Mercury Transit Preview still crashes in latest AE V 22.0

Report · Oct 26, 2021

I was really hoping that today's release of After Effects V 22.0 would resolve the issue of AE crashing while using a 3rd preview monitor, but alas, here we are still.

My setup: Mac Pro trashcan (Late 2013) 12 core with 64GB and AMD FirePro D300, now running MacOS Monterey. I have 3 monitors- 2 4K Dell P2715Qs over mini Displayport and a JVC DT-v24L1 broadcast preview monitor over HDMI

Repeatable crash: Preferences-> Video Preview -> Enable Mercury Transit ->Video Device: Adobe Monitor 2: 1920x1080

In a project that has different sized comps, say 1920x1080 and 1080x1080, AE will crash when switching between comps of different sizes while Mercury Transit is enabled.

This pretty much renders the preview monitor unusable. This issue has been present since at least V 18.4- I'm not sure exactly when it appeared since I wasn't using the preview monitor as much in the past year. This crash occurred in Mojave as well, by the way.

I haven't seen any comments from Adobe on this issue or anything about it being a known issue. Anybody have any more information?

Report · Oct 28, 2021

Hi Starboard,

Sorry for the crash. We'd love to look into it.

Are you using any third-party plug-ins? Also, would you mind checking if it's generating any crash logs: https://community.adobe.com/t5/after-effects-discussions/faq-how-to-find-after-effects-crash-logs-on...

Looking forward to your response.

Thanks,

Nishu

Report · Oct 28, 2021

I have the same issue with my iMac Pro. Only have the trapcode plug in installed. When I turn on mercury transit to my second broadcast monitor, after doing a few steps in the composition it crashes/freezes

Report · Nov 01, 2021

Hi, I have the same issue,

I can't find any crash log. AE doesn't crash like other times - it just freezes, showing the spinning wheel on Mac.

I've had the same problem in AE v18.any version.
I don't have this problem in AE v17.6.0 running all the same plugins and scripts.
I do remember I never upgraded to version after v17.6.0 (v17.?.? as that upgrade also caused an issue - can't remember if that was also the freezing on Mercury Transit.)

I work on an iMac Pro - 18 Core Intel Xeon W - 128Gb Ram.
Running several plugins including RedGiant / Videocopilot / Sapphire plugins.
Also using serveral scripts actively like Motion / Duik / Kbar.

Report · Nov 01, 2021

Hi Nishu

No it doesnt generate any crash logs because it just freezes. I just tried it again with AFX CC2022 and it freezes again when you switch between a comp in the timeline. The comps are the same size 1920 x 1080 25P

Report · Nov 02, 2021

I have the same issue. works fine until mercury transmit is enabled. ive spent hours on the phone with adobe. they just say its my graphics card. its not compatible. I was using big sur and updated to Monterey hoping it would fix the issue. NOPE. I have a 16" macbook pro, i9 processor ,16 GB, AMD Raedon Pro 5500m, no 3rd party plug-ins. AE is curently useless. I have projects to complete and would appreciate a resolution.

Report · Nov 17, 2021

Hi Nishu,

Any progress on fixing this bug? This makes working in AE 2021 and 2022 impossibly difficult.

Report · Dec 10, 2021

Nishu,

Has anyone at Adobe been able to replicate this problem and is a solution in the works? My workflow has been seriously disrupted. There are times I need to look at my projects on a preview monitor, but the hard crashes have cost me a lot of time and lost work. Thanks.

Report · Oct 29, 2021

same here, macpro 2013 firepro d500. its a going this way since v18. spend hours on technical support, all they said is "talk to apple".

Adobe technical support is not according on what we pay for.

Report · Nov 02, 2021

Adobe,

Obviously this isn't simply an issue just with some video cards- the preview monitor feature using Mercury Transit is now a broken feature on many computers. I have had this issue in Safari and now Monterey, on standard Mac equipment using standard drivers.

I also haven't gotten any crash logs as it just freezes and I have to force quit to get it back.

This has disrupted my workflow and prevents me from using a broadcast preview monitor.

Moving my main window away from the edge of the preview monitor doesn't change the result- in fact there is nothing in the preview monitor at all.

I'm attaching a simple AE project with no plugins that creates the crash on my computer. One comp is 1920x1080 and the other is 1080x1080. When I switch between these two comps with Mercury Transit enables AE freezes. Please have a look and try to replicate this defect on a standard Mac. Thanks,

-Starboard

Report · Nov 02, 2021

I agree, this is something that Adobe has to look into.
This bug started on v18 of AE. It all worked fine on v17, with the same video card...

Please look into this problem Adobe team.

Report · Nov 04, 2021

After a week of Adobe blowing me off I figured out a work around. I used boot camp and installed windows on my Mac. Downloaded the windows version. It works perfectly! It's sad that I had to put windows on my Mac to get it to function properly.

Report · Nov 04, 2021

Jaime, I'm glad that works for you but Bootcamp won't work in my situation. Like Jean-Paul said earlier, this is an issue starting in V18, so something new is causing this freeze. If so, do they know what it is? It's not listed on the "known list of issues" yet, which is why I'm trying to raise awareness of it. It's not that much of an outlying case to use 3 monitors for a professional TV workflow- any edit bay will have 2 monitors and a preview monitor as part of its core functionality. My setup is no diferent. I really need the functionality back, and using MacOS Monterey means that I can no longer use previous versions of AE.

Next week I'll be transitioning to a new M1 Max Macbook Pro, so we'll see if this bug shows up in that setup.

Report · Nov 04, 2021

All I can say is I looked at your file. I had the exact same issue. There's no harm in trying it since you'll be transitioning.

Report · Nov 15, 2021

The Mercury Transit crash still occurs on the brand new MacBook Pro 16.

Specs:

2021 MacBook Pro 16 M1 Max 32GB Running Monterey 12.0

When switching between comps of different sizes while Mercury Transit is enabled, AE freezes.

Report · Dec 10, 2021

This is user to user forum where we users help each other. The Adobe engeneers do not always read everything here. If you feel strongly about a (new)feature or (bug) fix please post it on uservoice, as it will be read by the engeneers: https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects

Report · Dec 11, 2021

Joost,

Thanks for this tip. This has been an issue for a while now and I haven't seen or heard of any progress on it. The inability to reliably view our comps on a broadcast monitor is very disruptive to ur workflow.