Powerpoint slides will not advance

Bill Nicol 0 Reputation points
2026-08-23T00:23:24.9633333+00:00

My powerpoint slides will not advance. The slides are set on different times. Under slide set up, the button is highlighted to use timing if present. The slide show was working but suddenly has the issue

Microsoft 365 and Office | PowerPoint | For home | Windows
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  1. AI answer

    2026-08-23T00:23:41.5533333+00:00

    If the slides were advancing before and now stopped, check these PowerPoint settings in this order:

    1. Turn recorded timings off and back on
      • Go to Slide Show.
      • If Use Timings is checked, clear it once, then check it again.
      • This resets whether PowerPoint uses the saved slide timings during the show.
    2. Verify the show is not set to manual advance
      • Go to Slide Show > Set Up Slide Show.
      • Under Advance slides, make sure it is not forcing Manually if the presentation should use timings.
      • If it is set to Manually, switch back to Use Timings, if present.
    3. Check the slide transition timing on affected slides
      • Select a slide.
      • Go to Transitions > Timing.
      • Under Advance Slide, make sure After is selected and the correct number of seconds is entered.
      • If On Mouse Click is the only option selected, the slide will wait for a click.
      • Repeat for other slides, or use Apply to All if all slides should use the same timing.
    4. Confirm the timing values are still present
      • Go to View > Slide Sorter.
      • Check the bottom-right of each slide thumbnail to see whether timings are still shown.
      • If timings are missing, they may have been cleared and need to be set again.
    5. If timings were recorded, check whether they were accidentally cleared
      • In Normal view, or from the Recording tab, PowerPoint can clear timings for the current slide or all slides.
      • If timings were removed, re-enter them from Transitions > Advance Slide > After.
    6. If a slide contains media, make sure the transition time is long enough
      • Transition timing is based on how long the slide appears, not when a video ends.
      • If a slide has an MP4 or other media, set After to a time longer than the media length.

    If the goal is to stop automatic advance temporarily before presenting, use Slide Show > Set Up Slide Show > Advance slides > Manually. To restore automatic playback, switch back to Use Timings, if present.

    References:

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  2. Hendrix-V 18,605 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-08-23T04:59:17.2766667+00:00

    Hi Bill Nicol,

    Since the presentation was advancing correctly before and the timing settings still appear to be enabled, it may be worth checking whether something within the presentation is preventing PowerPoint from reaching the automatic transition point. Similar cases have been linked to presentation-specific content rather than the timing settings themselves.

    A quick test would be:

    1. Create a new blank presentation.
    2. Add two slides and set the second slide to advance automatically after a few seconds.
    3. Run the slideshow and see whether the slides advance as expected.

    If the new presentation works normally, the issue is likely isolated to the current file. In that case, try copying all slides into a brand-new presentation and test again, as this can sometimes resolve presentation-specific corruption.

    Also, if your slides contain animations, open the Animation Pane and confirm there are no effects configured to wait for a mouse click, as click-triggered animations can prevent automatic slide advancement.

    I hope this helps point you in the right direction. Let me know if you need further assistance, feel free to ask me by clicking "Add Comment" or "Add Answer" if you cannot add comment so your response will be visible. Thanks for your effort.

    Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

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