Accelerate Composition, Layer, and Footage Panels".
Restart After Effects and see if the freezing issue persists.
This can often help with video playback problems or UI freezes related to GPU usage.

2. Update After Effects and macOS
After Effects and macOS often release updates that contain performance improvements, bug fixes, and compatibility enhancements. Ensuring you're using the latest versions might resolve known issues with the software, especially with newer hardware like the Apple M2 Max.

Solution:

Check for updates in After Effects: Open the Creative Cloud App and check for any available updates for After Effects.
Update macOS to the latest stable version available if you haven’t already. New macOS updates often contain bug fixes that can improve compatibility with Adobe products.
3. Memory and Cache Issues
After Effects is very memory-intensive, and issues with caching or insufficient memory can cause freezes, especially with large video files. Clearing the media cache or adjusting memory settings might help.

Solution:

Clear the cache: Go to Preferences > Media & Disk Cache and click Empty Disk Cache.
Increase the amount of RAM reserved for After Effects: In Preferences > Memory, ensure that After Effects is allocated enough memory, especially with 32 GB RAM available on your Mac.
Set your cache location to a faster drive if possible (for example, an external SSD).
4. Check Video Format Compatibility
You mentioned using H264 and Apple ProRes footage, which are generally well-supported, but there can be some performance issues, particularly with H264 encoding. H264 is a compressed format, which can be more taxing on the system during playback, especially for large or high-bitrate files.

Solution:

Convert your H264 footage to a more editing-friendly format like Apple ProRes or DNxHD/HR for better performance in After Effects.
Use proxies: If you're working with large or high-resolution files, try using proxy footage to reduce the workload on your system.
5. Check for Third-Party Plugins
Sometimes, third-party plugins or effects can be incompatible with newer versions of After Effects, leading to crashes or freezes.

Solution:

Disable third-party plugins and see if the problem persists. You can disable them by temporarily removing the plugin folder from your After Effects installation or testing with a clean install.
Check for plugin updates: Ensure all third-party plugins you're using are updated to support the latest version of After Effects.
6. GPU Driver and Metal API
Apple’s Metal API is used by After Effects on macOS, and while it generally works well with Apple Silicon chips, there may be occasional issues with how certain GPU tasks are handled.

Solution:

Switch to OpenGL instead of Metal for GPU acceleration (if possible) in Preferences > Previews > GPU Information. This may alleviate issues, though Metal typically works better with Apple Silicon.
7. Test with a Clean Preferences File
A corrupt preferences file can sometimes cause instability in After Effects.

Solution:

Reset After Effects preferences by holding down Shift + Alt (Option) + Command (Mac) immediately after launching After Effects. This will restore the default preferences, which can often fix freezing issues.
8. Check Console Logs for Errors
After Effects should generate logs that can help identify the specific cause of the freeze.

Solution:

Check the Console app (Applications > Utilities > Console) for any error messages related to After Effects during the time it freezes.
Look for any issues that might point to a conflict or a failing component.
9. Consider Using a Different Software Version
Sometimes, new updates introduce bugs that aren't immediately fixed. You could try downgrading to an earlier stable version of After Effects.

Solution:

If the issue persists, you might want to revert to a previous version of After Effects (such as 25.0 or 24.x) by using the Creative Cloud App and selecting Other Versions under After Effects.
10. Reinstall After Effects
If all else fails, a complete reinstallation of After Effects may be necessary. Sometimes a fresh installation can resolve lingering issues caused by corrupted files or misconfigurations.

Solution:

Uninstall After Effects, restart your computer, and then reinstall the latest version of the software.
Given your setup (Mac Studio with M2 Max and 32 GB RAM), After Effects should perform well, especially for most compositions. However, ensuring that all of the above aspects are optimized can help prevent crashes and freezing.

For more in-depth technical discussions and potential fixes, you might want to check out Adobe Support or forums like Reddit’s After Effects community, where others might have experienced similar issues on the M2 Max.

[davidb46026235]

I am having the exact same issue with After Effects 25.1.0 on Mac Sequoia 15.1   Playing back or scrubbing in a comp with a video asset in the timeline causes after effects to freeze and require reset.  Turning off multi-frame rendering fixes the issue, but then I am not able to access the benefits of multi-frame rendering.  Hopefully an Adobe employee will monitor this thread and will be able to fix what seems like a bug that multiple users are experiencing.

More details on the behavior:

If I drag proRes footage into a comp when multi-frame rendering is on, I experience this issue.  If I turn off multi-frame rendering, it seems to fix it, at least for now.  I can sometimes then re-enable multi-frame rendering and have no issues, but sometimes that will cause the issues again.

Sometimes if I have a comp open with footage in it, and try changing the multi-frame rendering setting in preferences, the attempt to change that preference causes after effects to freeze and require a force quit.

some mp4 files show up as black video with multi-frame rendering on, but preview normally with it off.

I am experiencing these issues with large / long video files (over one hour long footage). I'm not sure if that is part of the issue, but I did not have these issues in previous versions of after effects.

[JuMagne974]

Hi @davidb46026235, 

Just to be clear with our friends at Adobe: I don't think this issue is related to the length of the video asset, as I encountered  it while working with short stock footages. 😉

I too hope that it will be fixed soon. Disabling multi-frame rendering as a HUGE impact on performances.

[nishu_kush]

Hi all,

Really sorry that this thread went unnoticed.

Is After Effects generating a crash report? If yes, please share so that we can investigate. If not, please share the following steps to generate and find the crash log:

1. Start AE
2. Help Menu => Enable Logging
3. Restart AE
4. Reproduce the crash
5. Restart AE and go to Help Menu => Reveal Logging Files...
6. Find the "After Effects Log.txt" file
7. Share the text file or copy and paste its content here.

I'll get the crash log checked by the product team and get their feedback. Sorry again for the delayed response.

Thanks,
Nishu

[JuMagne974]

Hi Nishu,

Here are the two log files generated by AE while freezing.

Thanks for your support,

[nishu_kush]

Thanks for sharing the files.

I shared them with the product team. Unfortunately, the log files do not explain the issue very clearly. Could you share a project file (with media) with which you've experienced this issue? Go to File > Dependencies > Collect files. Compress the folder and share. You can use any cloud service to share the download link. Feel free to share via DM if you do not want to share publicly.

Looking forward to your response.

Thanks,
Nishu

[JuMagne974]

Hi Nishu,

Thanks for your feedback. I'll DM you the project.

Best regards,

[nishu_kush]

Thanks for sharing the files and your patience, Julien.

The product team tested your file and were able to see the issue on their end. Interestingly, the issue is not reproducible in the beta version of After Effects. Can you give that a try and let me know how it goes?

Looking forward to your response.

Thanks,
Nishu

[nishu_kush]

My bad! Here's how you can install the beta app: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/x-productkb/global/creative-cloud-beta.html

Thanks,

Nishu

[JuMagne974]

Hi @nishu_kush, 

I just installed AE Beta and gave it a try. Indeed, the issue seems to not occur with this version. 🙂

Thanks for the advice! Hope the product team will be able to understand what's going on under the hood.

Best regards,

[JuMagne974 · Accepted solution]

Quick update for the community: the issue seems to be fixed in latest stable release of After Effects (25.3.0).