Low memory warning in After Effects 23.0 (2023)

[raymondcraig]

Unfortunately 23.0 did not fix the issue for me on my M1 mac. It still only renders 2 frames at a time and gives the same error. If I revert back to version 22.4 it works perfectly but any subsequent update (including the 23.0 just released) has the playback issue.

Update: version 24.0 working much better!

I had various results with updates 23.1-23.6, most of them still occasionally having the issue saying it's out of memory or even black frames when rendering. It didn't matter if I had all plugins removed, fresh install, and no other programs running. I just updated to v24.0 and instantly started working like it used to before v23.0. RAM previews are loading right away and playing back in realtime speeds. I'll update if anything changes but so far they seem to have fixed the issues plaguing v23+ at least for me.

[nishu_kush]

Hi @Anand26678625z9rk @Randy - Dice @michaela55763425 and @jmh22 

Are there any third-party plug-ins installed for After Effects? If so, could you try removing them temporarily and see if that fixes the issue?

Let us know.

Thanks,

Nishu

[jmh22]

I followed Rick Gerards suggestion and deleted/reset preferences. So far this has seemed to do the trick. Haven't had the message again today. Hoping this is the fix! 

Thanks

[JP_Motion21]

Hi!

I'm having the same issue on MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB of Ram. It olny lets my watch 2sec of preview. I closed other apps and still having the same problem. I have a few third party plugins and scripts installed. 

How can I delete/reset the preferences?

[Randy - Dice]

Well I have over 40 scripts / plugin installed, both AE 22.5 and 23 uses the exact same versions. I do not see how I would go about removing my workflow to test out witch one may be the cause of AE 23 not working? Since alot of plugins are in the core forder that are shared through each versions of AE. The only thing I could try is reset my preference layout and see if that helps. I ll give that a try and get back to you.

[Warren Heaton]

@Randy - Dice 

We can quickly disable Effects, native or third-party, by putting the plugin folder name or the plugin filename in parenthesis.

Examples:

• To disable Wave Warp, change the filename from "Wave_Warp.plugin" to "(Wave_Warp).plugin".
• To disable Video Copilot, change the folder name from "VideoCopilot" to "(VideoCopilot".

If a third-party plugin is listed as After Effects Multi-Frame Ready, then is should be fine; however, a fast way to troubleshoot them would be to disable all third-party plugins and then export something.  Assuming that exports as expected then you know it's a third party plugin, enable half of them and then export something.  Assuming that exports as expected, enable half of the remaining half.  Continue until you've nailed down which plugin is causing slow renders.

You could also start by disabling just third-party plugins currently in use in a given project, although that tends to be a more effecive for crashes than slow downs.  If you're not sure which plugins are in use, we can generate a project report via File > Dependencies > Collect Files > None (Project Only).  You could start by disabling any effects listed in the report.

An alternate approach is to check for updates to all third party plugins.  Back when I first installed After Effects 2022 on one of the iMac Pros that I use, it was crashing like crazy just while clicking around while After Effects 2021 was very stable.  I took the time to update all of the third party plugins rather than disable them and the sudden crashes went away. 

[Randy - Dice]

Update: after updating the new release of Red Giant collection that just came out a couple days ago, seemed to have fixed the issues I was getting with the orange memory full error. AE 23 still seems to use as much memory as possible but is stable and not causing any errors so far.

[Warren Heaton]

@Randy - Dice 

Thank you for reporting what's working for you.

[Rameez_Khan]

Hi @Randy - Dice!

Thanks for reporting! 

It helps attest to my earlier post about fixes from plugin manufacturers. 

Best,

Rameez

[Anand26678625z9rk]

Hii @nishu_kush, 
to be honest i didn't remind, i have installed any third party plugins or not, how can i find it?

[SRLAWSON]

I tried upgrading to Ventura. I can't notice a different unfortunately. This is an incredibly frustrating issue and will genuinely prevent me from using what should be an amazingly fast system to carry out paid work. Total joke. Guys, please get this sorted. My 64GB RAM M1 Max is struggling even to render out a 117 frame mov!

[jenkmeister]

The issue isn't due to MacOS versions. We have a set of fixes for this in the current 23.2 beta builds of AE, which will also go out with a 23.1 full release soonish. If you want to try the beta and see if it improves your experience, you can get that from the Creative Cloud App in the Beta section. 

[SRLAWSON]

Alas, I have tried the Beta and if anything my problem is even worse than it was previously. I have just spent 2 hours with Adobe support and am no closer to fixing the issue.

Best,


Steve

[jenkmeister]

Can you post some screenshots of your Memory & Performance settings in AE? And maybe a screen recording of what you are seeing. Just want to make sure I understand what it is you're experiencing. 

[SRLAWSON]

I am currently stuck doing a render and I don't want to cancel out as I've been there long enough, but I've tried - and an Adobe technician has tried - every setting under the sun on the Memory and Performance tab. In terms of what I see, I just see a banded blue loading line when trying to move the playhead or play the sequence, or I don't see that and just get nothing at all. I will try to share an image when I can.

[SRLAWSON]

Thanks but unfortunately, the problem persists, with the now added bonus of exports failing or taking a very, very long time (I'm talking several hours for just 5 seconds of animation).

[Rameez_Khan]

Hi everybody,

This After Effects 22.5 and 22.6 issue was traced to a combination of certain plugins and computers with shared system/GPU memory, such as Apple M1 machines. The After Effects team resolved the shared system/GPU memory bug in After Effects 23.0.

The other cause discovered in plugins, such as Red Giant and others, now has new versions with patches available by plugin manufacturers.

If you're experiencing this in After Effects 23.0, it's more likely due to a third-party plugin. 

Hope this provides more clarity. 

Rameez

[raymondcraig]

I have all 3rd party plugins uninstalled and even tried the AE Beta 23.1.0 version. With both 23.0 and 23.1 new projects seem to work okay but any previous project I've tried to open (even with a clean install and no 3rd party plugins/scripts/etc.) the issue persists.

[Randy - Dice]

Hi Raymondcraig, even if your plugins are uninstalled can you check and see if "MxNotify.exe" or "mxredirect.exe" or "Red Giant service" are running in the background process ?  

[raymondcraig]

@Randy - Dice I checked and no Red Giant or Maxon activity is running when I open either version. I'm also on an M1 Mac if that helps. Thanks!

[juanb44491610]

Hi!
I was having the same problem. I uninstall everything (including previus verssion and all my plugins ), start with a clean slate and now works. 

Hope it works for ythe rest

[Rameez_Khan]

Thanks for letting us know, @raymondcraig. I'll share this with the After Effects team.

-Rameez

[default23366739h125ee]

Same issue here. I've uninstalled all the 3rd party plugin and open new project with 23.0, but the issue is still there.

[beearehaze]

I'm still having the same issue. I've updated all my plugins and uninstalled the ones that didn't have updates, and I'm still having the issue where I get the Low Memory warning, and I can only preview 2 frames. 

[CinematekCreative]

I installed 23.0 and have been playing with it for a couple of hours.
Everything seems to be working just fine. Great work team! Thank you for
the fix. The animation presets are cool, too!

M1
16GB RAM
1TB SSD

[CinematekCreative]

Actually... I take it back... After editing for about 10 hours back and forth between AE and Premiere (both updated to 2023 version) the problem has returned! 5-frame-only rendering in AE. If I purge cache and restart my computer then it seems to work again for a little bit, but after an hour or so the previewing limits back to 5 frames. This is in a 1920x1080 composition at Quarter resolution.

Back to the drawing board, guys. Fingers crossed for 23.1