This is the largest cause of performance issues. Projects get slow when they have a combination of:

1. Several GB of files
2. Lots of edits in a composition or sequence
3. Lots of compositions
4. Long compositions and/or sequences

There’s no hard and fast rule here — it is also highly dependent on the age of your computer and the availability of its system resources — but if you’re noticing performance declines as your projects get bigger or more complex, this might be the issue. Try breaking out your compositions and files across multiple projects or dividing a single complex/long composition or sequence into several and see if that helps.

Click here to learn how to copy a composition to a different project.

Try closing other applications, especially apps that use a lot of your computing bandwidth, like your web browser.

Descript gets slow if you have less than 20GB of available hard drive space. Click to learn about managing storage on Mac or to learn about managing storage on Windows.

Make sure your computer meets our recommended system requirements.

Effects (e.g., audio effects like the limiter, compressor, parametric EQ, or flanger) can cause CPU use spiking that results in glitchy playback. Try disabling them while editing to see if it resolves your issue. If it does, you can always edit with effects disabled and turn them on when you're ready to export.

Grammarly has been known to cause issues with Descript, and it will use a lot of resources to read your script while you make edits. We recommend you disable Descript from within the Grammarly app or just keep it closed.

We have found that running McAfee antivirus can cause performance issues with Descript. To avoid these issues, consider disabling McAfee while using Descript.

By default, when you add audio or video files to Descript, we create new “proxy” versions that are optimized for playback performance (we also keep the originals and use them for export).

If you’ve disabled optimized assets, then it’s possible that the unoptimized files are causing your performance issues, and you should manually create optimized files for any high-resolution and bitrate files.

Make sure your GPU drivers are up-to-date. If your GPU drivers are up-to-date but it has been more than two years since the last update, then you’ll probably still have issues, and we don’t recommend recording video with Descript and that specific GPU.

Currently, Descript only supports using one GPU at a time. Your machine might be defaulting to the slower one. This usually happens when an Intel chip with onboard graphics is being used versus the discreet (not on a CPU) GPU. Generally, this occurs on laptops that use the on-board GPU in low power mode.

 

Setting the default GPU on macOS

1. Open Activity Monitor and navigate to Window > GPU History
2. Start exporting a composition.
3. Observe in the Activity Monitor which GPU is being used.

Apple Silicon chips have integrated GPUs, so they should always default to the correct and fastest GPU.

Once you have determined which GPU is in use, and if it is not the discrete GPU in the machine (usually an AMD), you can manually override this by turning off Automatic Graphics Switching.

 

Setting the default GPU on Windows

1. Open Task Manager (ctrl-alt-delete) and open the Performance tab.
2. Start exporting a composition.
3. Observe in the Task Manager which GPU is being utilized.
4. If the GPU being used is not the one you want, you can switch it via the Graphics Card’s Settings.

If you see a blank screen in the scene editor:

• • Your script layer may not be present. Click in the white space outside the scene editor, look at the layer list in the Property Panel, then select the script layer and confirm opacity is toggled on.
  • It could be because no visual layers are present. Once you add a video or visual, it will appear on the scene editor.

If you don’t see the scene editor at all, switch to a video composition, which you can do from the File menu.

The scene editor uses proxy files, but your exported content should be full quality. Try exporting to check quality. If export quality is still low, check your composition's resolution to confirm they are at a high enough resolution.

Choppy playback could be caused by a low composition frame rate setting. To resolve this, increase your composition's frame rate setting in the Aspect ratio and video settings menu.

Occasionally, files with an unsupported or invalid format will cause a playback error. If you run into this error, your best bet will be to re-encode the original file using a third-party application like VLC or Quicktime.

After that, you can use the Replace File feature to swap the source file in your existing project or re-import the file into a new project.

If you contact support with a performance issue, the support agent will open the project and try to reproduce the issue on their own computer; if it’s reproducible, great! We’ll escalate it to engineering and keep you in the loop about when it’s fixed or help you find a workaround while we work to fix the root of the issue.

If it’s not reproducible, then it probably means there’s something about the state of your computer or project that’s contributing to the issue. Here are a few more things you can try.

Reloading your project

You can do this by click Shift + Command + R (Mac) or Shift + Control + R (Windows)

Restart your computer

This actually works more than you would think. So if you haven’t already, try restarting.

Fully delete and reinstall Descript

Follow these instructions to remove all Descript data from your computer, and then reinstall.

If you’re not hearing audio during playback in Descript, the following steps can help:

Check for Solo'd Tracks

• • If a layer or track has been solo'd, all other layers/tracks will be muted. You'll be able to confirm and adjust this from the Layer panel. Select a layer/track, then click the "Solo" button to toggle the effect on and off.
    
    
    
    
  • If you are working with a sequence, open the Sequence Editor. There, you'll be able to confirm if a track has been solo'd within the sequence.
    
    
    
    

Exclusive Mode in Windows:

On Windows systems, certain audio drivers may restrict applications from accessing your audio devices simultaneously, causing playback issues. To disable Exclusive Mode:

1. 1. 1. Right-click the speaker icon in your taskbar and select Sound Settings.
      2. Scroll down and select More sound settings.
         
         
         
      3. In the new window, under Playback, right-click your output device and select Properties.
         
         
         
      4. Navigate to the Advanced tab.
      5. Uncheck the boxes related to Exclusive Mode.
         
         
         
      6. Click Apply and then OK to save your changes.