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

Question

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

gary_sc · Accepted Answer

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

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.

Anton.pe · Answer

Hello, I'm having this problem. I'm a Mac user and from one day to the next I couldn't access After Effects anymore. I need help solving this problem, please. I've already deleted everything, uninstalled all Adobe software, and the problem persists.

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