Unable to allocate memory | After Effects

Issue

When you run After Effects, you could receive messages like, "Unable to allocate 0.000 MB of memory" or, "Unable to allocate 0.002 MB of memory."

It can be a project-specific issue or a system configuration issue. 

Workaround

You could try to use the steps listed below to resolve the issue.

  1. Try to reduce the amount of memory allocated to other applications:

    1. Select After Effects > Settings > Memory & Performance.
    2. Change the RAM reserved for other applications and click OK.
    Changing RAM reserved for other applications
    Changing RAM reserved for other applications

  2. Purge Memory and Disk Cache:

    1. Select Edit > Purge > All Memory & Disk Cache.
    2. To delete all the files from your disk cache, click OK.
    Deleting Media & Disk Cache
    Deleting Media & Disk Cache

    Another way to clean Media and Disk cache is:

    1. Select After Effects > Settings > Media & Disk Cache.
    2. In the Preferences dialog, click Empty Disk Cache to clean disk cache and Clean Database & Cache to clean media cache.
    Cleaning Media & Disk Cache
    Cleaning Media & Disk Cache

  3. If Mercury Transmit is enabled, disable it in Preferences > Video Preview.

    Disabling Mercury Transmit
    Disabling Mercury Transmit

  4. Step text

  5. Remove any third-party plugins. 

    macOS location

    /library/application support/adobe/common/

    Windows location

    C:\Program Files\Adobe\Common\Plug-ins

    C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Media Encoder CC 2017\Support Files (for external plugins)

  6. Create a pre-comp of the existing composition. To create a pre-comp, select all the tracks in the timeline and right click. From the drop-down menu, select Pre-compose.

  7. Reset preferences for After Effects. Ensure After Effects is closed in your machine (while following the steps).

    macOS

    1. Go to your desktop and click GO on the Menu bar.
    2. Select Go to Folder from the drop-down and type the following path: /library/preferences/adobe
    3. From the list of applications, select After Effects and rename it as ’After Effects1’.
    4. Go to Documents folder in your computer and open the folder named Adobe.
    5. In the Adobe folder, rename the After Effects folder as ’After Effects1’.

    Windows

    1. In the Run command (Win key+R) dialog, type  %appdata%.
    2. Open the folder named Adobe.
    3. Rename the After Effects folder as 'After Effects1'.
    4. Close the window and open Documents folder.
    5. In the Adobe folder After Effects folder and rename it to 'After Effects1'.
  8. Check the composition creating issue:

    1. Create a blank project.
    2. Turn on Caps Lock and try to import the faulty project.
    3. Open compositions one by one and toggle Caps Lock to check which composition is creating issue.
  9. Ensure that the Illustrator files are offline or try to convert the Illustrator files to Shape layers.

  10. If you have used multiple display cards, disable one of them.

  11. If you have applied any expressions, convert them to keyframes.

  12. Try to open the project in After Effects.

  13. Disconnect any extra monitor attached.

If you run into any other issues, or you want to post, discuss, and be part of our knowledgeable community, visit the After Effects forums. To report suspected bugs or suggest modifications to existing features in an Adobe product, use the Feature request/bug report form.

 Adobe

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