Adobe After Effects Keeps Crashing? (5 Fixes that Work in 2023)

Whether you’re an Adobe After Effects beginner or professional, frequent application crashes can make it challenging to complete projects. If your After Effects is frequently crashing, these five fixes can help troubleshoot and resolve your problem.

Why does Adobe After Effects Keep Crashing?

Corrupt Hard Drive

A corrupted hard drive can damage stable installs, projects, and other files, which can cause crashes on Adobe After Effects. If this is the case, you will need to replace the hard drive.

Plugin Incompatibilities

Old or new plugins can cause Adobe After Effects crashing. Typically, an incompatibility with the version of the plugin or After Effects is the cause.

Outdated Graphics Driver

In most cases, an outdated graphics driver is the main culprit behind After Effects crashing. Nvidia, AMD, and Intel keep updating their graphics drivers. By doing that, they’ll fix bugs in the last version of the graphics driver and enhance the performance.

Check for Software Updates

The frequent After Effects crashes could be because the program is overdue for a software update. Check for both application updates and computer software updates.

System Overheating

Adobe After Effects is an application that extensively uses the GPU and CPU of a device. Running After Effects for an extended time may lead to the system getting overheated, which can cause the application to crash.

5 Fixes To Try When Adobe After Effects Keeps Crashing

Turn off GPU Acceleration

GPU Acceleration is one of the common causes of Adobe After Effects crashing. Disabling GPU Acceleration leads to After Effects taking longer to render videos; however, it may fix the issue.

Steps to Disable GPU Acceleration:

Go to the File tab and click on it.

Click Project Settings and choose General.

Set Renderer option to Mercury Playback Engine Software.

Click OK and close the window.

Export with Media Encoder

If Adobe After Effects keeps crashing during export, moving it to Media Encoder can fix the problem. When it is time to render and export, click on Queue to send it to Adobe Media Encoder.

Corrupt CodeCS & PlugIns

Adobe After Effects might crash because of corrupt or malfunctioning codecs. To remedy crashing due to codecs, you can re-install or delete them. After Effects may also crash if some plugins are incompatible, you should ensure a 3rd party plugin is 100% compatible before installing it.

Purging Memory and Disk Cache

After Effects is a demanding application, it may crash if your computer runs out of memory or your hard disk drive is almost full.

Steps to Purge Memory & Cache:

Launch After Effects and go to Edit > Purge > All Memory & Disk Cache.

Click Ok to delete all files from your disk cache.

Update After Effects

If none of the fixes work, try updating/reinstalling After Effects. Adobe eliminates glitches and bugs with new After Effects updates to create a user-friendly experience.

Also Read: How to Uninstall Adobe Creative Cloud?

Conclusion

You can eliminate problems such as After Effects crashing by keeping up with the latest computer hardware, operating systems, and software. Or, by following our Postudio blog, you can keep up with the latest in post-production to help ease your workflow.

You can also use Adobe After Effects and other such tools directly on Postudio. No need to install. All you need is a browser and a good internet connection. So, why wait? Register now for an early access and enjoy seamless creative freedom on Postudio.