I can't get After Effects to open up, It's looking for certain files, and then crashes on my Mac

[gary_sc]

I've had AE on my computer for years, and finally had a potential use for it. I went to start it up and this message showed up.

 I clicked OK, but this was followed by

 And finally this showed up:

To elaborate a bit more: I have been running the Lightroom family, Photoshop, Bridge, Acrobat, InDesign, Illustrator, and Premier Pro with no issues at all. 

I have reset the Preferences

I have reinstalled the application

I have verified that all is well with Privacy and Security in Apple's System Settings.

Please note the very last suggestion in the screenshot just above where I am writing. It states it wants me to review and "fix" the issue that I encountered in the previous two messages. Other than the "OK" button, there was not much to go on.

BTW, as long as I have your ear, what is the difference between

Adobe After Effects 2025.app

and

Adobe After Effects Render Engine 2025.app.

(I get the exact same results whichever one I click)

I'm at a loss, suggestions? Thanks for any help

Mac Studio M1, 1 tb storage, 64 GB ram, running Mac OS 15.6.1, and this was with After Effects 25.4.0

[RobShultz]

Is this a personal computer or work computer? If it is a work machine is it possible that work may have a permissions conflict?

[gary_sc]

Nope, my computer. If that was an issue, wouldn't it also affect the other Adobe apps?

as I stated, I've rechecked all the permission options, I couldn't find one that seemed wrong or not listed. 

Thanks for the idea. 

[nishu_kush]

Hi Gary,

Can you try providing full disk access to After Effects and see if that brings any change? If it doesn't, try running After Effects in Safe Mode with third-party plug-ins disabled. Here's how: https://adobe.ly/4m5k3tT

Let us know how it goes.

Thanks,
Nishu

[gary_sc]

Hi, @nishu_kush, thanks for adding to my assistance.

I had mentioned this already several times, so this time I'm providing a screenshot showing that I already have full disk access to AE

 

However, I had not tried running under safe mode. Now it does get interesting. I ran it several times just to make sure. When I did this, I got alternating startup options.

Half the time I got this startup screen:

and the other half of the time I got this.

But, whichever start up screen I got for Safe Mode, I ended up with first

 Then

 And finally,

 

So, I still need some help,

Thanks,

 

[nishu_kush]

Thanks for giving it a try and sharing the screenshot. Here's what you can try next:

1. If you have any plug-ins - Go to /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/Plug-ins/7.0/MediaCore

2. Rename the MediaCore folder to something else, such as MediaCore old. This will prevent After Effects from loading any third-party plug-ins that might be causing the issue.

3. If it does help, it's one of the plug-ins inside the MediaCore folder that's causing the issue.

If you don't find the MediaCore folder, you're in the user library instead of the System library.

Hope it helps.

Thanks,
Nishu

[gary_sc]

Hi, @nishu_kush, thanks for the warning/tip about User vrs System Libraries. I am aware of the two, and keep Aliases ready and available for both.

Alas, no, no differents in the result. Same failure windows. 

Question: Since I've not used AE at this point, I was wondering why there might be any Custom Plugins. While renaming the MediaCore folder, I did notice a two items in there: one a "dummy.txt" file and a Tiffen Dfx v4.0 folder with a number of files contained therein. Since the renaming of the Parent folder did not make a difference, my next question is probably moot but let me ask it anyway: When I did the reinstall, there was a question as to whether I wanted to install an additional piece of software, that I'm assuming was for the Tiffen files. I chose not to install the additional application. 

Now, since there has been no difference between how AE is responding before and after the re-install, I think I'm safe in saying that the additional application was probably not related to the problems I'm having. Is that correct? 

Interesting, in all of the years I've been using Adobe products (this goes back to Photoshop 4), I've never had issues like this. Fortunately, I was able to get the job I needed done without AE, but at this point, I would like to get it to work; at least for the next time! :>)

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi Gary,

I thank you for your note. You may also wan to check out this FAQ. It may have some steps you have not yet tried: https://adobe.ly/41QD0cC me know if it helped you. 

Thanks,

Kevin

[gary_sc]

Hi Kevin, can you please check that URL? Thanks

This is what I get when I go there:

 

[nishu_kush]

Yes, you're correct. If After Effects does not work even after renaming the MediaCore folder, Tiffen Dfx is probably not the root cause. However, Tiffen Dfx is a third-party plug-in. The MediaCore folder contains only third-party plug-ins (except dummy.txt) installed by the user. The Add-on you were prompted to install should be Cinema 4D Lite. It comes bundled with After Effects with the option of whether you want to install it or not.

For the crash issue, it might be helpful if you could share a log file from your machine. Here's how you can collect it:

1. Go to - /Users/USER NAME/Library/Preferences/Adobe/After Effects/(YOUR AE VERSION NUMBER)/logs

2. Create an empty text file with the name "After Effects Log".

3. Next time, when you launch After Effects, the text file should get populated.

4. Share the file here.

Thanks,
Nishu

[gary_sc]

Hi, @nishu_kush and @Kevin-Monahan. Good news and weird news.

First, I tried to collect "After Effects Log." When it didn't work with Apple's Text default ".rtf" suffix, I tried that again using ".txt" suffix. Still nothing.

Then, thinking that after I had uninstalled the broken copy, I tried reinstalling it without Maxon's Cinima 4D software. So, I figured I was making no progress toward success in any way. So, I uninstalled AE again, but when I reinstalled it. I DID add the Maxon software. At that point, AI started up like a champ. 

I've no clue as to why what happened or how it happened. I now have a functioning copy of AE. 

Thanks for a couple of things to try. Even though neither was successful, it was very appreciated that I was not left out all by myself, and Adobe was trying to help. It really was appreciated.

[nishu_kush]

That's strange! I could never have guessed this solution. Glad to hear that you were able to fix. Feel free to reach out if it happens again. Thanks for your patience.

Best,
Nishu