After Effects showing blank Screen and is not working anymore

[ck-creavo]

Hey there!
AE is not working for me anymore. 

This is what it looks like once I open a project or just start it.
Nearly everything in the Menu is greyed out. I can screenshot it, if you need it.
I already tried:

• reinstalling AE
• using AE CC 2019 instead of CC 2020
• reinstalled CC 2019
• updated/reinstalled drivers
• cleared the cache
• started AE while pressing alt, ctrl and shift

I'm using Windows 10, newest Update. It definitly worked before the update.

This is all happening on my L460 from Lenovo. (I5-6200U, 12GB RAM, onboard GPU).

Can you help me?

[Byron Cortez]

Did you tried in menu Windows / Workspaces / Default (or another)?. Or press the key that you have in fisic keyboard at right side of the "p" key (square bracket). 

[ck-creavo]

Hi, thanks for your answer!
Pressing the button next to P did not do anything. Also changing the workspace is not possible, because nearly everything is greyed out.

[Rick Gerard]

You opened the Render Engine and not the App. They have the same icon:

[ck-creavo]

Hey, thanks for your answer!
I'm starting it by using the Creative Cloud Desktop. I searched for the shortcut in my programm files to look up if there is something wrong with it.

These are the shortcuts for AE and AE Render Engine:

That's the loading screen I get:

[Rick Gerard]

The first screenshot you posted is the Render Engine, not the app.

[ck-creavo]

But why does it start the Render Engine? Everything results in starting the Render Engine; starting AE from the Adobe Cloud Desktop App, starting from the Shortcut "Adobe After Effects CC 2019", even starting AE from the actual .exe itself "AfterFX.exe"...

[ck-creavo · Accepted solution]

Alright I managed to fix it:
I am working with a library called nexrender (it is used to automate rendering programmatically).

Apperently it created a text-file called "ae_render_only_node.txt" in my documents. That is causing the problem.

(https://blogs.adobe.com/creativecloud/codecs-and-the-render-engine-in-after-effects-cs6/?segment=dva)

[RNaveiro]

Hello @ck-creavo 

How did you do it? I have written to Adobe telling your solution but I have deleted that file and it does not work for me = (I copy here what I have written. The link you share no longer works. Thank you very much for your help!!

"This does not work either. It happened to me as a result of installing Render Boss to render with several computers at the same time. I have AE 2021 V18.4.1. I have cleared cache, temporary files, I have installed the next version. Of course the V2022 not yet because it gives errors of another type and I don't dare. On one computer it works perfectly and on the other it only opens the processing queue and you can only enter some options, but neither reset windows, nor open or create a new project ... I have read that it happened to a boy and that he solved it by deleting a .txt file located in the Documents folder (ae_render_only_node.txt). I have deleted this document but I still cannot enter AE. This guy fixes it but doesn't say how he solves it apparently.

I have written to Render Boss technical support but have not received a response.

Please, any solution or hint to try something ?? It's maddening. = (

Thank you."

[RNaveiro]

Solved!

That .txt was to blame. 2 copies are created in different places.

Two copies of this file are created: ae_render_only_node.txt
One in Documents and one in (C: \ Users \ Public \ Documents \ Adobe)

I have removed that one and now it does open normally.
You have to delete both files!

From the Render Boss support they have answered me to tell me that this file was probably missing to be deleted.
Support reply:
AE uses the render-only txt file only if the 'Render as Render-Only Node' option is selected (see screenshot below) which is meant for secondary machines that are not logged in with Adobe (that way, Adobe doesn't ask you to log in before every render).

Make sure this option is not enabled. If it is, disabled it and click OK, and that should remove the file. The next time you open AE, it should open as normal.

If you'd like to remove the file manually, you have to remove it from Documents as you did, but there's another copy at C: \ Users \ Public \ Documents \ Adobe

Thanks again and I hope I have helped.
All the best

[Novation26463822q8dq]

I have same like this and this one is helpful, Thank you!

[Milly Mill]

Old thread, I know.  But to anyone who, like me, came here and none of these suggestions still worked, here's the solution that did the trick for me. Just remove the extra unnecessary spaces from the project file name.  After trying everything, I was relectuant but gave it a shot. And thank Jesus....voila! So hopefully this blesses someone else.