After Effects freezes when opening a specific project

[zachyoungblood]

I have an Ae file that freezes up Ae every time I open it, even the autosave files freeze it up. The problem is specific to one project. All my other Ae project files open just fine. Never had this issue before today. I have coworkers that can open the file just fine, on the same version of Ae. Same exact hardware and software build as well. I can even open it on my laptop, which has an old version of Ae, just can't open it on my Mac Pro. I tried reinstalling the current and old version of Ae. Still won't open. See screenshot below. It looks like a dialogue box starts opening and freezes before it gets past this point. I get the color wheel and have to force quit. Any thoughts?

[RobShultz]

Try re-setting preferences first:

With AE closed Hold down shift/command/option and click on the icon for AE. Keep holding the keys and let your system make changes. Then try re-opening your project. Hope that this helps.

[zachyoungblood]

No luck. Thanks for the suggestion though.

[Rick Gerard]

Try Opening After Effects, set Caps Lock on so nothing will render, then Import the problem Project file and open the compositions one at a time. Do not Open the AEP, import it. The caps lock will prevent a comp from rendering a preview. 

When you find the problem comp, repeat the process but turn off the effects on the layers one at a time until AE does not crash.

You could also have some corrupted footage in the project so rename the directory with the footage and try replacing the files one at a time.

[zachyoungblood]

Tried both, still no luck.

I also thought it might be corrupt footage, but everything opens and loads fine on every other machine.

[$andwitch]

Hey did you by chance figure out the problem? I am currently having the same issue. 

[Joost van der Hoeven]

Have you tried importing it into a new empty project?

[$andwitch]

yes i have any other project works just fine its just this one that wont seem to open.

[Yauhen267508724hp8]

I have exactly the same problem. Working projects were opened for 2 years, and after one of the updates, After Effects stopped loading. They just hang at 90-95% of the load. Hangs in all versions. The reason seems to be in the particular plugin. But the projects do not start even if this plugin is removed. And on other computers, even without plug-ins, everything opens

[Raemon24425961lm1g · Accepted solution]

I had this problem, and changing the file name seems to fix the problem for me.

[Skysinger]

Thank you! This worked for me. Had the same problem as OP and was terrified my project was corrupted, but a simple name change fixed it just fine. Cheers!

[jonathan8_8]

Wow, same! File name didn't even have any weird characters in it.

[EvanMadd]

just saved my butt. Thank you!