Error Message:RAM Preview needs 2 or more frames

Mac, CS4
Hello, I get this AE error message that says Ram Preview needs 2 or more frames for playback. I don't know what I do to cause this nor can I figure out what I have done in the past to get the 2 or more frames. The message seems to just sometimes pop up out of nowhere when I press the ram preview or the Enter or Return keys. A related preview issue is that sometimes if I stop a RAM preview before its completes the work area, it will only play for the duration of the GREEN bar that was created, and the only way I can get past this is to press the Space bar, then the Green Bar keeps is current lenght and moves along with the current time indictor, and won't grow any larger. I tried going to Preferences and cleaning the Media database and cache, but that doesn't seem to do anything to help.
Thanks

What is the duration of the work area that you're trying to preview?
Regarding your other issue, the green bar represents how much of your comp has been cached in RAM. The RAM Preview will only playback in realtime what has been cached.
Check out the help files for more info on RAM Previews.

Similar Messages

"RAM Preview needs 2 or more frames" CS6 on CC and CC 2014

The message "" RAM Preview needs 2 or more frames "'is appearing in all software is tested CS6, CC and CC2014. Retina I'm using a Macbook (OS X Maverics) brand new, the error appears right after about 10 minutes of use, and just back to work after restarting the after. Restart after the message appears again, after another period of use.
All software are updated in the latest versions.
Currently I have a CC account, but I can not use because of this problem.

Caramba, acho que não tinha lido esse post. Acho que o problema pode estar no scruble mesmo. Puts, que merda. Mas se for isso ótimo.
Acabou de travar novamente. Ai eu fui ver o uso de memório, que estava girando em 3 (de 6). E olha na imagem que aparece 6,1. Ou seja, realmente acontece de sugar toda a memória do nada. Mas isso não deve acontecer com todo mundo. Pode ser apenas com algum programa que tenhamos instalado. Não acho que o problema seja do Maverics, pois já acontece isso desde o CS6, antes de lancarem esse sistema. Cara, muito obrigado de qualquer forma. Se for isso, já resolve meu problema. Só realmente não usar o scruble.
Estou comprando o Mac Book Pro top de linha. Quadcore 2.5Ghz/ 16g Ram/ 2gb de Video/ 500 ssd/ Retina.
Parece estar um foguete. Vamos ver.

After Effects CS6 error: RAM Preview needs 2 or more frames to playback - any ideas please?

Hi everyone,
I'm running After Effects CS6 (11.0.4.2) on a MacBook Pro 2.8Ghz with 16GB RAM (Mac OS 10.9.4)
As a test, I created a 3 and a half minute Sequence in Adobe Premiere CS6, and then imported this into After Effects CS6, and placed it on the AE timeline.
This footage involves a couple of 1920x1080p footage movies, some psds and a large number of JPGs exported from two videos arranged as a sequence in two layers in Premiere, one on top of the other. So all in all for a Premiere / After Effects file I'd say it's reasonably heavy.
I then did a RAM Preview with Multiprocessing switched off - the 3 and a half minute sequence loaded into RAM, taking about 1min 30seconds, and played back in realtime at 25fps. This worked fine with 3,4,5 and 6 GB RAM available to other applications in the Memory Preferences. All things considered I think this is quite good. I can make changes, reclick the RAM Preview icon and my changes load into RAM and it previews ok.
My only 'complaint' is how long the RAM Preview takes to load up the whole thing.
I've been reading up on Multiprocessing and decided to try this to see if I can speed up the time it takes my RAM Preview to load up.
So I looked at some recommendations from Adobe and read information on various forums including this one.
My settings in the Memory Preferences are currently
• 6GB reserved for other applications
• Reduce cache size when system is low on memory - unticked
• After Effects Multiprocessing - ticked
• Installed CPUs (processor cores) - 8
• CPUs reserved for other applications - 6
• RAM allocation per background CPU - 3GB
• Actual CPUs that will be used - 2
This combination takes about 25 seconds to load up my 3 and a half minute sequence which I thought was pretty amazing.
I then pressed the stop button and then the play button - so now just playing the sequence briefly.
And also added a new layer - into the timeline - just a simple shape.
Then I tried a RAM Preview again.
I found I could load up part of the sequence but not load the whole thing into RAM.
I kept trying to get a RAM Preview and got this message
"After Effects error: RAM Preview needs 2 or more frames to playback" which seems to prevent RAM Preview from working.
Eventually I quit and restarted After Effects and the problem went away temporarily and then came back when I tried again.
I tried various changes to the Memory Preferences - trying 3GB available for other applications. This gave 13GB of my 16GB RAM to After Effects.
This made it take slightly longer for the After Effects error to appear but it still appeared.
I tried ticking Reduce Cache size in the Memory Prefs - the After Effects error still appeared, so having read this is supposed to make the issue better I now leave it untucked, but as far as I can see ticked or untucked, it makes no difference, the problem remains.
I've since tried -
Making 2,3,4,5 and 6 CPUs available for other applications.
Changing the Background RAM allocation per background CPU to 0.75GB, 1GB, 1.5GB, 2GB and 3GB
Lots of combinations.
But in the end, I always get the "After Effects error: RAM Preview needs 2 or more frames to playback" error.
It might take less or more time for the message to show up, depending on the combination of settings, but in the end I always got the same message appearing.
And I notice that I can RAM Preview less and less of the timeline. i.e. it becomes more blue than it does green and will load in only a small section of the timeline as opposed to the whole thing.
Reading further, I tried Edit > Purge > Image Cache and Edit > Purge > All Memory but still get the error message.
I also tried ensuring there were no other applications running e.g. Safari or Chrome or Firefox. And certainly not Photoshop or Premiere etc.
Reading even further, I tried two Memory management applications - 'Memory Clean' and 'Purge.'
Neither has had any effect - the After Effects error still appears.
Then I went back into the Memory and Multiprocessing Preferences.
I unticked Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously. And now the RAM Preview loads the whole 3 and half minute sequence in entirety, taking about 1 and half minutes to do so. It's working as perfectly as if I'd just quit and re-opened the application.
Then I went back into the Memory and Multiprocessing Preferences.
I reticked Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously.
The chose Edit > Purge > All
And tried a RAM Preview again. It loaded up in 25 seconds, but then, as previously, the error message came.
I tried Edit > Purge All - no effect.
And I tried going into the Media and Disk Cache Preferences and clicked Empty Disk Cache - still the problem remains.
I understand from my reading that After Effects CS6 11.0.2 was intended to fix this issue but I'm on 11.0.4 and as far as I can tell, I still have it - assuming it's the same thing.
As far as I can see, not using Multiprocessing allows me to work without these errors but take a bit longer to load the RAM Preview.
However I'd like to be able to use Multiprocessing as it seems it can potentially speeds things up quite a lot. I realise I could just not use it and AE would work, but I'd rather be able to make use of a feature of the software if possible, especially if it will speed things up and make optimum use of the my computer's hardware.
I've downloaded a trial copy of After Effects CC 2014. I'm still testing it but as far as I can see the RAM Preview error appears in this version of AE as well, but can take bit longer to show up in my experience.
Thanks everyone - if anyone has any thoughts or advice I'd appreciate hearing your opinions.
Kind regards,
John

You need to have much more RAM reserved for other applications and more CPUs reserved for other applications. Your current settings are crippling your performance.
Read these:
https://blogs.adobe.com/aftereffects/2009/12/performance-tip-dont-starve-yo.html
http://blogs.adobe.com/aftereffects/2010/03/performance-tip-dont-oversched.html
After you have adjusted your settings according to the recommendations on those pages, restart your computer and try again.

RAM preview needs 2 or more frames error

Good Morning,
I have just encountered this error for the first time since i started using AE about 6 years ago.
I am running a PC (windows 7 pro), i5 2.90GHz 64-bit OS, 16GB RAM, and 1 GB Graphics card, dedicated 1TB HDD for Cache. Creative Cloud subscription.
I had no problems up until the update to 'After Effects CC 2014', since this update i cannot generate a RAM preview. I have read countless forums and i have followed previously suggested solutions (purge, remove VCReflect plugin, started AE as administrator etc), to no avail.
Any suggestions will be welcomed.
Will

The "RAM preview needs 2 or more frames to play back" message usually means 1 of 2 things. Either:
You have requested a RAM preview of only 1 frame.
There is not enough RAM available to generate more than 1 frame.
Regarding the first possibility, make sure that your comp is more than one frame long, and that your work area bar is set to more than one frame. Also make sure that in the Preview panel the From Current Time option is not enabled, if your current time indicator is on the last frame of your comp. In these cases the message is saying "You don't have more than one frame for me to play, so using RAM preview doesn't make sense: this single frame is already on screen and already cached!"
Regarding the second possibility, there are a number of contributing factors. Generally, make sure that there is available memory for After Effects to use, which you can check in Activity Monitor or Task Manager. If you don't have much free memory: use the Edit > Purge > All command, close other applications and/or restart After Effects or your computer. If you appear to have lots of free memory, start breaking down your comp, turning off effects and layers (including cameras and lights) until you can get a RAM preview without the error message.
Effects, in particular, can consume large amounts of memory, such as particle effects or effects that grow the layer bounds to very large sizes. If After Effects can't generate more than one frame for such a layer in the amount of available memory, you may get this error message.
If you're still having trouble, test by building simpler comps just to verify you can RAM preview anything, such as an animated shape layer or text or a piece of footage with no effects applied to it. If you need to post back to this thread, describe the contents of your comp, including the comp settings, layer types, effects applied, etc. Screenshots and screen capture videos are always helpful.

"After Effects error: RAM Preview needs 2 or more frames for playback"

i7-980x, Win 7 64, 16 gb RAM
I STILL get the "After Effects error: RAM Preview needs 2 or more frames for playback" and max allowed memory of 0.4, despite max usable memory listed as 15.99. Sometimes if I run Premiere Pro, PS, AI, 3-4 QT movies and 5 or six other programs simultaneously, after effects will recognize Premiere Pro and allopw me 5-6 gigs active memory, but this can take an hour or two and is hit and miss.
VERY FRUSTRATED here.
This happens with and without the firewall turned on.
Please help

I get this error message when I accidentaly move my CTI (Current Time Indicator) to the end of the composition. If besides also the option "From current time" in the preview panel is checked, After Effects will see that I just marked less than 2 frames namely 1 (from the end frame of my comp to this end frame).
Check therefore where your CTI is positioned!
Also you could have the same problem, if this option "From current time" is not checked, but you have your work areas in- and out-points closer than 2 frames together.
So condensed: Check your CTI and your work area and set the CTI on a previous frame or let your work area start earlier.

After Effects error: RAM Preview needs 2 or more frames to playback when previewing animation video

Good afternoon,
We have an error that is persistent. This error RAM Preview needs 2 or more frames occurs in AE CC often. It happens when we preview what has been animated a few times. Here's all the details below on what we're working on and the computer specs.
Computer Details
Processor 2x2.93 GHZ Core Intel Xeon
Memory 28GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Software OS X 10.9.4
Graphics Card ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024MB Graphics
Project Details
Project usually consists of comps 1920x1080 dimensions RGB
And we're simply animating
Video is always prores 1920x1080
We've added RAM to this comp and still nothing has changed. I saw that the other error for this has been fixed but I'm not sure what's going on in AE for this to continue. Please help !

ahorne21 wrote:
And we're simply animating
Animating what?
What exact version of AE (down to the last decimal)?
How are you invoking the RAM preview?

Made preference changes, but still getting the Ram preview needs 2 or more frames to play back.

I'm new to After Effects CS6 and am working on a very simple Kinetic Typography project. I don't have a lot of memory, but this is a really simple project, so I'm wondering if maybe I'm just not using the work area correctly. Every once in while I can get the project to RAM preview, but only for a few seconds. Most of the time I get the "Ram preview needs 2 or more frames to play back" error message. I have pasted my sytem info and setting info bleow. Thanks for any insight!
I have checked the Render Multiple Fames Simultaneously box and have set the seetings at:
Here is the info when you click on details:
Installed RAM: 4.00 GB
Current RAM Usage: 0.00 GB
Allowed RAM Usage: 2.50 GB
Process ID
Application Name
Min Needed Memory
Max Usable Memory
Max Allowed Memory
Current Memory
Current Priority
3081
After Effects
0.00
0.00
2.50
0.00
3 - Low
System info:
System Version: Mac OS X 10.6.8 (10K549)
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro8,2
Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 2.2 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 4 GB

What exact version of After Effects?
Show a screenshot of your TImeline panel and Preview panel when the problem occurs.
Make sure that we can see the details in your screenshot. Your current screenshot is unreadable because it's so small.

Warning "RAM Preview needs 2 or more frames" after scrubbing audio in After Effects CC 2014 (13.0)

The After Effects team are investigating a bug in After Effects CC 2104 (13.0) where a memory leak occurs while scrubbing audio (holding down the CTRL or Command key while scrubbing). This memory leak can eventually consume all free RAM, which can lead to the warning message "After Effects error: RAM Preview needs 2 or more frames to playback" when you try to initiate a RAM preview.
While we investigate this problem, you can avoid the bug and memory leak by not scrubbing with audio. When the problem occurs you can resolve it by closing and restarting After Effects.
http://blogs.adobe.com/aftereffects/2014/07/warning-ram-preview-needs-2-or-more-frames-aft er-scrubbing-audio-in-after-effects-cc-2014-13-0.html

Hi all, just wanted to say, I am currently working on an award show for TV and have been scrubbing audio in AE CC 2014 13.0.2.3 without issue. Why am I not having the memory leak problem?
Would like to help if I can.
Hardware Overview:
Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro6,1
Processor Name: 12-Core Intel Xeon E5
Processor Speed: 2.7 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 12
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 30 MB
Memory: 64 GB
Boot ROM Version: MP61.0116.B05
SMC Version (system): 2.20f18
Illumination Version: 1.4a6
System Software Overview:
System Version: OS X 10.9.4 (13E28)
Kernel Version: Darwin 13.3.0
Boot Volume: Macintosh HD
Boot Mode: Normal
Computer Name:
User Name:
Secure Virtual Memory: Enabled
Time since boot: 1 day7:24

Ram preview needs 2 or more frames to ....

Working inside of after effects on macbook pro and randomly ram preview popped up with the error: After Effects error: RAM Preview needs 2 or more frames to playback

The After Effects team are investigating a bug in After Effects CC 2104 (13.0) where a memory leak occurs while scrubbing audio (holding down the CTRL or Command key while scrubbing). This memory leak can eventually consume all free RAM, which can lead to the warning message "After Effects error: RAM Preview needs 2 or more frames to playback" when you try to initiate a RAM preview.
While we investigate this problem, you can avoid the bug and memory leak by not scrubbing with audio. When the problem occurs you can resolve it by closing and restarting After Effects.
http://blogs.adobe.com/aftereffects/2014/07/warning-ram-preview-needs-2-or-more-frames-aft er-scrubbing-audio-in-after-effects-cc-2014-13-0.html

AE CC 2014.1.1 the plague of "ram preview needs 2 or more frames"

As i said abot Premiere CC 2014.1, for me AE CC 2014.1.1 is the worst version of this sw ever on my system. Specs:
i7980x
GTX680 4GB
24GB ram
Asus P6T deluxe mobo
2 SSD Intel, one for AE cache
I'm experiencing continuos crash from AE. I'm on a big project, as always, and performance is terrible. After a bit of time of working AE became terribly slow. The "blu" bar under the preview window start load again and again. I move the mouse, loading, i scroll the window, loading, press caps lock to stop the preview....loading. This is the sympthon. After this kind of wierd performance i know that my ram preview will not start again. The infamous message will pop up and doesn't matters what i do, purge, format ram or whatever. the only way is to close AE and reopen it.
Now...i'm using AI files or PSD files, so i've to run AE and Photoshop or AI all toghether....after some minutes...the bar loading, the performance slows down and the message pop up again.
The ridicoulous fact is that when i render the project i have the ram usage at 19% and cpu usage at max 60%. So my renders are really long (about 10hr for 2 minutes of animations), but my system is sitting there doing nothing. Really odd...i can use 12GB of ram and half of the cores at this point, doesn't matter for AE performance...

Right! It's got a little bit worse... After the 'RAM preview needs 2 or more frames' window I purged then restarted and all was back on track for about 5 minutes, then it happened again and then the following series of warnings have locked AE in a cycle of warnings...
Below is the series of warnings I've just received followed by my memory and cache settings and then the memory left on my computer.
then
my memory settings
my cache settings
and the memory left on my computer
The file is 'just' a series of After Effects solids with masks (about 40), rigged together with Duik IK (not the puppet tool thing just the one that links layers together) and some wavs for the sound file.
Like I say I've probably done hours of lipsyncing over the last 15 years with far far heavier files (using HD footage and a far bigger comp with psd files) and I certainly haven't had this kind of persistent problem and it's only since I installed CC2014 last week...
grrrr and arrrrgh

RAM preview needs 2 or more frames, I've got a clue...

After struggling for half an hour or so, I think I'm on the right way to find a solution to this annoying problem. I'm using CS5 on Win7 x64 Ultimate. The problem is that AE cannot starts the ram preview: "after effects error: RAM preview needs 2 or more frames to playback". After having searched among several forums, I've tried all the tips suggested here and there: purged the cache, using a different codec for the clip I was trying to play back and so on., but no luck so far. I've also moved the Conformed Media Cache folders to another folder on my hard disk, thinking that the current ones were full or that maybe I could have some administration problem with those, neither this helped.
Then I've started from scratch and I've discovered that for some reason if I have all the H.264 clips in my project, even if I was using 1 clip only (and it was converted to an AVI clip non compressed used as PROXY) than AE couldn't ram preview my comp. Now I've reduced the project and I'm keeping that clip only in the project and it seems it's working now.
To add more oddness to the story, now it doesn't matter if I use the AVI proxy file or I do turn the proxy off switching to the H.264 file again. It seems it works either way.
Hope this can helps somebody else who's struggling with the same problem...

I have this problem with my supercomputer and After Effects CS5.... it used to work just fine.
I have an i7-980x, 16 gb RAM, Win 7 home premium, 2 ATI Radeon 5850 each with a gig of video RAM.
I have tried all of the online suggestions, entered a bug report, re-installed AE CS5 (Prod Premium Suite), then updated again.
All I get is the same error report. VERY Frustrating.
Disabled all firewall, antivirus.
Made a little comp of a white box changing position from frame 1 to 200,
Still won't RAM preview.
Please help!

Ram Preview Need 2 or more Frames to playback

Ram Preview Need 2 or more Frames to playback error everytime i use the ram preview. I tried purging memory and didn't help.
The problem is that the ram isn't enough even though I have 16 gb and i tried allocating different amounts. I tried rendering multiple frames simultaneously. Here are the details for the ram preview:
Installed RAM: 15.89 GB
Current RAM Usage: 0.00 GB
Allowed RAM Usage: 0.40 GB
Process ID
Application Name
Min Needed Memory
Max Usable Memory
Max Allowed Memory
Current Memory
Current Priority
1552
After Effects
0.00
0.00
0.40
0.00
3 - Low
Thats all that shows. Thank you
PS. i am using adobe after effects CC and am running a Geforce gtx 760 with a 4770k haswell i7 proccesor.

here is a screenshot, also i've had this issue for 3 days now

"RAM preview needs 2 or more frames to render playback" AE CC

This issue started out of nowhere for what I consider to be no reason. Working on average sized 720p compositions with modest animations.
I have tried all suggested solutions on this forum yet nothing has worked. I am running fresh comps in AE CC with absolutely no plugins, freshly purged memory, cleaned cache, restarted comp, no other applications running on computer and 13 gb of memory allocated to AE... etc.
I cannot seem to fix this issue.
Whats the next step?

Right! It's got a little bit worse... After the 'RAM preview needs 2 or more frames' window I purged then restarted and all was back on track for about 5 minutes, then it happened again and then the following series of warnings have locked AE in a cycle of warnings...
Below is the series of warnings I've just received followed by my memory and cache settings and then the memory left on my computer.
then
my memory settings
my cache settings
and the memory left on my computer
The file is 'just' a series of After Effects solids with masks (about 40), rigged together with Duik IK (not the puppet tool thing just the one that links layers together) and some wavs for the sound file.
Like I say I've probably done hours of lipsyncing over the last 15 years with far far heavier files (using HD footage and a far bigger comp with psd files) and I certainly haven't had this kind of persistent problem and it's only since I installed CC2014 last week...
grrrr and arrrrgh

After Effects Error: RAM preview needs 2 or more frames to playback

I keep getting this error message on a Windows 7 64bit system with 12GB of RAM. I have tried rebooting and re-installing the application and After Effects still gives me this error message when I press '0' to perform a RAM preview
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks

Canon PowerShot SX20IS
I would suspect that is the problem.... From what I gather, it uses H.264 compression inside MOVs, but it may use an unusual, non-standard profile and thus throw off AE. Can you check these settings in the extended info in the Quicktime Player? would help to know some more details. If you have Quicktime Pro, it may be enough to re-export the clip from there. Using identical settings, this should go pretty fast and not cause any changes in quality, but doing so may fix little annoyances commonlyy associated with such formats like open gaps or invalid timecode markers. If that doesn't help, then I guess it's time to run it through SUPER©, ffmpeg etc. to get workable converted files...
Mylenium

"RAM Preview needs 2 or more frames" error back in CS6

Hey everyone,
I'm quite familiar with this old error and how to avoid it and fix it but when preparing new CS6 lessons for my classes it just seems to come up again and again without any apparent relationship to the assets I'm working with. I've mostly been preparing some "What's New in CS6" lessons and have had this error come up using Evironment Layers, Raytracing lessons, Motion Tracker lessons, etc. using text, footage, solids, you name it.
The main thing that seems really telling is that before this issue happens, the blue and/or green cache bars seem to be gone within my workspace range. Purging the caches doesn't fix it but closing and reopening AE does fix it.
Using the updates AE 11.0.0.378 on OS10.6.8 MacBook Pro 2.8Ghz Core 2 Duo with 4GB of RAM
All prefs are set to the defaults.
Thoughts?
Thanks!
steven

No, we have not given up on this issue.
Here's an explanation.
This error message is After Effects telling you that it can't do a RAM preview because it can't render and preview at least two frames. This state has many causes, though:
One cause is operator error. If you have the current-time indicator at the end of the composition or work area, and you have From Current Time enabled in the Preview panel, then you'll get this message when trying to RAM preview. This is because you're already at the end of the previewable duration.
Another cause is a badly behaved plug-in that is demanding waaaaaay too much memory, so After Effects can't render two frames using this plug-in. (Video Copilot Reflection has been known to behave badly in this way, for example.)
The two above causes apply to all versions of After Effects.
A cause that only applies to After Effects CS6 is a bit more problematic and technical. In previous versions of After Effects, when you started a RAM preview, After Effects would start rendering frames and storing them in RAM without first checking to see how much memory was available; it would stop when it ran out of RAM, wherever that might be. But this was potentially a very rude thing for After Effects to do, since it might be forcing other contents of RAM used by other programs out of RAM and onto the disk (paging), which can cause some slowdowns. So, in After Effects CS6, the program first does a check to see how much RAM is available. And here's the problem: Mac OS is bad about communicating how much RAM is really available. In fact, in many cases, it says that almost no RAM is available... and After Effects CS6 believes it and reports that it doesn't have enough RAM to render and store two frames. Specifically, After Effects is asking how much RAM is "free". If you leave Mac OS running for a long time, the amount of "free" memory dwindles to nearly nothing under normal operation, as the OS accumulates a lot of stuff in "inactive" memory, which is not reported as "free". Previous verisons of After Effects would go ahead and use this "inactive" memory for RAM preview, and perhaps After Effects CS6 should, too. We're discussing how we can best fix this.
So, what can you do? There are some command-line ways of purging "inactive" memory and making it free in Mac OS. I won't recommend any specific ones here, but a quick search on the Internet will turn them up. But a guaranteed and easy way of doing this is to restart the operating system.

Error Message:RAM Preview needs 2 or more frames

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