When video plays, After Effects freezes

Report · Jan 13, 2020

I just got After Effects 2020 and when I preview my comp, it will play, but AE will freeze. I can't stop it unless I force close it. I can also close the window and it will give me the option to save my changes or cancel. I can press cancel and it will stop playing, but when I play it again, it will do it all over again. I am working on a EVOO Ultra Thin (11.6).

These are my preview settings:

Any solution you have will be helpful, thanks 🙂

Report · Jan 13, 2020

Would you delete cache and have a try?

Edit > Purge

Report · Jan 13, 2020

I have tried this before and it didn't work. I just tried it again and it still didn't work.

Report · Jan 13, 2020

I am not sure about your PC specification. Does your PC meet the minimum requirement?

https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/system-requirements.html

Report · Jan 14, 2020

Yes, my laptop meets the requirements.

Report · Jan 14, 2020

Would you turn off "Cache Before Playback" option and try to play?

Report · Apr 13, 2020

hi so i'm having the same issue and i don't have the cache before playback on at all. i made a new composition and tried just playing it without anything in the composition and it freezes. i have to shut it down everytime i hit play. my laptop meets all the requirements as well.

Report · Apr 13, 2020

i have also don't edit > purge and that didn't work... neither did uninstalling and reinstalling

Report · Apr 26, 2020

I am also having this problem, this is the only place I can find that addressess it. I have tried everything recomended but nothing has worked so far. It's been making my projects so frustrating to work on. I now have to work on a final project without the ability to play the video, which is such a huge road block. I hope we can find a solution soon.

Report · May 07, 2020

I am also having this issue and have tried purging my cache to no avail.

Report · May 26, 2020

I'm also having the same problem I last used AE a couple of weeks ago and in that time had a few window updates so wondered if that was the problem. It is happening on new projects and old, I have tried rolling back to previous version of AE and reinstalling the most recent. So far nothing has worked.

Report · May 26, 2020

Still having the same issue thought I'd come up with a solution changing the loop on the play preview but whatever I did didnt stick and the problem was happening again the next day.

Report · Jun 07, 2020

Im having the same issue as well. did you get it rectified? I have no solutions whatsoever

Report · Jun 08, 2020

Hi yes still having the same problem, I tried a number of suggested solutions nothing I've done seems to be making a difference. I thought I'd found a solution as the problem stopped but when I logged out then back into my computer it started happening again.

Report · Jun 12, 2020

Try clicking the box "If caching, play cache frames"

I thought my AE was freezing but the spacebar was technically turned off. So everytime I hit space nothing happened. I couldn't even click anything else. Weird. But it now works. I re-installed and cleared my cache so many times. And all it was, was checking that box

Report · Jun 12, 2020

Also make sure your framerate is matching your video. Mine was one 120fps when I shot in 24fps.

Report · Jan 17, 2021

omgggg tysm !!

Report · Jan 19, 2021

where is it?

Report · Jan 19, 2021

where is this located? pls answer

Report · Jun 16, 2020

Thank you that worked for me! - sorry correction it worked at first and now still have it ticked and no longer working.

Report · Jun 19, 2020

Hi! I was also having this issue, luckily I found a nice easy way around it!

Instead of hitting the play button on the preview tab, I go to 'Composition' - 'Preview' - 'Play Current Preview' and this works for me every time! You can use the stop button in the Preview tab and it will stop without any freezes!

I hope this works for anyone else having this issue. ❤️

Report · Jun 19, 2020

I'm currently experiencing the same issue and have yet to find a solution, extremely frustrating! This is also the only thread I've come across where this bug has been mentioned. Deadlines at work are being pushed back because of this..as others have mentioned, it doesn't matter how many versions back I go, the problem persists. Cache is clear, running Win10 ver. 1909, machine specs are more than capable: Intel Core i9-7900X, 128GB RAM, GeForce GTX 1080Ti.

Report · Jun 19, 2020

My system seems to go to on vacation when I import a h264 mp4 file.
Didn't use to be this bad. Seems to be the latest AE version

Report · Jul 05, 2020

Has anyone solved this yet? I've tried all of the suggestions thus far and it's still freezing up when I try to preview the video in the composition video, it still plays the video but all buttons stop responding and I can't pause the video, have to force stop ae every time.

Report · Jul 16, 2020

I removed AE including any left over folders from the uninstall. I then installed version 16.1.3. So far it hasn't frozen on me but I've not used AE as much since doing that so i guess time will tell if this has solved it.

Just to add I tried installing older / newer versions starting 17 eg. 17.0.6 but still got the freeze problem.

Not an ideal solution as I'd rather keep adobe up to date but with a long list of projects to get started on its better than dealing with restarting AE every time I want to preview and hit the space bar without thinking.