After Effects Hanging when scrubbing on timeline

Forum|Forum|19 hours ago
March 31, 2026
2 replies
8 views

Hi..

I have a composition that has 3d elements (OBJ files exported from Autodesk Fusion)…. nothing too complex.. I don’t think, anyway.

I am working w/ three monitors.

After Effects on one where I primarily have my timeline full screen.

2nd screen has my 4 camera views.

3rd screen is used for other stuff.. e.g., Chrome, Slack, etc.

Inconsistently, but regularly, scrubbing the playhead position on the timeline will cause After Effects to stop responding… looking at Windows Task Manager, I can see that it is still plugging away, CPU <20%, memory ranges depending on what I’m doing, but changes periodically tell me that it’s still breathing.

I can hang like that for minutes… sometimes a few, sometimes 20 or so..

How do I determine what the root cause is? I’ve tried various suggestions I’ve found online.. nothing really seems to make a difference… aside from avoiding scrubbing in the timeline.

D

DoYouLikeHamAuthor

Inspiring

I’ve also noticed that when moving things using the 3D gizmo that there will be slight hangs after I change the position of something…

e.g.,

Select Object

Move it by dragging the gizmo

Unclick the mouse to finish the movement

<hang>

The object ‘pops’ to some other place, presumably where my moust had moved during the <hang>

nishukushwaha

Community Manager

Hi there,

Issues like this are often tied to GPU/preview performance, cache, media, or project complexity.

To help narrow it down, could you check a few things:

Is it project-specific? Does it happen in a new blank project as well?
What are your GPU + driver version and AE version + your system specifications?
Does lowering preview resolution (Half/Quarter) or purging cache help?
Are there any third-party plugins/effects involved when it hangs?

If you can share a short screen recording, that would also help us understand exactly what’s happening.

Thanks,

Nishu