After effects crashes when the Explorer window opens

[panshsh]

After effect crashes every time when Explorer window is opened.

I mean that this happens when opens the Windows Explorer window (save as, import, output to, etc..).

To use the new version is simply impossible, it is necessary to return to the 2013 version

Maybe there is a solution to the problem?

Version 2013 works perfectly.

When I booted in safe mode, this problem disappeared.

Windows reinstalled - it does not help.

[Ridkurn]

Hi, It is 2020 here and this issue still happening to me. Thanks to you I just checked my event viewer and found out that other dll from Office folder is causing this. Thanks a bunch for the suggestion!

EDIT :
It is still happening, turns out it was caused by COMCTL32.DLL

[finleyg21076769]

This bug is alive and well in 2022, five years later.

[BrettHowe]

One of our 5 workstations has just developed this issue.  It's 2023!  Office is not installed on these machines, so it can not be GROOVEEX.dll.  What gives Adobe.  You keep bringing back old bugs into new releases.  It is infutiating. 

[Swan_G]

Did you find a solution?
I'm having the same issue. Frustrating to say the least.

[BrettHowe]

I have found the solution, and it's a weird one.  I will try to explain.  I worked out a fix, but not technically the actual problem.

So I noticed just before crash, After Effects was always looking in the same place (import/open/save).  So I guessed it had something to do with that.

It was a network folder we use all the time, so I informed everybody to not access it, then renamed it with a _BAK at the end.

I then proceeded to fire up the faulty AE machine, and when selecting open, it was fine.

I changed the folder name back to how it was...then tried to import, and it crashed again.

So, I renamed it again with _BAK.  Then on the faulty AE machine, used all the "explorer functions" ensuring the install was not looking at that folder anymore.

Changed the folder name back again to original and all is fine.  Fixed.  What does this mean?

Well I have a theory, and that is all it is.  Somewhere, either Abobe or windows stores a preference file for "last location".  We know this, becuase when using open etc, it defaults to the last location.  My theory is that this file became corrupted.  The only way to re-write it was to force it to open from another location.  The only way to do that was to remove/rename the old location.

I don't think this information is in the standard AE preferences, as I removed them.  I also uninstalled AE.  Yet when re-instlled, it wanted to defualt to the "last location", which indicates to me, it's stored within windows.

Hopes this helps somebody. 🙂

[Brandon Kraemer]

I just had the same issue.   Following this thread I investigated and finally found it was Aspera or I suspect the presence of it's Aspera Drive shortcut in the side bar of the windows explorer window causing the issue.  I uninstalled Aspera and it's fixed....   hours later.

FWIW... uninstalling and reinstalling AE, resetting prefs, disabling plugins did NOT solve the issue.

[maarten_0361]

Follow this tutorial to solve the issue for all Adobe software. This solution worked for me. It fixes an issue to drag and drop files into Adobe programs as well. No need to run Adobe software as administrator anymore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ackU1S9HYc4