Animate 2021 crashes on open without error message AND more

[melricha]

Working on Windows 10. I downloaded the latest update for Animate 2021 and had to work on a project that was last opened in 2020. I tried to open Animate and it crashed. I tried opening the program a few more times in different ways and it still kept crashing.

I have limited permissions, so I called my company's IT to help me download a previous version. We downloaded the earliest available 2020 version to see if it would make a difference. The program opens with no problem. But when I try to open one of my past files, it doesn't work. It acts like it will open but nothing appears and all the panels are greyed out.  I'm able to create a new file with no issues, I'm simply not able to open existing files.

Does anyone have any idea what I could do to solve this, or what could be causing it?

[kglad]

if you can, and have not previously, create a custom shortcut

reset your preferences, https://helpx.adobe.com/animate/using/set-preferences.html

open animate and confirm your shortcut was reset to default

see if problem is solved.

[melricha]

@kglad I just tried that and it didn't seem to work. 

[kglad]

did you confirm your preferences were actually reset?

[melricha]

@kglad I'm actually not sure how I could tell. The preferences for the 2020 version I have don't look the same as in the link you originally provided (it's missing the sync settings and I don't have an option to reset to default). The settings look about the same as before, so they probably didn't change. I attached my preferences window so you can have a look.

[kglad]

Restore all preferences to default settings

• In the Preferences dialog box, click Reset to Defaults or press and hold Control+Alt+Shift (Windows) or Command+Option+Shift (Mac OS) as you start Animate.

[melricha]

Yeah, I did the ctrl + alt + shift shortcut since there was no option to reset to defaults otherwise. It didn't solve the issue.

[kglad]

did you confirm your custom shortcut was reset to the default?

[melricha]

I'm really not sure what you mean by "custom shortcut". Maybe you could explain in detail the steps I need to follow in order to try this fix properly? 

[kglad]

click edit>keyboard shortcuts>align>align to stage and remove (or better, change) the default shortcut.

reset your preferences

confirm that the align to stage shortcut has been restored to default

[melricha]

Thank you for clarifying. I must have been resetting my preferences incorrectly because when I tried again, I got a popup from IT asking for admin rights (which I don't have). I will need to contact my IT department to pursue that further.

On another note, my husband works for the same company but has a higher powered laptop (he does video editing). He suggested I try opening Animate on his computer and it worked! The latest Animate version AND opening the files worked. This doesn't solve the issue on my laptop, but it helps to know that it's working somewhere. I will keep investigating. 

It's strange because I'm able to operate Premiere on my laptop, but Animate crashes. I would have thought Premiere would be the program to require more CPU. It could be a different issue though.

[kglad]

premiere definitely requires more computer resources than animate.  computer resources are not the issue on your computer and not the reason animate opens on your spouse's computer.

there's something else causing the problem.  preference file corruption is the most common adobe file to need restoration.  if that's not it, i'll suggest instructions to reset all the animate files.

[melricha]

I was able to get temporary admin permissions to attempt to restore the preference file corruption.

I hit ctrl + alt + del on the 2021 version, and it asked me for my admin rights (which I thought might be an indication that it's making a change to my program). I entered my credentials, and just got a Not Responding screen. I waited about 4 or 5 minutes before it crashed. I tried it a few times with the same results.

 

For the Adobe Animate 2020 version, I tried the same thing but since this version doesn't crash on open, I was able to go in and check to see if my keyboard shortcuts had reverted back to the original. And it looks like no change was made, it was still the same as what I had changed it to (I had changed it from "ctrl + al + 8" to "ctrl + alt + \"). I'm stumped on this solution. Should I keep trying, or just hop on to the next possible solution you mentioned? @kglad 

[kglad]

do you have a lot of other adobe cc programs installed?

[melricha]

Here is the list:

[kglad]

then the next significant step would be painful and is listed below. 

prior to that you could take a flyer (that's less likely to work) and:

uninstall (if still installed) animate 2021

update your os

repair all ms visual c++ versions that can be repaired.
update your ms visual c++, if it can be updated

and then reinstall. 

the most likely to work step to work would be a clean cc install following each applicable step:

uninstall every cc app including preferences, https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/help/uninstall-remove-app.html
then uninstall the cc desktop app, https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/help/uninstall-creative-cloud-desktop-app.html
clean your computer of cc files per http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cscleanertool.html
check for, and if available, update your os
repair all ms visual c++ versions that can be repaired.
update your ms visual c++, if it can be updated
restart your computer (don't skip this)
reinstall the cc desktop app, https://creativecloud.adobe.com/apps/all/desktop?action=install&source=apps&productId=creative-cloud
if you're unable to install the cc desktop app at this stage, use the link at the bottom of the page at https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/kb/creative-cloud-desktop-app-download.html
use the desktop app to install your cc programs/trials

[melricha]

@kglad Thank you for writing out these instructions. I tried this, and it solved the issue of being unable to open Animate 2021. I'm able to open the program (it's slow and it doesn't respond at first, but then it opens!)

But now, the issue is that I still can't open my files in the program. It acts as if it's opening, but all the panels are grayed out (see screengrab below). Do you have any further ideas or suggestions of what I could do to resolve that particular issue?

[kglad]

open animate

create a new fla

save it

close animate

see if you can open that new fla

if you can, then the problem is likely the fla's you saved before were corrupted.  if you can't then animate is still not working.  if you can, confirm it's the fla's by downloading http://www.kglad.com/Files/forums/card.fla and checking that it opens in animate.