After Effects

I have uninstalled and reinstalled all the different versions of after effects and the problem persists, it happened after the most recent updated, I cannot click and drag from the project panel, I cannot click and drag layers through time. The timeline bottom window slider works fine (resetting windows explorer / doing the click and drag esc cache reset does not work / I did a restore image of windows) A fresh project seems fine, when I open a project from an older version I can drag files / move layers for a moment and then it stops - I have a log while in safe mode with all the 3rd party plugins disabled and I can drag them for a moment and then they stop - I have all startup / background tasks (nvidia, epic games, steam ect.) all turned off - it is driving me nuts, I may have to rebuild the project from scratch fresh.

Why AE is still in 2026 absolutely garbage and unoptimized? Why at more than 70$ moth is still full of bugs? Why rendering is still underusing the machine? Why adobe? Why dont you destroy the program and rebuilt from zero? Years, more than 12 years working daily with it and every day I have to FIGHT with the software, every day. Every day I discover a new tricky way to solve a NEW problem. 

I try to open AE but 2 things happen:1. GPUSniffer.exe brings up an error.2. When renaming GPUSniffer.exe so it bypasses it, the startup screen gets stuck on "initializing MediaCore" Here is a screenshot of what my Task Manager shows:8 instances of GPUSniffer.exe openPC Specs:CPU: AMD 7950X3DGPU: AMD RX 9070 XT I have tried everything possible. I searched the forums and even used Claude for troubleshooting but nothing works.EXTRA INFO: If it makes any difference, this started while I had AE open and went away from the PC, and it entered sleep mode (not total sleep, just the screens and lights turning off)

Whenever I click the dropdown to change the font for text, it glitches, won't let me, and says that error, "After Effects warning: cannot create font [insert font]" (a few different fonts have been cited). I'm by no means talented with this software, I'm a Premiere woman, but I've tried all the basics. Trash preferences, clear cache, new project, restart AE, restart computer, etc. Is anyone familiar with this error?

I am tired , After Effects does not use my GPUFew Months Ago everything was working fine in after effects , it was using my gpu and performance was very good but all of a sudden one day it stopped using my gpu and renders that used to complete in 15 mins are now taking 5 -4 hours and sometimes crashing in between , i have literally tried every possible fix on the internet . disabled integrated gpu, updated drivers , set up graphics setting for highest performance nothing is working , please help , it was working few months ago , now i dont know what happened .

What does work though is playing/previewing the animation. But the second I stop the preview it goes blank again and I can’t edit anything. When I mean anything I mean everything I try to import. I’ve tried editing a plethora of Preference settings, Image settings, trying new images to import, image settings, composition settings, I’ve tried downgrading my AE, I’ve also tried downgrading and switching my drivers to studio drivers but nothing changes.

Whenever I interact with any part of After Effects—such as opening the Window menu, stopping the preview, starting the preview, selecting a composition, clicking a layer, or even deselecting one—the application briefly freezes, and my Mac cursor changes to the spinning loading (wait) indicator before responding. This delay occurs consistently with nearly every click or action, making the interface feel unresponsive and sluggish.Additionally, I have a third-party plug-in, FX Console, and whenever I use my assigned shortcut keys to open its search bar, After Effects freezes momentarily, shows the loading cursor, and then nothing appears—the FX Console panel fails to open altogether.

I use AE on a few different client machines as well as my own. On ONLY one of those client machines,  every time I use “Increment and Save” the new file drops the leading zeros in the version number.For example MyProject_v001.aep increments to MyProject_v2If I “SaveAs” MyProject_v002 and repeat “Increment and Save” the new project is MyProject_v2.All of these machines are on Version 26.3.0. My first thought was there’s a new setting (since it’s never done this in 20 years of using AE). I checked nothing I could see.Any ideas? Not critical but frustrating.Thank you

I doubt this will get a response but ive been on youtube and i havent found a good aura.  below willl be what i created vs what i wanted.. if someone can help me understand how i can create the goku black aura 1 for 1 image wanted to create ( js want spikey vers) vs what i didofc ik its not the bets but i do want to understand how i can create it

I'm trying to export my project and it has a couple of bcc effects ( bcc ripple and bcc rain ) and it is not working. whenever i export, the video does not show the effect at all. i have tried exporting it as animation. i have turned off multi frame rendering. i have switched to mercury software only. None of it has worked. does anyone have any ideas on what to do? 

I’m a new adobe user, I am trying use the Roto tool in AE to select the star in the middle.I must’ve hit some button because now the Roto Brush & Refine Edge is no longer available in layer view options. It now selects the whole image instead.No roto tool variations work. I’m just trying to select the damn star for a project man :(Please try to assist me! (These are the settings)

I am migrating to a newer version of Adobe After Effects on my MAC (17.0.6 build 35 to 24.6.1). I want to backup /migrate ALL Settings, Presets, workspaces, keyboard shortcuts, plugins, templates, scripts etc.  I found this tutorial that mentions one folder location to copy files over to new version but want to make sure I am not missing anything else that I should migrate over. New to AfterEffects and want to make sure the migration is successful. Here’s the steps I found: Step 1: back up scripts, presets, settings, keyboard shortcuts, workspaces. Copy over the entire folder.PC folder path: %AppData%\MAC folder path:  /Users/[username]/Library/Preferences/Adobe/After Effects/[Version NumberThank you

Attaching a screen record showing this bug. For some reason AE is adding random opacity knots to my shape layer gradient fills. This happens regardless of whether the gradient has keyframes set or not. This is on AE 26.0 on macOS Tahoe 26.2

all the details were in the title

IssueAfter Effects intermittently crashes shortly after opening a project or when the first effect/render work begins on a Windows workstation with two NVIDIA GPUs from different generations (RTX 5090 + RTX 3090). Every analyzed crash is a stack overflow inside NVIDIA's Direct3D user-mode driver. Disabling the RTX 3090 in Windows Device Manager makes the same projects stable across repeated launches, without changing the project or After Effects settings.Steps to reproduceOn Windows 11, enable both an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 3090 in Device Manager. Install NVIDIA Studio Driver 610.62. The issue also reproduced with 610.74. Driver 610.62 was installed after DDU cleanup in Safe Mode. Start After Effects 26.2.0 (Build 49). Open a project that causes initial render/device work. The captured case used one image layer and one GPU-accelerated third-party effect. Wait for the project to finish opening and for After Effects to initialize/render the composition. If it does not crash, clo

When I hit play, it starts playing after 2 seconds or so when I use the Studio Display XDR speakers. If I change the speakers to MacBook Pro speakers or my audio interface, the latency goes away.