Skip to Content

Why FL Studio Keeps Crashing? (Plus Simple Fixes)

One of the most common causes of crashing with FL Studio is overloading the CPU, which you can keep an eye on using the built-in CPU meter at the top of FL Studio. 

FL Studio Keeps Crashing

Having your FL Studio crashing can become very frustrating for any producer. 

The unfortunate news is that there is no way to stop it from happening 100% of the time. However, the good news is that there are many ways to reduce the likelihood of it happening.

In this article, we will cover the most common fixes you can try to help with reducing the chances of your FL Studio crashing.

WHY FL STUDIO KEEPS CRASHING

Restarting Your Computer

Now you may think this seems a bit too obvious. However, restarting your computer can indeed be a great way of working out some issues that may be plaguing your FL Studio.

If you find your DAW is frequently crashing or simply won’t start-up in the first place, you should give this a go first before trying anything else. 

You might be surprised how often this works! 

Starting Up FL Studio The Correct Way  

Lots of FL Studio users may find that they experience crashes most frequently when starting up their DAW. 

There are a few reasons why this may be, and they mainly revolve around your computer’s CPU usage.

As soon as you open up FL Studio, it is best not to click on anything until you know everything has completely loaded up. 

Doing so is a common way of freezing up your FL Studio, as it can only process so much information at any given time. 

If you are wondering how you can see when it is safe to start using the software, you can check the CPU meter at the top right of your FL Studio.

FL Studio CPU Meter

Here you will be able to see what percentage of your total CPU power is being used by the DAW at any given time. 

If this number is about 90%, you are more likely to experience crashes and freezing in FL Studio. 

Upon start-up, you will want to wait until this number is low, as this indicates that everything has loaded up and that you are safe to start using the DAW.

Set A Project Folder

Suppose you are still having problems with opening specific projects.

In that case, you can set a project folder so that FL Studio can retrieve the necessary data for the project much faster.

Doing this will mean there’s less to go wrong when opening projects, meaning that there is less likelihood of your DAW crashing on start-up.

Make Space On Your Hard Drive

Another aspect that is easy to overlook can be the space remaining on your hard drive. 

Having a limited amount of space is likely to make your FL Studio run slower in general and increase the likelihood of crashing.

Make Space On Your Hard Drive

In general, it is good practice to ensure that you have around 10GB or more of free space on the hard drive on which you are running your FL Studio and saving your projects. 

Use Audio As Much As Possible 

In music production, it can be tempting to keep opening more and more plugins in a project. However, this will have a significant impact on your CPU usage over time.

If you are having issues with CPU usage, it can be a good idea to bounce out tracks to audio where possible, as this means you can get rid of the VST plugin and free up some more CPU power.  

Related Questions 

Why does Fl Studio crash every time I open it up? 

There is a chance that is because of the reasons listed in the article above—primarily revolving around CPU usage. However, there is a chance of a different issue, such as a plugin causing it to crash or compatibility issues.

Other external issues can also be possible, such as a driver issue or a missed windows update. In these cases, it is a matter of trying to narrow down the cause of the problem.

Is there a way to open old projects without them crashing? 

Most of your old FL Studio projects should open without issues as the compatibility is usually good.
 
However, on the rare occasion that you cannot get an older project to open, you may need to reinstall the FL Studio version used to create the project. You can find the older version of FL Studio to download from the Image-Line website.  

Why does my FL Studio keep crashing after the last update?

An FL Studio will rarely have major issues such as crashing on particular hardware. In most cases, when this does happen, they will release a hotfix patch within days. So you are best of either waiting for the hotfix patch or rolling back to the previous update. 

Can reinstalling FL Studio stop it from crashing? 

Reinstalling can sometimes be a quick fix for an issue, and it is worth a shot if you have been struggling to find any other fixes for your problems. 

That being said, there are some instances where you may find that reinstalling does not help, which likely means that your issue is more specific such as a faulty plugin. 

Why do certain plugins crash my FL Studio? 

You are likely running into some compatibility issue if you find that the same plugin is causing your DAW to crash. If you open up the plugin in FL Studio, you can click on the FL Studio settings cog icon at the top left to open up the plugins option menu. 

You can try using some of the different compatibility options from this menu, such as ‘Make Bridged‘ and ‘Use fixed-size buffers.’ If these options don’t help, you can try posting your crash information to a related forum. 

Why are only certain projects crashing my FL Studio? 

Suppose you are finding that only ceratin projects are crashing your DAW. In that case, it is likely to do with compatibility issues again.

When opening the projects, you can try to see which plugin the project freezes on and then troubleshoot that specific plugin with the tips offered above.

Can you retrieve your project after a crash? 

You can only retrieve the project as it was when it crashed if you had saved it then; otherwise, you will have to go back to where the project was last saved before that.

It can be a good idea to save the project as a ‘zipped loop package’ if you are worried about your project crashing and the file becoming corrupted. 

Final Words

Hopefully, after reading through these tips, you can have a much smoother FL Studio experience without the fear of your DAW crashing on you in crucial moments. 

Are you having problems with FL Studio crackling?

Check out our guide on how to solve it HERE.

Icon Want to connect with other music producers for help and guidance?
Join our FREE forum today and become part of our community!
Click Here