Help!

Hi,

It looks like CapCut’s latest update changed the arrow key nudge behavior so that it moves the playhead by exactly 1 second, regardless of your zoom level on the timeline.

In older versions, the movement was frame-based, meaning zooming in allowed smaller steps (like a few frames instead of a full second).

Unfortunately, there’s currently no setting in CapCut to change arrow key steps back to frame-by-frame. However, you still have a couple of workarounds:

1. Use Shift + Arrow keys (or Ctrl + Arrow)

• Shift + Arrow jumps in bigger increments, and Arrow alone is smaller.

• CapCut seems to have reversed or locked this behavior in the update, but try different modifier keys (Shift, Ctrl, Alt) with the arrows to see if frame steps are still available.

2. Use the onscreen playhead drag

• Zoom in fully and drag the playhead manually for frame accuracy.

3. Use Keyframe markers

• If you place a keyframe where you want precise positioning, you can move between them without relying on the arrow key jump.

4. Roll back to a previous version

• If the change disrupts your workflow a lot, you can uninstall and install an older CapCut PC version where arrow keys were frame-based.

Relationship between Zoom and Arrow Key Movement

Video editors, by default, have a "snap to frame" or "snap to time unit" function. When you're zoomed out, each arrow key press will move you a full second or even several seconds because the smallest unit it can snap to is large due to the compressed timeline.

When you zoom in, the timeline expands, revealing individual frames. In this zoomed-in state, the arrow keys should move you by a smaller increment, a single frame, to allow for precise editing.

• Zoom level is key:

  • The most common reason for your issue: You might not be zoomed in enough. Even if you've zoomed in, if the timeline still shows increments of seconds rather than individual frames, the arrow keys will still jump by seconds. Keep zooming in until you see individual frames or very small time increments (e.g., 00:00:00:01 for frame 1).

CapCut is primarily a mobile-first editor, but the desktop version has gained popularity. The desktop version should behave like more traditional NLEs in terms of timeline navigation.

• Zooming: Use the scroll wheel on your mouse, or the zoom controls in the timeline, to zoom in as much as possible.

• Snap feature: Look for the magnet icon within the interface.