Timeline layer scrolling issue -- bug or feature?

[Steve5D7C]

There is an incredibly annoying behavior with the timeline whereby if you have more layers in the comp than are currently visible in the window (that is you have a scroll bar on the right hand side), any time you shy a visible layer, or hide a rolled out property, the next time you click on any layer in the timeline the UI will automatically scroll down to reveal another previously hidden layer. Is this by design? This is not user friendly at all, especially when working with confusing comps than contain hundreds of layers. When I click on the UI I do NOT want it to move, AT ALL. If I want to scroll down I will do it myself. This is very much like the annoying behavior of a lot of news websites these days which are constantly reloading ad content and changing the layout you're trying to read on the fly. Is there a way to stop this behavior? If it isn't intended behavior, I'd consider this a fairly serious UI bug.

[Warren Heaton]

Can you post a screen recording of this?

Have you tried using the x key?  That brings the selected layer to to the top of the Timeline panel.  I've found that to be very helpful once I have a few dozen layers or a few hundred.

[Steve5D7C]

I don't have any kind of screen recording setup.

I haven't tried using X as I don't want my layer order changed.

[Ali Jaber]

X doesn't change anything, it will scroll the timeline so the selected layer will be at the top

[Steve5D7C]

OK, however that is not the issue and I still have to select the layer, whereupon the UI jumps. It's at the actual point of layer selection that the problem occurs. The UI simply jogs up or down by one layer. It's a small annoyance when it happens once, but when working with a large comp and systematically working through editing multiple layers, when it happens every single time it becomes super annoying.

[Warren Heaton]

It does sound frustarting.  Sorry that you're experiencing it.

I can't say that I've ever experienced what you're describing.  When I select a Layer with the mouse or with the numeric keypad, the Timeline panel doesn't scroll down to the next layer.  If I'm curretly viewing from Layers 10 to 22 while they're all collapsed and select Layer 22 AE does not scroll up until I expend Layer 22.  If I scroll down to Layer 92 so that I can view Layers 92 to 104, selecting Layer 104 doesn't scroll up to Layer 105.

[Warren Heaton]

Print screen of the process?  Or the Snipping Tool?

Or you don't happen to be in macOS with QuickTime Player?  It has a record screen option.

Or if it's a current version of Windows there's that gaming option for recording.