After Effects 25.4 keeps crashing on startup after updating and reinstalling

[Jason327523480lib]

Hi all. So I just updated all my apps (Photoshop, PremPro, AE, Acrobat) today, and the rest are opening fine, but After Effects keeps crashing on startup. I've tried restarting After Effects, my PC, reinstalling After Effects from Creative Cloud etc, but nothing seems to be working. Running Win11 24H2.

I would upload a crash report or log (whatever it's called), but it's not in "C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\After Effects\25.4\logs" (see attached screenshot).

[nishu_kush]

Sorry to hear about the crash. We can get it checked. You don't see any crash log in the folder because logging is not enabled. To enable it, create a text file with the name "After Effects Log" in the logs folder. Now launch After Effects and wait for it to crash. The text file that you created should be populated. Share the text file.

Looking forward to your response.

Thanks,
Nishu

[Jason327523480lib]

Hi Nishu,

Thanks for that. File is attached. It also made another text file called "After Effects Log-last" that's completely blank.

[nishu_kush]

Thanks for sharing the file, Jason. Unfortunately, this log doesn't tell much. Can you try this one more time? Also, please try the expert's suggestions. If they don't help, restart your computer and try running After Effects as administrator (right-click its icon and select Run as administrator).

Let me know how it goes.

Thanks,
Nishu

[Jason327523480lib]

Hi Nishu,

I originally thought it was fixed as Ae was opening fine a day ago, but it's been crashing yet again today. I've tried resetting preferences, switching from Nvidia Game Ready drivers to Studio drivers (and updating them), uninstalling/reinstalling Ae and nothing seems to be working this time. The new log file is attached.

I really don't want to do yet another full clean as my other apps are working great and it takes hours to install them again.

[ToolfarmJP]

Would you try to reset your preferences and / or update your graphic card driver?

[Jason327523480lib]

Hi ToolfarmJP,

I originally thought it was fixed as Ae was opening fine a day ago, but it's been crashing all day today. Yes, I've tried resetting preferences, switching from Nvidia Game Ready drivers to Studio drivers (and updating them), uninstalling/reinstalling Ae and nothing seems to be working this time.

I really hope I don't have to do yet another full clean. My other apps are working great and it takes hours to install them all again.

[Jason327523480lib · Accepted solution]

Never mind, it suddenly decided to work today when I did another reinstall. Not sure what was wrong, but it's fixed (hopefully for good haha). Thanks again 🙂

[Jason327523480lib]

Thanks, everyone. Got it fixed. My other apps were suddenly coming up with "entry point not found" errors on launch this morning, so I decided to spend the day doing a full clean and reinstalling everything again. Works perfectly now 🙂 Not sure if I had to do the full clean, but I'm glad it's working now. Thanks again.