7 Fixes for Animations Not Working in PowerPoint on Windows

Quick Tips

• Double-check the animation order and triggers in your PowerPoint presentation, and ensure the “Show without animations” option is not enabled.
• Turn off hardware acceleration in PowerPoint and try repairing your presentation to see if that resolves the issue.
• You can also open PowerPoint in safe mode to check if one of your add-ins is causing problems with the animations.

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 the Animations tab at the top, and select the Animation Pane option 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 the Play button 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 the Slide Show tab, and click the Set Up Slide Show button.

Step 2: Under Show options, clear the Show without animation checkbox. Then, click OK.

After that, press F5 to 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 the Record tab and click the From Beginning or From Current Slide button.

Step 2: Click the Record button 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 fixes problems with PowerPoint animations.

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

Step 2: Select Options from the left sidebar.

Step 3: Select the Advanced tab. In the right pane, scroll down to the Display section and clear the checkbox that reads Disable Slide Show hardware graphics acceleration. Then, click OK.

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 the Windows + R keyboard shortcut to open the Run dialog box. Type powerpnt /safe in the Open field and press Enter.

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 the File menu at the top-left corner.

Step 2: Select Options from the left pane.

Step 3: In the PowerPoint Options window, switch to the Add-ins tab. Click the drop-down menu next to Manage and select COM Add-ins. Then, click the Go button next to it.

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

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 the File menu at the top-left corner.

Step 2: Select Open from the left sidebar and click the Browse option.

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

Fix 7: Run the Office Repair Tool

If nothing works, there may be an issue with some of the core files 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 the Windows + R keyboard shortcut to open the Run dialog box. Type appwiz.cpl in the box and press Enter.

Step 2: Select the Microsoft Office suite and click the Change button.

Step 3: Select the Online Repair option and click Repair.