After Effects 22.5 won't preview more than 5 frames

[Farr2easy]

My AE for some reason after the latest 22.5 update has become extremely slow, and now won't buffer more than 5 frames? The auto cache also doesn't seem to work, unless I press the spacebar it won't start caching frames 

Until yesterday everything was working completely fine, I've been cracking my head for a solution but cant find anything online. This is my last resort.

System Specs

MacBook M1 Pro

16GB Ram

512GB SSD

[NOTE by Moderator: The title of the thread has been edited to include the AE version number]

[fableyarn]

Update on my last post.  Rolled back to 22.4 and I have zero issues and AE runs as it should.  There's no way 22.5 or 22.6 doesn't have some sort of bug or something that is causing this issue.  I use different plugins but they run smooth in 22.4 and I've used them for years, so there's no reaason they should cause issues with any new update.  Looks like this might be my last update to AE until something is fixed or a solution within AE is presented.

[Ofer2326362547ga]

looks like adobe is in the dinial stage. they knew about the issue ever since 22.5 rolled out but chose not to fix it for 22.6, and blame the users instead.

22.4 works perfect, do not upgrade beyond that if you value your sanity.

[alex________]

thx for helping with my sanity. its becoming a pain to see new updates from adobe. they keep f$%&/g things up.

[Rameez_Khan]

Hi all, 

I have reported this behavior to the After Effects team. So far, it seems that this is mostly reported by users who have Mac M1 computers. To investigate this further, we need the After Effects log file from your computer. Please follow these steps to obtain the log file: 

1. Launch After Effects and enable logging under Help > Enable Logging.
2. Work on your project normally until you see the low-memory warning banner. 
3. After you see the banner, go to Help > Reveal Logging File. After Effects will reveal two directories on your machine — The "SentryIO-db" folder and the "After Effects Log-last.txt". 
4. Grab the "After Effects Log-last.txt" file and share that in this thread.

Thanks,

Rameez

[charleh]

So I've been having this issue recently on m1 mac with Ae 22.6, noticed that Ae is sharing ram with Media Encoder… So I closed Media Encoder and that solved the problem for me! Even when Media Encoder was doing nothing in the background it was hoarding the ram and meaning I very quickly got the out of memory warning. Close Encoder and suddenly I can preview much more of the timeline!

[alex________]

install 22.4

[Rameez_Khan]

Hi all, 

The After Effects team has included a fix for this issue in After Effects Beta v23.0 build 16 and higher. If you like, please try the Beta and let us know if it's working as expected. 

You can download the Beta from the CC desktop app. It won't replace your existing version of After Effects. 

Thanks,

Rameez

[CinematekCreative]

It seems to work! I opened one of the projects that had worked fine in 22.4, and wouldn't cache render in 22.5 or 22.6. It works just fine in Beta v23.0, although it's a bit more sluggish to render than 22.4. The comps I tested were 15 second social ads at 1920x1080, 1080x1920 and 1080x1080 that have a pretty typical combo of multiple subcomps with multiple moving images, shape layers, motion blur and expressions. Nothing too fancy and no third-party effects. My sense is that the cache slows down a bit compared to 22.4 once it gets to about the 10-second mark, but once the whole comp is cached it plays back just fine. This is huge progress, thank you.

MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020)

16GB Ram

1TB SSD

[Rameez_Khan]

Thanks for reporting back, @CinematekCreative!

I'll share this information with the After Effects team. 

Best,

Rameez

[fableyarn]

This is great that there is a solution.  However, I use effects and presets that are not working with the Beta version so this doesn't fix the issue with the most current release.  Do you have a timeframe when it will be fixed in 22.5 or 22.6?

[Krishna5C55]

I had same issue with 22.6, just installed back to 22.4, hope it all works fine now.

[Rameez_Khan]

Hi @fableyarn 

Are you using third-party effects and presets? If so, which ones?

Sorry, I don't know the exact date, but it will be fixed soon in the stable (public) version. 

-Rameez

[djhusky808]

Now on the latest beta...still 5 frames only. this is kinda ridiculous.  The only way I can work is with AE 2020.

[Rameez_Khan]

Hi @djhusky808 

This shouldn't happen in the latest beta. Can you confirm the version and build number of the beta you're using?

Thanks,

Rameez

[djhusky808]

23.0.1.27

as soon as I open app & project, only 5frame preview...it shows it's using 18.4GB ram of 11GB allocated. AE is the only adobe app running

[Madam Bomb]

Having same issue. I don't use AE that often and this is new computer, but I am really surprised how terrible the preview is now. I can do about 10-15s and that's it. Can't watch a whole 20 sec social ad all the way through. Using Beta

22.6.0 (64)

Model Name: MacBook Pro 14in
Chip: Apple M1 Pro
Total Number of Cores: 8 (6 performance and 2 efficiency)
Memory: 16 GB (AE using 13G)

[Dejan Magdenovski]

Upgrading from 22.5 to 22.6 seems to have fixed it for me this time.
For some reason it's very much a reocurring problem in from system to system, and/or version to version, every once in a while I just can't avoid it. It is super crippling and gives me all the more push to master another compositing software.

[Dejan Magdenovski]

My system specs are:
CPU: 12700k Intel i7
GPU: 3060 Ti
RAM: 64 GB of DDR4 (2x32)
Storage: 3x NVMe SSD's:
Cache drive: 970 EVO M.2 NVMe - 500GB

Project Files: + 1 Seagate FireCuda 530 M.2 NVMe - 1TB

OS: Seagate FireCuda 530 M.2 NVMe - 1TB

Windows 11 Pro - Version: 21H2

[Dejan Magdenovski]

The problem returned, and now it's giving me a "Low Memory" warning
I tried purging, restarting, changing audio hardware.
Going to try 22.4 right now  

[Dejan Magdenovski]

It is very temperamental and sometimes it renders the preview fine, but I'd say 40% of the time it only loads those 5 frames from wherever the playhead starts and just loops them.

[Rameez_Khan]

Hi @Dejan Magdenovski,

Sorry to hear about this!

Do you have any third-party plugins? The After Effects team is investigating an issue where certain third-party plugins don't release the memory as they should, causing the low-memory warning situation.

Let me know.

Rameez 

[Dejan Magdenovski]

I do have third-party plugins,
and they are, for the most part, the main reason I still use After Effects.

That said, wasn't there a "Safe Mode" for After Effects that loads it barebones without any plug-ins?

Now I wonder if the issue would stop that way, but I do not intend to uninstall, reinstall and set those up just to check.

[hengo]

quick tip for those with a tight deadline:
newest version (22.6) didnt fix it, 22.4 no issues
------
hengo

[Rameez_Khan]

Hi @hengo, 

After Effects 22.6 didn't contain a fix for this behavior. Instead, it improved the experience by introducing a low-memory warning banner to inform users that the app was running out of memory. This issue has been identified on machines with shared system/GPU memory, such as Apple silicon M1 machines. 

After Effects Beta v23.0.0x59 contains a fix for this, and the upcoming After Effects public release (v23.0) will also have this fix. 

Hope this helps.

Rameez

[Dejan Magdenovski]

I have an non M1 system with the same issue on version 22.5 (without the memory message) and 22.6 (with memory message)

My system specs are:
CPU: 12700k Intel i7
GPU: 3060 Ti
RAM: 64 GB of DDR4 (2x32)
Storage: 3x NVMe SSD's:
Cache drive: 970 EVO M.2 NVMe - 500GB

Project Files: + 1 Seagate FireCuda 530 M.2 NVMe - 1TB

OS: Seagate FireCuda 530 M.2 NVMe - 1TB

Windows 11 Pro - Version: 21H2