Hi,

When export freezes and preview won’t play, it usually points to a project-level or system-level issue rather than a simple glitch. Let us break this down cleanly.

What the symptoms tell us

• Export stuck at 30% → CapCut is hanging while processing a specific clip, effect, or resource

• Preview won’t play → The timeline can’t fully render, due to:

  • Corrupted media

  • Unsupported codec

  • GPU / cache problems

  • A broken effect or transition

So fixing export alone won’t help unless preview playback is fixed first.

Step-by-step fixes do these in order

1. Check for a corrupted clip

One bad file can freeze everything.

What to do

• Move the playhead slowly through the timeline

• If playback freezes or turns black at a specific point → that clip is the culprit

• Temporarily delete or disable:

  • That clip

  • Any effect, transition, or speed ramp on it

• Try preview again

• If preview starts working, export will too.

2. Disable hardware acceleration (huge fix for 30% freezes)

In CapCut:

• Go to Settings → Performance

• Turn OFF:

  • Hardware Acceleration

  • GPU Encoding

• Restart CapCut

• Try preview → then export

Many GPUs choke on certain effects/codecs.

3. Clear CapCut cache (preview failure = cache overload)

• Settings → Cache

• Click Clear

• Restart CapCut

This fixes cases where preview doesn’t load at all.

4. Check your source media (especially phone videos)

CapCut often struggles with:

• HEVC / H.265

• Variable frame rate (common from phones)

Fix

• Convert the problem clips to:

  • MP4 (H.264)

  • Constant frame rate (30 or 60)

• Re-import and replace them in the timeline

If preview suddenly works → export will no longer stall.

5. Try exporting a small section

This helps isolate the issue.

• Select 5–10 seconds of the timeline

• Export just that section

If:

• Early section exports → issue is later in the timeline

• Nothing exports → system / GPU / codec issue

6. Lower export settings (temporary test)

Use this just to confirm the cause.

• Resolution: 1080p

• Frame rate: 30 fps

• Bitrate: Medium

• Codec: H.264

If this exports successfully, the original settings were too heavy for your system.

7. Final sanity checks

• Make sure CapCut is fully updated

• Close background apps (especially screen recorders or browsers)

• Ensure you have enough disk space (at least 10–15 GB free)

To pinpoiint your issue faster, can you post as a reply to this thread the below details:

1. CapCut version (desktop or mobile?)

2. OS (Windows / macOS / phone model)

3. Where the timeline freezes (beginning / middle / end)

4. Any heavy effects used (speed ramps, motion blur, AI effects)