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.

[hengo]

Same here, but different. 

It's up to five seconds in full resolution when i completely clear the cache (270gb). Half res is 10 seconds. 4k resolution. 

It's very unfortunate indeed. I thought it was fixed so I stopped using the 22.4 version and now I'll have to decide whether to finish with these limitations or lose all work I've done since updating, because the 22.4 version won't open a 23-file.

Ah. 

I just wanted to ask if there's any possibility to save in a former version-version (lol), so yeah, there is, under 'save as'. I'm still new to this. Glad I could help me out, though. Thanks. I'm welcome.

Hengo

[Rameez_Khan]

Oh no! Sorry to hear about this, @CinematekCreative. 

• Do you have any other apps like Chrome or Spotify open in the background when you're working with After Effects and Premiere Pro? 
• How much memory have you assigned to Adobe apps? You can check that in Preferences > Memory & Performance.
• Do you have third-party plugins for After Effects?

My wild guess at this point is that your system is actually running out of memory that's allocated to Adobe apps. 

-Rameez

[michaela55763425]

I assigned 46gb on my 64gb with me M1 MAX OS Ventura. I have an external disk cache for 1to. 

[CinematekCreative]

I have 13 of 16GB assigned to Adboe on my M1. The Cache is 92GB on the internal SSD (but all editing media is on an external Sabrent Rocket 8TB SSD) Yes, I have Chrome open with many tabs at all times, but that has been that way for years. I generally have AE, Premiere, Photoshop, Slack, Toggl, MS OneNote, and Chrome open on my system. Occasionally Illustrator or Spotify make an appearance. That's really it. 

I don't have a ton of plugins, but I do have Maxon/RedGiant Universe and Trapcode. I have a handful of 3rd-party effects and scripts (Deep Glow, Ease & Wizz, True Comp Duplicator, etc - nothing totally out of the ordinary.) HOWEVER... Those are all the exact same plugins, effects and scripts that have been on my system for years - on my old PC system, and then on my new M1 for over a year now.

Everything worked perfectly up until 22.4, and the only thing that changed was the update to 22.5, 22.6, and 23.0. Nothing else has been added or changed, and my app usage habits are unchanged. It may be the case that 3rd-party plugins are playing a role in the 22.5+ RAM preview failure issue in AE, but in 22.4 everything worked normally, so there is definitely something that changed after 22.4 that is playing a role in the issue.

[Warren Heaton]

@CinematekCreative 

---

@CinematekCreative wrote:

I don't have a ton of plugins, but I do have Maxon/RedGiant Universe and Trapcode. I have a handful of 3rd-party effects and scripts (Deep Glow, Ease & Wizz, True Comp Duplicator, etc - nothing totally out of the ordinary.) HOWEVER... Those are all the exact same plugins, effects and scripts that have been on my system for years - on my old PC system, and then on my new M1 for over a year now.

---

Are you running Universe v 5.0.0 and Trapcode Suite v 17.1.0 (the current versions)?  If you are literally running the same versions as a few years ago (that is, out-of-date versions), that's probably the issue.

When I first migrated from After Effects 2021 to 2022, 2021 was stable and 2022 was crashing like crazy until I updated everythnig (Continuum Complete, Mocha Pro, Saphire, Magic Bullet Suite, Trapcode, Universe, and VFX Suite).  

[CinematekCreative]

I just double checked and I actually don't have Trapcode installed on this computer, but I do have Universe 5.1.0. I just updated the Maxon app and I see there is an update available for Universe. I'll install that and see what happens. Thanks.

[Randy - Dice]

The problem for me was actualy the Maxon App that runs in the background, they also confirmed before I updated within the app in the release notes that it was also the cause for getting a crash error everytime you would close AE ever since AE 22.5. Adobe must of changed something that would cause a conflict with Maxon app but finaly for me anyways, since I've updated to Version 2023.1.0 of the Maxon app I m not getting any crash when closing AE anymore in both 22.5 and 23. and somehow fixed the memory leak I was getting. I also reserved about 20% of my ram for other applications.

[jenkmeister]

Maxon's updates to 2023.0.1 included fixes in their code for both the crash on shutdown (caused by Supercomp) and memory leaks in the majority of their plugins. Yes, AE changed its memory management but to something that actually tracks the memory being used by plugins, which is why the lack of available memory is now being reported. Previously AE ignored the memory leaks of plugins and that ended up causing quite a lot of system instability. 

[K4rel]

Hi Rameez,
For me unfortunately the fix of 23.0 doesn't seem to work. It still only renders 5 frames. Is there anything I could do to improve the performance? Any specific settings that should make it better?

(working on a MacBook Pro 14-inch, M1 Pro, 16 GB memory)

[K4rel]

Okay, a correction to my previous comment. The fix does seem to indeed work. Only in full quality it stays at 5 frames, any other quality does actually preview a lot more frames.

[Rameez_Khan]

A few people here reported that it's working fine for them in new projects. Have you tried creating a new project vs. opening or upgrading an older project?

Let me know.

Rameez

[K4rel]

Hi Rameez, 
I'm sorry for not getting back to you earlier. I have been on holiday. I will have to get back to you as I have been away. But the last experience before I left was that the problem seems to occur after a while. Sometimes it renders just 5 frames but after trying one or two times it renders more. Sometimes it just works fine and sometimes it just doenst work at all. I have not specifically tested old or new projects, I did both. I will get back to you after I've worked with it for another week.

Karel 

[Randy - Dice]

Same it randomly comes back depending on how memory intensive your projet is.. I also noticed when working with 4k files and multiple apps opened at the same time the error comes back... it may have something to do with how much memory we allow AE to reserve. 

[CinematekCreative]

I want to take a minute again to say that the update to 23.0 is a complete fail. Despite my initial success with the update that I mentioned in a previous reply, it's all bad news now. Not only do I seem to be limited to 5-frame previews, but in some cases even just refreshing the composition window is taking up to a full minute! This is unworkable. I reinstalled 22.4, but of course any work I did in the past two days in my updated project files is inaccessible because 22.4 can't open the new project.

For what it's worth, I have one theory... I updated AE to 23.0 and played with it for a while and it worked just fine. I didn't update Premiere to 23.0 until the next day. Could it be possible that the Premiere update somehow broke the fix that had been applied to AE? I don't know - that's a question for the developers to solve - but please solve this problem quickly.

[hengo]

Had the same problem, but you can save the work you did in version 23 under
"save as" and then version "22.x" so 22.4 can open it.

I mean, there is some trouble if you excessively used the new matte-feature
as I did, but it still saved time

[Aleix23153438wqty]

Just here to state that same here. I'm in a time-critic project and I can't allow myself to lose minutes installing versions back and forth. Moreover, I need Premiere, After Effects and Media Encoder to be on the same verion to send mats between them. Incredibly dissapointing. And, no it doesn't get fixed by emptying the cache or allowing more RAM to AE. Please fix this. 

[Rameez_Khan]

I don't think the Premiere update should break After Effects. 

Would it be possible for you to test it in After Effects Beta v23.1.0.46? @Fede0D4D says it's working like 22.4 for them. 

[CinematekCreative]

I will if I have time. I'm working against some deadlines over the next
couple of weeks and I finally have everything stable back in 22.4 at the
moment. (Well, mostly stable - Premiere 23.0 doesn't love dynamic linking
with 22.4. It works, but keeps needing AE sequences to be relinked.) If I
get these clips off to client and have time before the next batch of
projects kicks off I'll try the new beta.

[motionbutton]

Still a problem in 2023... actually might be worse.

[Rameez_Khan]

Sorry to hear this! 

Please check the pinned comment for more information and see if that helps. 

[Frank23179175tu3z]

Still have the issue over here.....

[hugov21704020]

Same here !

[Rameez_Khan]

We need more details to help you. 

• What kind of computer and OS do you have?
• Do you have any third-party plugins, especially from Red Giant?

Thanks,

Rameez

[flipdesign]

 have the issue also. New clean project with no plugins being used. Mac Studio M1 Max running Monterey 12.3.1. Constantly getting Low memory warnings, and crashes. Using 3D layers - extruded shape layers in AE, but simple stuff.

[Fede0D4D]

It seems that the beta v23.1.0.46 solves this problem.  So far it works like 22.4 (sometimes I have to scrub the playhead to extend the ram preview).

M1 - 16GB RAM - 512GB SSD - macOS Monterey