After Effects error 205

[m_beam]

So, yesterday everything was working fine.

Today, I open up After Effects, I'm getting an error

Sorry, After Effects has encountered an error and needs to close.

Use Reference code 205.

The stuff that I tried:

Reinstalling After Effects

Direct download & install without Creative Cloud installer

Deleting Older After Effects

Reinstalling Creative Cloud

Redownloading Creative Cloud and installing After Effects over different network

Adobe Cleaner

Deleting preferences

Checking permissions

Checking firewall

Nothing worked

So then I did a timemachine backup restore to yesterday.

I booted up After Effects, seemed to work.. UNTIL.. I logged into Creative Cloud.

Boom. Error.

So I logged out again.

And restarted After effects.

It seems to work, can't do anything because I have to log into Creative Cloud, and the moment that I do that, I get the error.

The older After Effects and other adobe software are not affected.

Please please please please let there be a fix.

I've searched the forums and have seen all the suggestions, both typed and copy pasted from manuals.

Looking forward hearing your thoughts.

[jdpeterson9]

Exact same problem here.  Mac OS X: Yesterday fine - today error 205 when launching After Effects.  Other Adobe products open fine.  I've tried the anti-virus, alternate network approaches. Tried re-installing creative cloud desktop app and after effects.

I'm a freelance artist and am my own IT department.  I have a client waiting.  I need to get into After Effects now. 

Help would be greatly appreciated!

[Jess JAM · Accepted solution]

(cross posted from a thread that is experiencing a similar problem)

EDITED:

Suggestion to try:

1. You can try deleting entries in login keychain > Secure Notes that start with Adobe *

It seems like the individuals experiencing this issue are on Mac - is this issue seen by anyone on Win?

[jdpeterson9]

My problem was resolved fairly quickly after contacting Adobe through chat and granting remote access.  It did have something to do with the login keychain. 

[m_beam]

Thank you!

#2 Worked.

[Shanarchist]

Yes. Im having this problem on Win 11

[FloridaFatherOf3]

I'm also having this same issue with AE running Windows 10 Pro. Please help! Driving me nuts.

[carolthescribbler]

Me too.

[COLLASOUL]

I am also having this problem on Windows 10. The issue is happening on both AE 2022 and 2021. I haven't tried other versions.

[dexm29322916]

It is happening on Win as well... smh...

[JonteP.]

Hi I'm on windows too with the same issue (205). I got it working again. here is how i did it.

Assuming that this issue is a credentials / keychain / login issue like the Mac users described it here I thought we could do the same solving strategy on the windows side. --> deleting all Adobe related credentials in windows credentials manager. You can find it here: Control Panel\User Accounts\Credential Manager

before Removing anything make sure you create an up-to-date backup of your credentials saved in the credentials manager.

Since I've installed a ton of Adobe Software I had to remove over 200 entries and since Microsoft did not support a search tool or multiple deletions at once I've wrote a small Batch-Script to do that sorting and delete everything with Adobe in its name:

@echo off
echo Creating temporary Lists...
cmdkey.exe /list > "%TEMP%\List.txt"
findstr.exe Target "%TEMP%\List.txt" > "%TEMP%\tokensonly.txt"
findstr.exe Adobe "%TEMP%\tokensonly.txt" > "%TEMP%\adobetokensonly.txt"
for /f "usebackq" %%b in (`type %TEMP%\adobetokensonly.txt ^| find "" /v /c`) do echo found %%b entries with "Adobe"
echo Next step is removing all entries that contain Adobe Credentials
pause
echo Removing of credentials started
FOR /F "tokens=1,3 delims=:" %%G IN (%TEMP%\adobetokensonly.txt) DO cmdkey.exe /delete:LegacyGeneric:%%H
echo Removing of credentials finished
echo Removing temporary Lists...
del "%TEMP%\List.txt" /s /f /q
del "%TEMP%\tokensonly.txt" /s /f /q
del "%TEMP%\adobetokensonly.txt" /s /f /q
echo All done!
pause

You could copy that into a notepad and save it as batch file. e.g.: AdobeCredRemover.bat
Close all Adobe applications before you run this as administrator.
I've built some halts during the script so you have to "enter" through the steps.

If you want to be on the safe side you could manually remove the credentials with Adobe in its name.

Disclaimer: I'm not an Adobe employee. If you mess up your system using my script above. It is your and only your Problem.

[Agrarvolution]

Hey, I just encountered the same issue, when after updating Premiere Pro (Beta).

So when this happens, the login informations got corrupted by an update?

Your solution was the only one I could find and it worked. Thank you very much for that. The batch file saved a ton of time. 🙂

I also didn't need to reinstalled / download anything. Just reset my login.

For everybody using this batch script - it isn't localization agnositc. If it doesn't work - check what "Target" is called in your language.

It's a shame this isn't addressed in any official help page.

[JonteP.]

Your welcome!
I didn't know that their was a localised version of the target tag. I'm sorry for that.

[pauliuspt]

this solution worked for me on Windows 10.
Thanks dude, You're a life saver!

[FloridaFatherOf3]

You, sir, are a wizard. Worked like a charm. Thank you so much.

[Storm Ministries, Inc]

Great work on this batch file!  It worked!  I also am surprised adobe did not streamline something similar for a possible resolution.  Maybe fear of risk into liability here?

[ELIJAH5FCC]

This worked. Thank you so much! You are a true hero!

[COLLASOUL]

Thank you so much! Worked like a charm. That batch file saved my life. Much appreciated!

[Ultimxtely30970865cjgi]

absolute legend. tysm

[Daniel31266336llv7]

Had this same issue in 2024 and this worked perfectly thank you!

[Markus Scheibenbauer]

After literally everything that you can try (clear cache, reinstall everything, logging out and in cc, deleting all my beloved plugins, messing with txt files in the mediacore folder) THIS worked. THANK YOU!!!

[PJ-AVT]

Argh. Today again after ~6 hours working in AE. Working between PPro & AE (not using linked comps). Closed AE. Opened AE little later. Same error again.

I reinstalled AE, no change. I trashed preferences, no change... Will have to delete adobe keys again.

[Shivangi_Gupta]

This behavior is very strange. I would recommend you to contact our phone/chat support team once. They'll have an option to access your computer remotely and see what is causing the issue to happen.

Contact Customer Care

[PJ-AVT]

Thanks shivangi gupta will do if it happens again

[trashcaneron]

This occurred when I sent some files from Premiere to After Effects via Dynamic Link.

Activity monitor wouldn't allow me to quit or force quit the 3 instances of Adobe CEF Helper. Updated to the latest AE and Premiere to see if that solved the trick, and... the results are in: Problem solved with Premiere 13.1.4 Magician and After Effects 16.1.2

[Shivangi_Gupta]

Thanks for letting us know. I'm sure it will be useful for other users.