Timeline won't play anymore

[Guest]

I've been working on a project for about a week now, using AVI clips to piece
together a movie. With the exception of having to learn how to convert all
these different types of video to AVI, it's been working pretty well.

Today I opened Movie Maker to start to add a few more clips and try to
finish this project up, and all of a sudden the timeline will no longer play
anymore. I haven't installed anything recently, and this timeline was
working perfectly yesterday.

If I google "movie maker timeline won't play", I get the same post listed a
bunch of times, which basically says this is a bug that can't be fixed, and
I'm going to have to start over with my project...saving it into smaller
pieces that can be put together later. Is this true? Is there no way to
kick my timeline into gear again?

 

[Guest]

I've just had the same problem and have spent the last few hours trying to
work out how to fix this. Like yourself I have searched high and low on the
internet for a solution but none.

When I finally found your post I think I cracked it and worked out a fix.

Try these steps:

1. Open up your project with the faulty timeline
2. Insert a video clip at the very start of the timeline (a small one will
do of anything)
3. Insert an audio file right at the start of the timeline (again a small
one will do and again of anything)
4. press play on the timeline. Your timeline should now start playing
5. remove the video clip that you inserted.
6. remove the audio clip that you inserted.
7. move any audio clips back to where you wish them to be on the timeline.
8. press play again on the timeline to test that this is now working.
9. If this resolves the issue, save the project

As you add clips and audio in future or make any changes, be sure to test
the timeline on a regular basis. Should a change you make cause this issue
again, simply undo until the point at which the timeline begins to work again.

 

[Guest]

Cos - you took it one step further than i did....originally i thought i might
kickstart it by inserting just a video clip...no dice.

Your solution worked great and i'm back in business. Thank you!!!!!!!

 

[msnikki]

This was sooo helpful thanks so much. I hope they can fix this problem in the
future.

 

[Techdir]

Although I am using photo's for my project your post was very helpfull. I
tried adding a photo at the begining of the timeline and it kept ending up at
the end. I found out that during my last edit cycle I had compressed the
timelne to far to the right so I had 4 photo clips on on top of another. I
probably would have fond it eventualy (after a lot of wasted time and
effort) but your post sped up th eprocess to less than 2 min. Thanks.