FAQ: How to fix "Display Acceleration Disabled" in After Effects

Report · Mar 20, 2020

If you're running into a problem where After Effects displays a message on the Composition panel that says Display Acceleration Disabled, follow the suggestions given in this post to fix the problem.

macOS:
• Make sure your MacBook is connected to the power source
• Go to Preferences > Display and toggle Hardware Accelerate Composition, Layer, and Footage Panels
• Go to Preferences > Video Preview and toggle Enable Mercury Transmit

Windows:
• Update the on-board and dedicated graphics drivers of the computer. If this happens after updating the graphics driver, reinstall the previous version of the driver

NOTE: Nvidia driver version 442.92 seems to cause this problem on many systems. If you have installed this driver, please reinstall the previous version

• If your computer has Nvidia graphics, make sure to update the GeForce Experience software as well
• Go to Preferences > Display and toggle Hardware Accelerate Composition, Layer, and Footage Panels
• Go to Preferences > Video Preview and toggle Enable Mercury Transmit

If none of the steps given above help, obtain the System Information file (.NFO) and After Effects logs from your system and share them with us. Here is how you can do that:

Log files:

Launch After Effects and go to Help > Enable Logging.
Work in After Effects for a few minutes.
Then go to Help > Reveal Logging File.

System Info:

macOS:
Follow the steps given in this article: https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT203001

Windows:
1. Hold the Windows key and press R to open the Run window
2. Type msinfo32 and click OK
3. From the System Information window, go to File > Save
4. Save the file as .NFO

After collecting both the files, upload them to Adobe Creative Cloud Files by following the steps given in this article (https://helpx.adobe.com/in/creative-cloud/help/share.html) and share the URL in the comments section below.

Report · Jun 17, 2020

Im on MacOS Catalina 10.15.5.

I've only had this issue since updating to After Effects 2020. 2017 and 2018 worked perfect before.

Report · Jul 28, 2020

After Effects 2020 doesn't support hardware acceleration on the video card that is installed on your machine, richardj42019632. I'd suggest that you work with an older version of After Effects.

-Rameez

Report · Jun 16, 2020

Thanks Rameez.

First of all, I was recently able to solve all of my previous issues, including this "Display Acceleration Disabled" one, and am currently running After Effects 17.1.1 and Nvidia 442.92 smoothly, and without any issues. However, it wasn't due to using the 446.14 driver (which I did try initially).

Unfortunately, and I'm not sure this will be of any help to anyone else, what finally seems to have made the difference was at the end of days dedicated to trial and error, and in the end, I'm not sure I can say what the one thing is that made the critical difference.

Just in case it does help someone else down-the-road, here are the main things I did:

Uninstalled all Adobe apps, restarted PC and re-installed all Adobe apps.
Installed previous versions of Nvidia drivers (as far back as 431.86).
Ensured motherboard BIOS and drivers were up-to-date.
Removed and re-set my RAM sticks one-by-one.
Cleared the CMOS on my motherboard (removed and re-set the CMOS battery).
Booted into Safe Mode, and wiped all the graphics and audio drivers using DDU.
Installed the Nvidia 442.92 Studio Drivers using "custom installation", and not including GeForce Experience or audio drivers.
Installed Realtek audio drivers from motherboard site.
Re-installed all other motherboard drivers (but did not update BIOS).

As I mentioned, I'm not exactly sure what made the critical difference, but my suspicion is that it was either something with a conflict with a BIOS update on my motherboard, or one with the Realtek audio drivers included in the Nvidia installer.

Maybe someone will find this helpful, but at the very least, maybe it'll be a glimmer of hope. I can say that personally, I was at the "Well, it can't get any worse... might as well tear it all down and rebuild" point before I finally got it back to a good state.

Cheers, and best of luck!

EDIT: Just in case it might be helpful in investigating the difference between my previously failing setup, and my currently working one, I'm including a current version of my workstation's system .nfo: https://shared-assets.adobe.com/link/9a4ac37c-51fd-4c03-431e-3ad9a5e2772b

Report · Jun 17, 2020

Hi brittnell-CM,

Thank you so much for your detailed post and for sharing the NFO. I've sent this post to our engineers and hope that it's going to help in their investigation.

Best,

Rameez

Report · Jun 16, 2020

As my earlier post seems to have gotten flagged and removed as "spam" (?), I am reposting it again here:

---------------------

Thanks Rameez.

First of all, I was recently able to solve all of my previous issues, including this "Display Acceleration Disabled" one, and am currently running After Effects 17.1.1 and Nvidia 442.92 smoothly, and without any issues. However, it wasn't due to using the 446.14 driver (which I did try initially).

Unfortunately, and I'm not sure this will be of any help to anyone else, what finally seems to have made the difference was at the end of days dedicated to trial and error, and in the end, I'm not sure I can say what the one thing is that made the critical difference.

Just in case it does help someone else down-the-road, here are the main things I did:

Uninstalled all Adobe apps, restarted PC and re-installed all Adobe apps.
Installed previous versions of Nvidia drivers (as far back as 431.86).
Ensured motherboard BIOS and drivers were up-to-date.
Removed and re-set my RAM sticks one-by-one.
Cleared the CMOS on my motherboard (removed and re-set the CMOS battery).
Booted into Safe Mode, and wiped all the graphics and audio drivers using DDU.
Installed the Nvidia 442.92 Studio Drivers using "custom installation", and not including GeForce Experience or audio drivers.
Installed Realtek audio drivers from motherboard site.
Re-installed all other motherboard drivers (but did not update BIOS).

As I mentioned, I'm not exactly sure what made the critical difference, but my suspicion is that it was either something with a conflict with a BIOS update on my motherboard, or one with the Realtek audio drivers included in the Nvidia installer.

Maybe someone will find this helpful, but at the very least, maybe it'll be a glimmer of hope. I can say that personally, I was at the "Well, it can't get any worse... might as well tear it all down and rebuild" point before I finally got it back to a good state.

Cheers, and best of luck!

EDIT: Just in case it might be helpful in investigating the difference between my previously failing setup, and my currently working one, I'm including a current version of my workstation's system .nfo: https://shared-assets.adobe.com/link/9a4ac37c-51fd-4c03-431e-3ad9a5e2772b

Report · Jun 30, 2020

Hi. I'm having the same problem, and nothing seems to fix it.

I'm running AE 17.1.1 on a 2013 Mac Pro under Mojave (10.14.6)

Here is my system report: https://shared-assets.adobe.com/link/ae816e25-cb99-4e4d-49e2-9da17c11579e

Please help! Thank you.

Paul

Report · Jul 02, 2020

Hi Paul,

Thanks for sharing the file. Can you share the AE log with me as well?

Launch After Effects and go to Help > Enable Logging.
Work in After Effects for a few minutes.
Then go to Help > Reveal Logging File.

Share the file with me.

Thanks,

Rameez

Report · Jul 01, 2020

I followed the guidelines but the issue persists for me. I'm using AE 17.1.1 on a Mac as well.

https://shared-assets.adobe.com/link/82af2c01-95f2-42d5-5912-9b676f9f1aaf

Report · Jul 02, 2020

Hey divadutchess,

Thanks for providing the file. Can you follow the steps I shared above in my post and provide the AE log file?

Best,

Rameez

Report · Jul 03, 2020

Hi Rameez,

I have the same issue with 'display acceleration disabled'. The problem occured out of nowhere. After reading the article I've tried to install different drivers for my NVIDIA Quadro (manually and by custom installation), but it haven't solved the problem. I'm not a computer wizzard so it's basically all I can do.

Please find my system info:

https://shared-assets.adobe.com/link/ae4ab4c5-f4e6-4980-7ac6-b3dcfacbba12

I use the latest version of AE.

All the best,

Report · Jul 07, 2020

Thanks for sharing your system info, beatek60832359.

I'll add it to the bug.

Best,

Rameez

Report · Jul 07, 2020

Thanks for getting back to me, Ramirez.

The problem has now gone away as suddenly as it appeared. I will get back
in touch if it returns.

Report · Jul 28, 2020

Hi there,

I have the same issue, I'm using AE 2020. Can you please help? Here's my system info

Report · Jul 28, 2020

Don't waste your time here. They never reply with any information, fixes, etc.

Report · Jul 28, 2020

Oh really!? Well, I have nothing to lose posting this whilst I continue searching for a solution.

Report · Jul 28, 2020

Hey AdeB,

Your computer's video card is too old to support hardware acceleration in After Effects. Moreover, your computer doesn't meet the system requirements to run After Effects 2020. I'd recommend that you use an earlier version of After Effects.

Thanks,

Rameez

Report · Jul 28, 2020

I see, OK I'll download AE 2019 and stop CC updates.

Thank you

Report · Jul 28, 2020

Hey folks,

In After Effects 17.1.2, the team has made some improvements in this area. As a result, you might not see this message anymore with the exception of legacy hardware. If you're still running into this, please let me know so that I can reach out to them.

Happy to advocate on your behalf 🙂

Rameez

Report · Aug 13, 2020

Please Help! When in AfterEffects if I hit space bar to preview i just get black screen and i noticed I have "Display Acceleration Disabled" in the top right corner. I have shared the link to the NFO file and the Loggin File.

https://shared-assets.adobe.com/link/887c1316-1cc4-4fb7-4745-d7f1066df4aa

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Report · Aug 16, 2020

Hey,

Sorry my Adobe account is full for some reason, so here's my information via my Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wbnXeiVFQ1KE-OVe_CrRarN0j-27dLJ_?usp=sharing

I'm having a LOT of trouble with Display Acceleration Disabled. Please help! Things are SUPER slow on my new Mac Pro and my MacBook Pro is actually FASTER.

Report · Aug 17, 2020

Anyone?

Report · Aug 17, 2020

PROBLEM SOLVED! I downgraded to 2019

Report · Aug 20, 2020

Hi Anthony5D58,

The link that you have shared is not public. Can you make it public so that I can download it?

Thanks,

Rameez

Report · Aug 19, 2020

I have this problem ut with an intel graphics card.

https://shared-assets.adobe.com/link/3f7413d8-f8c4-40c5-46f0-9559615350f1

It just started to be an issue 2 days ago.

Report · Aug 24, 2020

Hi ThomJoe,

From the logs, I can see that your computer has Intel HD 4400 which is a chip for 2012. It's too old and underpowered to run the latest version of After Effects. I'd recommend that you use an earlier version of After Effects.

Thanks,

Rameez