When you start a project on 5.4 or 5.5, it crashes. What to do in this case? Not all projects are allowed.
Hey there—ugh, that’s never a fun way to kick off a project 
If Unreal crashes right after starting a new one in 5.4 or 5.5, a good first step is to check if any default plugins are triggering it—sometimes a legacy plugin or even a recent engine update can cause conflicts. I usually try launching the editor with -noinifiles to rule out config issues.
Have you noticed if this happens more often with specific templates or project settings? Might help narrow it down.
Seen this a few times recently, especially when migrating older project setups into 5.4+. What worked for us was stripping out saved config folders before first launch, and disabling optional plugins in uproject manually if the crash logs pointed to them.
Also worth noting—some asset packs from earlier versions don’t play nice unless reimported clean. Kind of a pain, but better than silent corruption.
What’s missing for me is a way to track these plugin-version dependencies more cleanly. Are there tools out there that can flag compatibility risks before you even boot up?
Crashing on project start is more than just a tech hiccup—it’s a blocker that derails momentum and burns dev hours fast. Especially if you’re guessing at the cause.
Worse, these crashes can cascade into deeper issues—broken references, half-imported assets, and time lost reconfiguring plugins. It adds up.
Asset Optics wasn’t built for crash fixes per se, but it does shine when it comes to version tagging, plugin usage tracking, and asset health reports inside your project. It gives your team eyes on what’s loaded, what’s conflicting, and what’s outdated—before things explode.
Check it out here : Asset Optics – Next-Gen Asset Management | Fab
Error in DerivedDataBackends.cpp Version file
@Mikka_Hope Have you tried to delete the file
C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_5.4\Engine\DerivedDataCache
Path might vary with version but delete the file and then try again