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After effects warning: Can't write to font cache directory

Community Beginner ,
Mar 17, 2020 Mar 17, 2020

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Hello,

 

I can't open any version of After effects anymore on my machine. I have version 17.0.5, 16.1.3 and 13.1.4 installed. They worked fine yesterday, today i get and error while the startup screen loads:

 

After effects warning: Can't write to font cache directory

And after that:

After effects error: string memory leak (83 :: 2)

After effects can't continue: unexpected failure during application startup

 

All my other programs (Premiere, Illustrator etc.) work fine, and I have not changed anything to my setup. The only thing I changed yesterday is upgrading to the newest Illustrator version. Going back to the older version did not change anything.

 

I've tried reinstalling, rebooting and checking for any corrupt fonts.

I'm running Windows 10.

 

After Effects is my main tool and i can't do any work without it. Can someone point me in the right direction?

 

Thanks!

 

Michiel

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

New Here , Jul 24, 2021 Jul 24, 2021

I was able to correct this by using the start tab and chosing Run as administrator and it worked.

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Adobe Employee ,
Mar 18, 2020 Mar 18, 2020

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Hi Michiel,

 

Thanks for reaching out. It looks like a permissions related issue to me.

Try providing the permissions to the folder at the following locations:

C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Adobe

C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Adobe

Here are the steps to provide permissions: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-take-ownership-files-and-folders-windows-10

 

Let us know if it brings any change.

 

Thanks,

Nishu

 

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 18, 2020 Mar 18, 2020

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Hello Nishu,

 

Thanks for your help. I have tried to change the permissions but this did not solve my problem.

I have found a simple solution, for some reason I have to run all my After Effects versions as 'administrator'.

Browse to your after effects folder.

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC 2019\Support Files

Right click on AfterFx.exe, choose 'Run as administrator'.

 

I don't understand why this has suddenly changed, or why this is specific only for After Effects. But it works.

Hopefully it helps anyone else who has this problem. 

 

Michiel

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New Here ,
Mar 18, 2020 Mar 18, 2020

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I'm having the same issue.   I've been very vocal about this on other threads.  This is a huge problem and Adobe is doign NOTHING to solve it.  I'm going to lose a client over this issue in already hard times.   Adobe needs to figure out what the hell their last update did to after effects and the premire bridge.  

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 18, 2020 Mar 18, 2020

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Did my solution solve your problem?

It is completely unclear to me how this has happened overnight.
Maybe it is the result of an automatic update by Windows?

 

Michiel

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New Here ,
Mar 18, 2020 Mar 18, 2020

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There was an automatic adobe after effects update two nights ago is the
only thing I've traced it back too.

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Adobe Employee ,
Mar 24, 2020 Mar 24, 2020

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Hi Michiel,

I am not sure if Windows update can cause this. Would you mind letting us know if your user account is managed by your organization or you are working on your home computer?

 

Thanks,

Nishu 

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 24, 2020 Mar 24, 2020

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Hello Nishu,

 

I am working from my studio computer, so the account is managed by myself. 

Running the program as administrator solved it for me, but I have no clue how this error could have happened after a simple reboot. I am always running the same (and only) account on this machine.

If there is anything I can do to help solve the issue for other users, let me know.

 

Michiel

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New Here ,
Dec 08, 2020 Dec 08, 2020

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Michiel,

Thanks for sharing this information about running as an administrator. It is the only method that has worked for me so far.

Robert Pena

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Community Beginner ,
Dec 09, 2020 Dec 09, 2020

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No problem, it's crazy to me that after all this time Adobe apparently has not fixed the issue.

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Explorer ,
Jun 20, 2020 Jun 20, 2020

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I'm also having the same problem and none of the solution presented here have worked for me.

 

I've tried completely uninstalling AE and then deleting all AE sub folders but AE still gives the same error message

 

After effects warning: Can't write to font cache directory

 

How do we fix this???

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Explorer ,
Jun 22, 2020 Jun 22, 2020

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Those solution don't work.  In fact, I just got off the phone with Adobe Support and after remotely accessing my machine I was told the only solution was a complete uninstall of ALL my Adobe products followed by a complete reinstall.  I declined that option because I was also told NONE of my presets could be saved and I plan to replace this computer soon anyway.  It's clear that the actual problem is the latest Adobe updates have massively corrupted the Windows registry.  What's even more upsetting than the lost time is Adobe's engineers cannot offer a better solution that burning everything down and starting over

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New Here ,
Jun 28, 2021 Jun 28, 2021

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kesinlikle haklısın. Bir ÅŸeyi çözmek için hemen sil yeniden yükle diyorlar. bu çok saçma. 

Ben çözümü buldum. Win için kullanıcılar veya local'a bağlı kullanıclar server tabanlı kullanıcların tam denetim yetkisine sahip olması gerekmekte. o yüzden;

Kullanıcların adı altında Appdata saÄŸ tuÅŸ özellikler / güvenlik / geliÅŸmiÅŸ / sahibi: deÄŸiÅŸtir / geliÅŸmiÅŸ /ÅŸimdi bul / tamam tamam tamam ÅŸeklinde finish. Pc bir aç kapat. Tüm yetkileri alınca font yazma iÅŸlemi baÅŸlayacaktır. DiÄŸer seçenekler ihtiyacı yoktur. 

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New Here ,
Jun 29, 2020 Jun 29, 2020

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Please Adobe, solve this problem? It is now the end of June, none of the here mentioned solutions (already a complain during a long period...) works. I got this problem only now for the first time, after an automatic update of a few days ago. I cannot use After Effects, that's pretty disturbing (to say the least). Uninstalling en reinstalling won't help either. Windows10. Other programs work fine. 

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Explorer ,
Mar 28, 2020 Mar 28, 2020

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Exact same problem with Mac OsX.
Suddenly none of my three versions are unable to launch at all. All other Adobe programs working fine. Uninstalled all AE's and re-installed and nothing happened.

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Explorer ,
Jul 02, 2021 Jul 02, 2021

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On osx created new user, installed everything from scratch and ae is now working ok. Dont know if it was the freash install or if  there was an update that fixed this. 

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New Here ,
Jul 24, 2021 Jul 24, 2021

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I was able to correct this by using the start tab and chosing Run as administrator and it worked.

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New Here ,
Nov 04, 2021 Nov 04, 2021

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Same issue here...Please help...After effects is very important for my job...

 

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New Here ,
Jan 03, 2022 Jan 03, 2022

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I ran as administrator and it worked. 

 

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New Here ,
Aug 02, 2023 Aug 02, 2023

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We are the 08-2023 and I have same problem and I'll don't renew abonement to Adobe, I am excedeed by this incompetence. I'll change all my system in few time and for me adobe is completely out.

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New Here ,
Sep 24, 2023 Sep 24, 2023

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LATEST

I think I managed to solve the problem, finally. I've been through all the solutions I could find - running as an administrator, changing rights to folders, etc. Nothing worked. Here is what I've found: font cache directory is not a folder within any installation or user folders. It's in the TEMP folder. And I have a custom TEMP folder, that contained Adobe folder with all the rights locked. I couldn't get in it even as an admin. I had to take the ownership to the folder (following: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-take-ownership-files-and-folders-windows-10 ). As soon as I did that, I could again get into the Adobe folder in my TEMP. And apparently, so does After Effects now. Works like a charm now:)

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