Title: Maya crashes & UI completely broken – urgent help needed (student project deadline)

[oribenishay1234]

Hey everyone,

My name is Ori, I’m a first-year 3D student at a college in Tel Aviv. I’m currently working on a few big projects that are due soon, and I planned to use the Passover break to really get things done. Unfortunately, Maya had other plans…

Here’s the issue:
Whenever I launch Maya, a few seconds after opening, I get a weird error message in English (see screenshot). Then, when I try to start a new project or load an existing one, the UI goes completely nuts. The viewport appears in the center, but all other windows (Outliner, Channel Box, Timeline, etc.) are either missing or completely broken. It’s like Maya forgot how to organize itself.

I’ve already tried:

• Uninstalling and reinstalling Maya (felt like a Bezeq tech guy at this point...)

• Resetting Maya preferences using the built-in method and help from ChatGPT

• Searching forums and trying random fixes...

Nothing helped.

I’m using the free student version of Maya, so Autodesk support won’t speak with me directly. And unfortunately, every contact I try to reach just sends me in circles.
I’m seriously stressed right now because I’m running out of time and I have no idea how I’m going to submit my projects like this.

If anyone here has run into this kind of issue before – with the UI breaking like this or Maya crashing right at startup – or knows a technical workaround, I would really appreciate your help. I’m not just asking for fun – this is super important for my studies and my future in 3D. 🙏

Thank you in advance to anyone who takes the time to read this and help out!

Ori