How to See Playback Controls in Blender Dope Sheet, Graph Editor, and NLA Editor

For years, this has been a major frustration for Blender animators. The playback controls (buttons to play, pause, etc) have only been available in the Timeline Editor. They weren’t in the Graph Editor, Dope Sheet, or NLA Editor and we had to constantly switch back and forth or have both open.

Blender 5.0 has fixed this! However, the buttons aren’t turned on by default.

Here’s how to display the playback control buttons in the Dope Sheet, Graph Editor, and NLA Editor in Blender 5.0.

Display Playback Controls

From within the Graph Editor, Dope Sheet, or NLA Editor, we can display the playback controls. For the specific editor we want to display them in, go to “View” in the top left corner and check the box for “Playback Controls.”

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Once we check the box, the playback controls will be displayed at the bottom center of the editor. We would have to do this for each instance of the graph editor, dope sheet, and NLA editors. They won’t all be activated together.

This was a long time coming for Blender animators and solves a major frustration of mine. Hopefully this helps others as much as it does me!

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Stay creative!

Brandon Stocking

Brandon Stocking is a husband, father, and digital artist who writes about whatever he wants to in his free time… but mostly Blender.