After Effects 7 hanging on “Initializing User Interface” fix
Have you had After Effects 7 hang on Initializing User Interface on start up? Like so…
I’ve seen a couple of instances of this problem and it seems to occur when a User Workspace becomes corrupted. The fix that’s worked for me is to replace the folders at
In OS X
YourLoginName/Library/Preferences/Adobe/After Effects/7.0/ModifiedWorkspaces/
and
YourLoginName/Library/Preferences/Adobe/After Effects/7.0/OriginalUserWorkspaces/
with backups. If you don’t have a recent backup, you can delete these folders and they’ll be recreated but you’ll lose your custom workspaces.
I’ve only had this crop up on OS X machines to this point, so I haven’t dug into the custom workspace definitions locations for Windows. If anybody has had to track this down for Windows could you leave a comment or send an email to dale(at remove-this)creative-workflow-hacks(dot)com and I’ll update this post.
UPDATE 11-18-2006 David Baertsch writes…
After reinstalling AE 7.0 for Windows, my system would hang on “Initializing User Workspace” I googled that
and got to your fix for Mac, that sent me in the direction to find the fix for Windows.
C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Adobe\AfterEffects\7.0\ModifiedWorkspaces
“UserName” is the name of the logged in individual, and the UserWorkspace1.xml files are the saved
workspaces… I deleted them and though my Workspaces were deleted, Aftereffects launched fine after
that. (There were several files UserWorkspaceX.xml)
Thanks for giving me the idea where to look. Hope this helps other users.
cia said,
October 2, 2006 at 6:22 pm
what about after effects 6.5
i have the same problem with 6.5
Dale said,
October 3, 2006 at 9:21 am
cia,
I haven’t run into the problem on AE 6.5, have you tried removing the custom workspaces and checked for a fix?
Dale
Steve said,
October 4, 2006 at 11:57 pm
I just started having this problem. I’m running a Windows system with AE6.5. I’ve tried repairing, complete reinstalling, removed the preferences under C:\Documents and Settings\myname\Application Data\Adobe\After Effects and completely removed that folder. Still doesn’t work. I even tried reloading my display drivers since that has been the only significant change since I last used AE. Still crashes right after Initializing User Interface and tells you to go to a webpage that doesn’t exist.
Dale said,
October 5, 2006 at 8:55 am
Hi Steve,
Yes, I think your right, this seems to be a bigger problem than what I outlined above. A couple of other things that I’ve heard might work.
1. Check for corrupt or incompatible plugins.
2. Upgrade graphics card drivers
I’d probably start with the fix outlined above, then plugins, then graphics card drivers, then reinstall, in order until things were working for me.
Good luck,
Dale
Guido Wenzl said,
October 15, 2006 at 8:19 am
I had success with this problem by removing the QT Plugins PopwireWMV-9Export.component
PopwireWMV-9Import.component
from the folder /Library/Quicktime
on my OS X 10.4.8 System running on a Mac Pro .
Hope the helps ….
jamman said,
October 20, 2006 at 12:57 am
Guido Wenzl is on the money…
Worked a treat
thanks
Nic Grobler said,
November 2, 2006 at 7:03 am
Awesome!!! Guido wenzi you rock! I’ve been trying to fix this for ages now…
been having to work on two machines all the time.
Steve said,
November 3, 2006 at 4:44 pm
Hmm. . . I’m running on PC. Is the popwire component automatically loaded in when Quicktime is installed on your computer? My search continues. . .
Glen Couchman said,
December 10, 2006 at 11:19 pm
HAH! Finally!!! Thanks Guido, you da man.
chris artenberg said,
December 13, 2006 at 7:58 am
GUIDO WENZL! Yes!!!! You are the man! Thank you very much, you fixed it!!!!
I removed popwire – it works!!!!
Piimon said,
January 2, 2007 at 8:36 pm
Just ran into this problem on a WIN XP pro with AE 6.5 .1.7 Pro and found one solution.
Open the AfterFX.ini in the ‘C:\Documents and Settings\YourUserAccount\Application Data\Adobe\After Effects\Prefs’ folder with notepad and change the line
UseSafeXorMode=0
to
UseSafeXorMode=1
and save the file
AE should now be able to launch again. Once openned close AE and change the line in the .ini file back to
UseSafeXorMode=0
and save it
Everything should now be like it used to be
Hope this helps someone else too..
Tyler said,
February 17, 2007 at 1:08 pm
I have never had a problem with my After Effects software before. Now it crashes on my PC after it says Initializing User Interface. I have tried ALL the tips from Adobe and nothing’s worked. I have also tried deleting the UserWorkspaces, but I can’t find them. On my PC I don’t have an Application Data folder. For me the chain ends at C:\Documents and Settings\UserName. Then I just have 6 folders, none of them that have anything to do with Adobe (Cookies, Desktop, Favorites, Start Menu, WINDOWS, and My Documents). I have tried to find this Application Data folder and the UserWorkspace.xml files with no luck. What can I do to fix this problem? Oh and I WILL NOT reformat my harddrive.
Dale said,
February 17, 2007 at 8:27 pm
Hey Tyler,
You might try the list of troubleshooting tips at General Specialist.
Tyler said,
February 23, 2007 at 2:45 pm
I was able to locate my Application Data folder and tried all the listed tips and solutions with no results. My AE still crashes immediately after saying “Initializing User Interface.” Like I said before, I have never had a problem with my version of AE before. It used to work perfectly. All my other Adobe Suite software works (Premiere, Audition, Encore, etc). I have not installed any extra plug-ins so I know that isn’t the problem. I have tried re-installing the software dozens of times and still the same problem. Anyone got any ideas?
Tyler said,
February 26, 2007 at 11:18 pm
Have I stumped the forum?
Dale Bradshaw said,
February 27, 2007 at 10:14 am
Hey Tyler,
We’ve definitely given you the laundry list of options, between the post, all of the comments above, and the General Specialist list. Might be time to call Adobe.
Dale
Lee said,
March 11, 2007 at 4:14 am
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
Areeba said,
May 26, 2007 at 12:06 pm
THANKYOU Guido!!! I HAVE NEVER FELT SO GRATEFUL SO THANKYOU!
TSUtv said,
June 6, 2007 at 2:02 am
WOW! the modified workspaces thing David wrote on really works… the key is that you must go to the folder options and choose to VIEW HIDDEN FOLDERS! then it is a simple matter of following the path provided above… MUCH SUCCESS after effecters!
James said,
June 7, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Ok I had the same problem, After Effects 7 on a MacTel kept quitting out after saying user initializing on startup. I tried everything listed, removed the OpenGL extension, deleted the workspaces, removed Flip4Mac (and went through all steps on the adobe forum). The problem of course was that I could not go in and change the memory settings for it to work correctly if it would not boot up. Finally I reinstalled OS X (I know, what a pain!) and the problem fixed itself. After Effects 7 requires all those additional (and useless) languages (i.e. chinese, korean) in OS X in order to boot up and will crash if they are not in your operating system. Hope this helps.
Jerker said,
July 13, 2007 at 6:22 am
Thank you 10 000 ton! You made my day.
Jas said,
November 6, 2007 at 4:17 am
Thank you!!!
Johnson said,
August 4, 2008 at 8:53 am
Event thought this thread is old, I had the same Problem with AFX 8/CS3 (Windows 64x). It didn´t crash but it stopped loading.
This was my solution:
Deleting the “Modified Workspaces” in this folder ->
C:\Documents and Settings\”YOUR USER NAME”\Application Data\Adobe\After Effects\8.0\ModifiedWorkspaces
Hope this helps someones.
Richard said,
September 1, 2008 at 5:42 pm
I found that downloading quicktime installer again and then running it and choosing repair enabled it all to work. I had tried everything else, but this did the trick
Richard said,
September 1, 2008 at 5:43 pm
My comment above applied to AE 6.5 & 7 on windows XP.
liam said,
September 7, 2008 at 10:15 am
had this problem with after effects cs3 on windows vista, was working fine for ages. Couldn’t locate any workspace preference files associated with AF to delete. Tried repairing quicktime, no luck. Changed the name of the presets file in case any corrupted presets, no luck. Now vista won’t even let me uninstall AF without unregistering. Any other suggestions would be much appreciated.
Guitarrero said,
September 26, 2008 at 11:14 am
After After Effects CS3 crashed on me I could not start it. It would stall when loading the user interface. I tried deleting all the files mentioned above and it didn’t work. Finally I found out that if you hold Control+Alt+Shift right after you click on the After Effects icon to start the program, a window pops up with the following message”
“Are you sure you want to delete your preferences file?”
I clicked OK and it solved the problem. The downside is that you lose your custom user interface, but it was corrupted anyway. I hope this helps.
nomig said,
February 7, 2009 at 2:41 pm
for Vista 64 ultimate, AE CS4 the modified workspace folder is in a different spot:
C:/Users/username/AppData/Roaming/Adobe/After Effects/9.0/ModifiedWorkspaces
didn’t fix the problem, but maybe it will for someone else…
nomig said,
February 7, 2009 at 3:05 pm
oh, further to my last post, the path is only visible with “hidden files visible” from explorer folder options.
Emile Henckaerts said,
February 22, 2009 at 6:33 am
OH THANKS !!!
I had this problem for an hour, and I tried a lot of things!
I was just about to reinstal it, and so I thought, lets take a quick look on google, and it works for CS3 aswell.
many thanks, cheers!
Nick Gooch said,
March 1, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Thanks so much! I ran into this problem on CS3 and it fixed it!
Jorgen said,
March 16, 2009 at 8:10 am
Thank you so much.
i am simply amazed by what you can fix with a quick search because of people like yourself
Dennis said,
March 7, 2010 at 7:07 am
Deleting the Modified User interface.xml files works on Win7 64Bit aswell.
Make sure you have the hidden maps viewable.
Like noming said, the modified user interface is in
C:/Users/username/AppData/Roaming/Adobe/After Effects/9.0/ModifiedWorkspaces
I deleted the .xml file in the folder and it loaded again for me.
Thanks for the solution guys!
Jon said,
March 21, 2010 at 10:11 pm
Deleting the workspaces seems to work for me, my question is what causes it! I’m getting tired of deleting them and then restarting. I have to restart because my mac can’t seem to fully force quit AE. Any thoughts?
Jon
TheReal said,
March 28, 2010 at 10:02 pm
i have a mac and when i delete those folders, i try to open it and it quits, so it doesnt work for me, please help
TheReal said,
March 28, 2010 at 10:11 pm
and its after effects cs4 9.0
Elias said,
June 8, 2010 at 1:33 pm
I have the same problem I have a AE 9.02 already updated it and still doesnt load it just stops and closes without leaving a crash error message any help Iknow it isnt any of the 3rd party plug ins becaause I also tried isolating them any help?
hadi said,
June 14, 2010 at 9:03 pm
FOR AFTER EFFECTS CS4 (windows)
step 1 = uninstall after effect
step 2 = disable internet
step 3 = install after effects(do not open)
step 4 = restart computer
step 5 = before enabling internet open after effects
then enable internet and it should WORK!
Stephen said,
June 23, 2010 at 4:04 pm
Guitarrero’s fix solved my problem on CS3: Hold ctrl-alt-shift after clicking the icon – nice one!
Ben Hollingsworth said,
June 28, 2010 at 7:22 am
Tried everything here, (plus a de/re of After Effects) but to no avail. However, a re-install of Quicktime cracked it!
Aizaz said,
July 6, 2010 at 10:31 pm
guys i tried everything, am using win 7 64 bit, adobe ae cs5
nothing works for me mentioned here:S
goog said,
August 13, 2010 at 11:22 am
Heha thanks, after innumerable repairs, re-installs and registry cleanups, your directions finally helped me get back to the FX magic again!.