Fix "cached preview needs 2 or more frames to playback".
I'm currently in 2018 cc and I just hit space once and it doesn't preview anything. Then I save and when i open the after effects the box is my composition doesn't show anything. This is really annoying because I tried everything, purge the cache and all.

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Cristovão Fialho commented
Same issue here and cache solution didn't solve my problem because the issue was created by me. Some how I got my "Work Area" start and end at same point in time giving After Effects none to render, so by place my Work Area Start point at 0 and my Work Area End at, let's say, 2 seconds or 60 fps I get it to render and the warning was gone. I will try to leave some print screens as attachments. I also think that was the solution proposed by @Akash Maurya .
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andreu otiniano commented
hi ! its july 2020, and i just bump with this issue, and i got a pretty ok pc. i fix it just turning on and off the visibility of all my layers trying to find the one with problems, and just happened that by doing that and ram rendering, i got away. hope it helps !
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Gil commented
What worked for me was just to Reset After Effects Preferences
- pressed Ctrl+Alt+Shift (Windows) when application starts, had to do this several times till I got the dialog box asking if you want to delete your preferences file , and then pressed OK. -
Akash Maurya commented
you have to increase the preview bar size right to play the frames which should be more than 2
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Anonymous commented
In the case of the illustrator file with a puppet tool, change the puppet engine to legacy seems to solve the issue.
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Anonymous commented
I've just had this problem and managed to fix it - in my specific case an illustrator file which had a puppet pin tool applied to it was then refreshed in illustrator as I moved some of the layers around and added to the layers (in Illustrator). It worked fine in the composition the illustrator files were sat in - however when using this comp within the master composition this error "cached preview needs 2 or more frames to playback" appears. I realised turning off this layer solved the problem. Try isolating each layer and seeing if it's one layer causing the problem - and then you can look at a workaround.
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AndreSegFue commented
@Atanas Atanasov still doesn't work. I don't have a big project, just a few layers with parenting and some duik scripts. I just hit space "once" and the error box pops up.
This is a problem that happens to many people for not particular reason and Adobe must fix this. This happens since 5 Version and it's 2018 they haven't fix it yet. -
Atanas Atanasov commented
@gab Did you tried 1/4 resolution and then wait? Usually heavier projects cause that. If the project you open is not heavy, the problem and the solution may be other.
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gab commented
Followed what Atanas said and it still doesn't work... Very frustrating.
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Atanas Atanasov commented
Hi,
It's too easy to solve! Happens to me on almost any template I open. Just wait. If your PC parameters are lower than others you may have lower loading preview speed. What I experienced was that:
The bar, showing the progress of loading frames, was blank. I waited around 15 min or less and it came.
When you have nothing in the preview window, that most often will mean that your preview hasn't loaded yet. Yeah, you may not want to wait. But no other options except if Adobe fix that.
Hope that helps!