Preview Playback Red Line Freezes Despite Video Playing

[Pranav S Kumar]

Issue:
When previewing a composition in After Effects, the video continues to play, but the red timeline indicator (playhead) gets stuck or freezes. This issue did not occur previously.

Steps Taken to Troubleshoot:

• Ran After Effects in Safe Mode with no third-party plugins.

• Installed the latest NVIDIA Studio Driver instead of NVIDIA Game Ready Driver.

• Rolled back to After Effects v24.6.5 to test for version-related issues.

System Information:

• OS: Windows 11 24H2

• After Effects Version: 25.2

• CPU: Intel Core i7-12700H

• GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3060

• RAM: 16GB

Additional Notes:

• The issue persists regardless of project complexity.

• Attached a video showing the issue in real time.

[pcoron]

I am having the same issue. My drivers are up to date and as of ten minutes ago, I had the latest version of AE, but, there could have been a few new updates since then. Lol. 

[nishu_kush]

Sorry for the delayed response. Are you still having the issue?

Moving this thread from Bugs to Discussions for troubleshooting.

Thanks,
Nishu

[pavan_0451]

Could you be able to track mine? I can give you the case ID.

[pavan_0451]

I've been facing this issue recently, and at first, I thought it was due to updating to the latest version. However, even after rolling back, the issue persists. To rule things out, I created a simple new composition with zero layers, but the problem still occurs.

I contacted both the After Effects and NVIDIA support teams. They performed screen-sharing sessions and suggested several changes, but none of them helped. On my last call, we discovered that disabling the GPU temporarily resolves the red line freezing issue.

What’s frustrating is that my GPU meets all the minimum specifications required for advanced 3D and video editing, so I can’t understand why this is happening.

System Information:

• OS: Windows 11, version: 24H2

• After Effects Version: 25.4

• CPU: Intel Core i7-12700F

• GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3050

• RAM: 32GB

[pavan_0451]

Hey! Did you find any resolution? 

[pcoron · Accepted solution]

Go to the Preview panel and select show overlays to make sure that it is turned on. 

[pavan_0451]

Hi, I tried what you suggested, and it seems like it's working. I am not facing any red line freeze. will keep observing for 2 days and reply here with the final result. 

Thank You.

[pavan_0451]

Hi, this solution is working for me, and it's so simple that not everybody could recognise it quickly. Thank you for the solution.

[pcoron]

You're welcome.