After Effects 23.1 all of a sudden EXTREMELY slow

[larisa_martin]

I just started having a major issue with After Effects 23.1 where as soon as I open it, without even doing anything, it uses up all of my CPU and runs EXTREMELY slow. Like, clicking causes it to freeze up. No layers, just an empty comp.

After Effects 22.6 is running normally, and I was using 23.1 earlier in the day and was having no issues.

I am working on a 2019 iMac with a 3.6 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9 processor and 64 GB of memory.

Any suggestions for why this is happening?

[Byron Cortez]

And from early to when it started to freeze, did you install any third party plugin? Or maybe you made some adjustment in the preferences? Or in the project settings? Did you disconnect any external drive? Something that you think you should tell us because that way it shouldn't start to freeze. 

[larisa_martin]

Nothing changed; I was working on a project, closed it out, made a new project and that is when the trouble started. The first thing I tried was all of the normal troubleshooting things: restarted both AE and computer, reset preferences, emptied disk cache etc. 

[Byron Cortez]

You could start with the basics: 

1. Here is how you can reset the preferences:

Press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) while launching After Effects. You can release the Alt or Option key when the splash screen appears.

To reset preferences and plug-in cache at the same time, hold down Control-Shift-Alt (Windows) or Command-Shift-Option (Mac OS) while the application is starting. Release the keys when the splash screen appears.