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abobus00000
Participant
January 19, 2025

Red CTI gets stuck on the timeline

  • January 19, 2025
  • 11 replies
  • 3262 views

The red CTI (Current Time Indicator) suddenly stops at unexpected moments. Additionally while playing back with a buggy red line the viewport zoom stops working, but that is just extra information.

 

This bug doesn't affect anything except the red line and zoom. I can still see the video and hear the audio. However, it's really annoying because you notice the timeline stopping while the animation keeps playing which feels out of sync.

 

I've read every possible forum about this bug. Many users report it happening when After Effects and Premiere Pro are open together or when using Dynamic Link. The problem is I've never used Dynamic Link, I always render animations as mov-files and import them into Premiere Pro manually.

 

System Specs:
- CPU: Intel Core i7-12700K.
- RAM: KingBank SharpBlade 6000 MHz 64 GB.
- Primary Drive (OS/Software): NVMe SSD Lexar ARES 2 TB.
- OS: Windows 11 24H2 build 26100.2605.
- GPU: RTX 4070 Ti Super based on Studio driver version 566.36.

 

Important Notes:
- I specifically want to use After Effects 2024 because the 2025 version is a bit unstable for me.
- I prefer Windows 11 for its design and compatibility.
- The bug happens even on a freshly installed After Effects with no third-party plugins or scripts.
- The bug occurs on both Windows 11 23H2 and 24H2, whether it's build 22631.4602 and 26100.2605.

 

Things I Tried (Did Not Work):
- Purging Memory and Disk Cache.
- Restarting the PC and running only After Effects.
- Resetting the preferences of After Effects.
- Completely reinstalling Windows 11 with a full disk wipe (also did this because I bought a new drive).
- Updating all related drivers.
- Trying different After Effects 2024 versions from Creative Cloud (24.1, 24.5.0, 24.6.2, 24.6.4), even on a clean Windows install.
- Disabling the Efficiency cores of the Intel CPU.
- Changing the RAM frequency by turning XMP off and on.
- Changing the bit depth in the project settings.
- Changing the color space settings.
- Disabling the GPU acceleration.
- Enabling/disabling the disk cache.
- Changing the amount of available RAM for After Effects.
- Checking the logs. I found a line that says 'EGG RamPreview CEggApp::DoPreview: stopped previewing panels in non-mru view' which made me dig into the debug console and test various Preview-related settings.

 

Solutions I found:
- Enable "Show overlays and layer controls" in the Preview Panel (the square icon with dots). The downside is that this adds an annoying "Adaptive Resolution (1/1)" message in the corner of the viewport during playback, and selected layer outlines remain visible.
- Disable "PreviewPlaybackOptimization" in the Debug Console (Ctrl + F12 → click the three lines icon → check "Debug Database View").

 

The bug might be related to the solutions found, but only the developers can confirm that.

    11 replies

    J
    jeanzahn
    Participant
    October 20, 2025

    It works! Thank you and bless you.

    H
    han_ming_6912
    Participant
    October 10, 2025

    I'd give you a big kiss across the screen if i can it works thank you so much!!!

    O
    Oskar276318494kbe
    Participant
    September 21, 2025

    Yep, that worked for me aswell, other solutions didnt work at all. Thanks!

    Barollo
    Barollo
    Participant
    September 20, 2025

    Sharing my workaround: Preferences / Media & Disk Cache / Clean Database. Only this works for me and is a little bit faster than restarting AE

      S
      Sumit_9350
      Participant
      August 15, 2025

      thank you bro its work

       

      N
      nexus_311
      Participant
      July 5, 2025

      Thank you so much. It helped. !

      Wilardene
      Wilardene
      Participant
      April 29, 2025

      This worked for me. Thank you Cyber013 for posting that. That's a game changer!

      M
      Ma meilleur ytb_Dooms0309
      Participant
      April 9, 2025

      holy crap thank you so much, I've gotten used to this annoying bug but fixing it makes life so much easier thank you !

        C
        Cyber013m20
        Participant
        February 24, 2025

        I just had the same problem with the red line getting stuck and I set the PreviewPlaybackOptimization to false and it is now fixed. 
        In the Debug Console (Ctrl + F12 → click the three lines icon → check "Debug Database View" set the PreviewPlaybackOptimization to false).

          hellopaul4
          hellopaul4
          Inspiring
          January 31, 2025

          I've tried all those solutions, but none work for me. In fact just today, things have become a whole lot worse in that previews are not working AT ALL! I press spacebar/numpad 0/click the play icon in the Preview panel and....absolutely nothing happens. Nothing plays/renders/previews...no blue progress bar across the bottom of the comp viewer....absolutely nothing at all hapopens. Ooh! I take that back - while I've been typing this, waiting for something to happen in AE, I now notice the green bar has filled my timeline...but nothing actually plays. I'll set PreviewPlaybackOptimization back to True, restart AE and see if that helps. I'm working on a linked AE comp with PPro open in the background. Once AE gets into this state, even if I open a new, unrelated project, playback is still broken.

           

          Update: I opened the debug console thing, changed that setting (I set PreviewPlaybackOptimization to True), and playback immediately (even before closing the debug panel) started! So I'll keep that set to True from now on.

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