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Effect Manager

Identify if it was an effect that caused After Effects to crash and disable it during the next launch.

After Effects comes with multiple effects that provide additional visual effects, tools, and workflows to enhance your video production. There are times when these effects could cause the application to crash. 

With Effect Manager, when restarting After Effects after a crash, you get a notification explaining what effect may have crashed during the last session. You also get an option to either keep the identified effect enabled or disable it in the next startup. 

effects plugin manager notification dialog that shows the effect that caused After Effects to crash.
Effect Manager notification with an option to disable the effect.

Enable the disabled effect 

If you've used the post-crash notification or Manage Effects under the Effect menu to disable an effect, it's removed from the Effect menu and Effects and Presets panel. You can enable the disabled effects at any time.

  1. Choose Effect > Manage Effects.

  2. In the Effect Manager dialog box, use the Enabled and Last Crashed columns to identify the disabled effect.

  3. Check the Enable check box for the disabled effect and select OK.

  4. Restart After Effects for your changes to be applied.

View list of installed effects

You can also use the newly added Effect Manager under the Effect menu to view a list of all your installed effects with an option to enable or disable any effects on the next startup. 

Effect Manager lists all effects, including the ones that recently crashed.
Effect Manager lists all effects, including the ones that recently crashed.

The Effect Manager dialog lists effect details:

  • Enabled status
  • Effect name
  • Category
  • Version
  • Last crashed 
  • File Path 
Effects you've disabled using Effect Manager will no longer be available in the Effect menu or Effects and Presets panel. You can always use Effect Manager to re-enable the disabled effects.
Note:

Any projects that use a disabled effect will show that effect as Missing.

Crash Repair Options

If After Effects doesn't have a suspect effect that could have caused the last crash, it offers you ways to diagnose, identify, and repair through Crash Repair Options

Crash Repair Options dialog when After Effects is relaunched after a crash.
Crash Repair Options dialog when After Effects is relaunched after a crash.

Manage Plugins

View the list of effects and plugins available, disable potential faulty plugins or effects, and restart After Effects. 

Reset Preferences

Reset preferences and restart After Effects with default preference settings.

Start in Safe Mode

Start After Effects with default values for everything in your preferences. This reset option at launch is a simple approach to finding any issue with your set preferences without having to reset them.

Related resources

Talk to us

If you want to ask questions and be a part of community discussions around this feature, visit our After Effects Community.

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