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Anonymous
March 29, 2019
Answered

Can't move videos/keyframes in After Effects. Help?

  • March 29, 2019
  • 12 replies
  • 33513 views

Hi, all,

I've recently purchased After Effects CC 2019 for my Mac and I'm completely new to the program, and I'm having a few issues with it. I've been watching some tutorials and I see that everyone's able to drag clips/keyframes easily along the timeline, but whenever I try that on my project, it's like they're frozen. I can move them using brackets—[]—but that's all, and it's getting really annoying to do. Even trying to use the little arrows beside the clips to shrink them/make them longer and all of that doesn't work. I'm not sure what's going on.

      This topic has been closed for replies.
      Correct answer Shivangi_Gupta

      Hi mariat,

      Thanks for reaching out and choosing After Effects. As @OussK suggested, you may have locked your layer that prevents it from being edited. If you have tried that and it still does not work, then please test this with a new composition.

      Also, you may go ahead and make all the settings default by resetting the preferences: Reset After Effects Preferences | Welcome to kevinmonahan.net

      Let us know if any of the above works. We're here to help

      Thanks,

      Shivangi

      12 replies

      L
      LACHLAN29150962ndiu
      New Participant
      May 4, 2024

      Check your fps (frames per second) on your compositon layers!

      If the key frame issue is on a pre comp layer, the pre comp may be set to a different fps than your main compostion's fps. Change the main composition frame rate to your pre comp frame rate and it should work. This glitch may effect position and anchor point key frames. Good luck!

      K
      Kaitlyn328429966655
      New Participant
      April 20, 2024

      Just in case someone else finds this thread looking for the answer to the question I had (which was similar), updating drivers monthly helps. I was running into a lot of (apparent) bugs to do with immobile keyframes on unlocked layers, and a quick Nvidia update seems to have fixed them? 

      T
      Teptonic32324988em1n
      New Participant
      December 7, 2023

      I FOUND SOMETHING THAT WORKED FOR ME! You select ALL the keyframes in the layer and move them a bit and then put the keyframes back in their original position, now try selecting that single keyframe and move it. I hope this works for you!

       

        f2135
        f2135
        New Participant
        November 9, 2022

        This poblem appears to be still preent in AE 23.0.0.

         

        It appears to be related to the framerate.

        My video has 25 FPS, the composition had 29.97 FPS. I have experience the following behaviour:

        Moving the key-frame knob was possible once, maybe twice. Then, after the key-frame knob had beend dropped to its new location it was not possible to move it again. Doing undo to return it to its original position it was moveable again. Once saved in an non-moveable state, it was non-moveable.

         

        Deleting cache does not fix it.

         

        After setting the FPS of the composion to that of the video (25 fps) the issue disappeard!

         

        This is a very anoying but.

          W
          Warren Heaton10841144
          Adobe Expert
          October 21, 2020

          There's moving the Layer Timespan (which is what you're doing when you press the left bracket or right bracket) and then there's nudging (or moving) the keyframes.  If the keyboard shortcut is working, then you should be able to click and drag the Layer Timespan with the Selection tool.  Furthermore, you should be able to click and drag a marquee selection (a rectangle) around the keyframe or keyframes that you want to nudge (you may have noticed that they turn blue when selected).  You can then click and drag them left or right with the Selection tool.

           

          Another thing to double-check is the current frame rate and duration in After Effects.  To a new user, a Comp that's 5 frames long can look the same as a Comp that's 5 seconds long or one that's 5 minutes long.  Also, if you somehow set a very low frame rate (like 1 frame per second), it may appear that your frames don't have too many places to go.

           

          It may be worth taking an After Effects class with an instructor.  After Effects has a bit of a steep learning curve.

          jonh15957268
          jonh15957268
          New Participant
          February 4, 2021

          I too was having this same issue (long term user for 10+ years, it seems patronizing to continue to assume this is just 'beginner' problems and not a potential software bug) and I can confirm that: making a new keyframe and deleting it resolved my issue, but also marquee selecting a keyframe and alt-arrow to shift keyframe can be useful too before it become's 'resolved'.  I was using imported .mp4 footage and am not going to attempt to reimport as Pro Res, so I cannot attest to that particular fix, and I'll respond here if I come across this problem again.

            W
            Warren Heaton10841144
            Adobe Expert
            February 4, 2021

            Hi, Jon.

             

             I'm just sharing what's worked for me without having keyframes appear to be locked.

             

            That said, what is it about a post in this thread tbat refers to applying Time Remapping to a source footage format with interframe compression that gives the impression of being an intermediate or advanced user?



             

            R
            ryans96600462
            New Participant
            October 9, 2020

            I'm a long time use and have recently started encountering OP's issue. I've confirmed my layer (an .mp4 clip in a standard 1080p comp) is unlocked, but after adding keyframes to the clip (of any property -- in my specific case, it's Pos, Scale and Time Remap), I can't move them in the timeline. I can't select them by clicking on them directly, but I can select them with the selection lasso. When I try to slide them forward or backward in the timeline, they don't move. The value of the keyframe is changeable. If I create a new keyframe, I CAN move that for a couple of seconds, and then it locks itself. The layer itself can be moved. Keyframes on other layers in the same comp can be manipulated without issue.

            R
            ryans96600462
            New Participant
            October 21, 2020

            Just updating to say: this only seemed to be an issue only for a specific piece of h264 .mp4 media I was using. Images and other layers did not have this problem. Putting the video asset into a subcomp container did not fix the problem. Transcoding the media into ProRes did eventually solve the issue.

            Rameez_Khan
            Rameez_Khan
            Brainiac
            April 12, 2019

            Hi mariat,

            Were you able to resolve this problem?

            Let us know.

            Rameez

            J
            joeyl99203091
            New Participant
            April 7, 2019

            Recently I've encountered a similar issue with moving keyframes.  Often, I cannot drag or select a keyframe on the timeline.

            As an example, if there are two keyframes where an object moves from point A to B, most often I cannot select the B keyframe alone.  If I want to move it, I have to drag-select BOTH keyframes, then I can move them together, often moving keyframe A to the proper distance from B, then shifting both to where they need to be on the timeline.  I am not a novice, nothing is locked, and this is pretty basic usage.  This is some kind of new behavior caused by a recent update. 

            Thoughts?

              R
              Rick Gerard
              Adobe Expert
              April 7, 2019

              If a keyframe is highlighted it should be able to be selected and dragged up or down the timeline. An easy way to select a single keyframe is to drag a selection around the keyframe or use the next or previous keyframe selectors in the AV Features column in the timeline. It's usually right next to the Label column but it can be moved.

              If you have multiple keyframes selected and you click and drag they should all move together. If you have more than two keyframes and you hold down the Alt/Option key and click and drag the first of last keyframe the time between all keyframes will proportionally change.

              If your timeline is not working this way then I suggest that you restart AE holding down on Shift + Alt/Option + Ctrl/Cmnd and reset your preferences. If you have customized anything then you'll have to do it over again.

              S
              Community Manager
              Shivangi_GuptaCommunity ManagerCorrect answer
              Community Manager
              April 1, 2019

              Hi mariat,

              Thanks for reaching out and choosing After Effects. As @OussK suggested, you may have locked your layer that prevents it from being edited. If you have tried that and it still does not work, then please test this with a new composition.

              Also, you may go ahead and make all the settings default by resetting the preferences: Reset After Effects Preferences | Welcome to kevinmonahan.net

              Let us know if any of the above works. We're here to help

              Thanks,

              Shivangi

              OussK
              OussK
              Adobe Expert
              March 29, 2019

              I you are not able to move and select your keyframe may your layer is locked so be sure it's not locked

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