How to Fix "Adobe After Effects Compositions Not Rendering"

One of the most common issues that Adobe After Effects users face is compositions failing to render, either due to error messages or the program freezing during the render process.

The first step in troubleshooting this problem is to check the error message, as it can often provide clues about the source of the issue.

If there’s a specific error code, search for it in Adobe’s support forums or knowledge base for more targeted solutions.

One common cause of rendering issues is insufficient disk space.

After Effects requires a large amount of temporary storage to process and render compositions.

If your disk is running low on space, you may need to free up space or set a new disk cache location.

To do this, go to Edit > Preferences > Media & Disk Cache and change the disk cache location to a different drive with more space.

Another factor to check is the composition’s settings.

Sometimes, after making changes to the composition size, frame rate, or resolution, After Effects may struggle to render due to mismatched settings.

Ensure that your composition settings align with the render settings.

For example, if you’re rendering a high-resolution composition, it might cause performance issues, especially if your hardware isn’t powerful enough to handle it.

Try lowering the resolution in your render settings or rendering smaller sections at a time to identify where the issue lies.

It’s also worth checking the render queue settings to ensure that the output settings are configured correctly.

If you’re using third-party plugins, some may be incompatible with certain versions of After Effects.

Try disabling or removing the plugins temporarily to see if this resolves the issue.

If After Effects fails to render entirely, it could be due to corrupted project files.

Try exporting the project as an .aep file and opening it on a different machine, or create a new project and import the original one to check if the problem persists.

If the rendering issue continues, try updating After Effects to the latest version, as some bugs or rendering issues may have been addressed in recent patches.

Finally, if none of these steps work, try reinstalling After Effects to fix any corrupted files that may be causing the render to fail.