How to Clear Cache and Purge Memory in After Effects

Adobe After Effects relies heavily on system RAM and temporary storage to provide smooth playback, but accumulated temporary files can cause performance slowdowns, rendering errors, and memory leaks. This guide explains how to quickly purge your active RAM, empty your disk cache, clean the media cache database, and refresh After Effects' internal memory allocation systems to restore optimal performance.

1. Purge Active RAM and Disk Cache

The fastest way to free up occupied memory while working inside a project is through the Purge menu.

  1. Open Adobe After Effects.
  2. In the top menu bar, navigate to Edit > Purge.
  3. Choose one of the following options based on your needs:
    • All Memory: Clears the current RAM cache used for previewing compositions.
    • All Memory & Disk Cache...: Clears both the active RAM and all cached preview frames saved to your hard drive.
  4. If prompted with a dialog box asking to confirm the deletion of cached files, click OK.

2. Empty Disk Cache and Clean the Media Cache Database

Deeply stored media database files, peak files, and disk caches that are not actively tied to current previews must be cleared via the Preferences panel.

  1. Open the Preferences window:
    • Windows: Go to Edit > Preferences > Media & Disk Cache.
    • macOS: Go to After Effects > Settings (or Preferences) > Media & Disk Cache.
  2. Locate the Disk Cache section and click Empty Disk Cache. Confirm the prompt.
  3. Locate the Conformed Media Cache section below it and click Clean Database & Cache. This removes references and conformed audio/video files for projects you are no longer actively using.
  4. Click OK to apply the changes and exit.

3. Restart Memory Systems and Force Memory Purges

If After Effects continues to hold onto RAM or experiences memory allocation errors during rendering, restart the internal memory systems using these methods:

Method A: Enable Secret Memory Purging During Renders

After Effects has an internal option to continuously clear RAM during exports:

  1. Hold down the Shift key on your keyboard.
  2. While holding Shift, go to Edit > Preferences > General (Windows) or After Effects > Settings > General (macOS).
  3. In the preferences window, look at the sidebar. A hidden category named Purge will appear at the bottom.
  4. Click Purge, enable Purge Every _ Frames During Make Movie, and set the value between 10 and 30 frames.
  5. Click OK.

Method B: Hard Reset the Entire Application State

If memory allocation errors persist, clear the software's working memory configurations entirely by resetting user preferences:

  1. Close After Effects completely.
  2. Relaunch the application while immediately holding down Ctrl + Alt + Shift (Windows) or Cmd + Option + Shift (macOS).
  3. A dialog box will appear asking if you want to delete your preferences file. Select Yes.
  4. After Effects will start with completely refreshed memory configurations and factory defaults.