7 Fixes for Animations Not Working in PowerPoint on Windows

Pankil is a Civil Engineer turned freelance writer. Since his arrival at Guiding Tech in 2021, he delves into the world of how-tos, and troubleshooting guides for Android, iOS, and Windows. Besides his new-found love for mechanical keyboards, he’s a disciplined footfall fan and loves international travel with his wife.

Fix 1: Check Animation Order and Triggers

Before you try anything else, it’s a good idea to check the set animation effects and triggers in your PowerPoint presentation. Here’s how you can go about it.

Step 1:Open your PowerPoint presentation, switch to theAnimationstab at the top, and select theAnimation Paneoption from the “Advanced Animation” group.

Step 2:From the Animation Pane settings, you’ll see a list of all animations on the right side. Make sure all the animations are listed in the desired order. If not, use the up and down arrows to reorder them.

Step 3:Right-click on animations to change their trigger. Then, click thePlaybutton to check your animations.

Repeat the above steps to check the animation effects and triggers for all your slides.

Fix 2: Check Slideshow Settings

Microsoft PowerPoint may not play any animations during slide shows if you have accidentally enabled the “Show without animations” option. Here’s how to turn it off.

Step 1:Open your PowerPoint presentation, switch to theSlide Showtab, and click theSet Up Slide Showbutton.

Step 2:Under Show options, clear theShow without animationcheckbox. Then, clickOK.

After that, pressF5to start the slideshow and check if your animations work.

Fix 3: Click the Record Button

Is PowerPoint not playing animations when you try to record your presentation? That could happen if you scroll through your slides and haven’t clicked the “Record” button. Here’s what you need to do.

Step 1:Open your presentation in Microsoft PowerPoint. Switch to theRecordtab and click theFrom BeginningorFrom Current Slidebutton.

Step 2:Click theRecordbutton at the top. After that, PowerPoint will play and record your presentation with animations.

Fix 4: Toggle Off Hardware Acceleration

Such issues with animations can also occur if the hardware graphics acceleration feature malfunctions in PowerPoint. You can try turning this feature off momentarily to see if that fixesproblems with PowerPointanimations.

Step 1:Open PowerPoint on your PC and click theFilemenu at the top-left corner.

Step 2:SelectOptionsfrom the left sidebar.

Step 3:Select theAdvancedtab. In the right pane, scroll down to the Display section and clear the checkbox that readsDisable Slide Show hardware graphics acceleration. Then, clickOK.

Fix 5: Open PowerPoint in Safe Mode

At times, third-party add-ins can conflict with Microsoft PowerPoint, causing the animation pane to not show up. If you suspect that to be the case, you can open PowerPoint in safe mode. For that, press theWindows + Rkeyboard shortcut to open the Run dialog box. Typepowerpnt /safein the Open field and pressEnter.

After opening PowerPoint in safe mode, check if your animations work. If they do, it’s likely that one of your add-ins is causing the problem. To identify it, you will need to disable all add-ins and then re-enable them one by one.

Step 1:Open PowerPoint and click theFilemenu at the top-left corner.

Step 2:SelectOptionsfrom the left pane.

Step 3:In the PowerPoint Options window, switch to theAdd-instab. Click the drop-down menu next to Manage and selectCOM Add-ins. Then, click theGobutton next to it.

Step 4:Uncheck all the boxes to disable your add-ins and clickOK.

Restart Microsoft PowerPoint and enable your add-ins one at a time. You will need to check the animations after enabling each add-in. Once you find the problematic add-in, consider removing it for good.

Fix 6: Repair Your Presentation

If animations are not working only on a specific PowerPoint presentation, you can try repairing it. To do so, use these steps:

Step 1:Open Microsoft PowerPoint and click theFilemenu at the top-left corner.

Step 2:SelectOpenfrom the left sidebar and click theBrowseoption.

Step 3:Browse and select your file. Click the downward arrow next to Open to selectOpen and Repair.

Fix 7: Run the Office Repair Tool

If nothing works, there may be an issue with some of the corefiles associated with Microsoft PowerPoint. In that case, your best option is to run the Office repair tool, which can automatically find and fix issues with Office apps like PowerPoint.

Step 1:Press theWindows + Rkeyboard shortcut to open the Run dialog box. Typeappwiz.cplin the box and pressEnter.

Step 2:Select the Microsoft Office suite and click theChangebutton.

Step 3:Select theOnline Repairoption and clickRepair.

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Last updated on 10 August, 2024

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