Is Google Drive breaking your After Effects 2026 project?

If After Effects 2026 is moving incredibly slow, like two frames a second, it’s possible Google Drive is the culprit, especially if you’re collaborating with other artists.

When Google Drive isn’t configured right to download all the media from the project you’re working on, if it keeps some of it on “the cloud” until you need it, this is going to mess After Effects up.

Your AE project will still load, but you won’t be able to play any compositions that reference the media on the cloud. Google Drive will attempt to download your image sequence or video in realtime, as you play it. The lag is archeologically slow.

This is especially problematic when using EXR or PNG image sequences.

The solution: make sure all your assets are synced locally before opening After Effects. Don’t rely on Google Drive’s “on demand” download feature.