DaVinci Resolve Retime Curve Not Showing? Here's Where It Went

How do you actually open the Keyframes panel to see your retime curve?

Five steps, and the order matters, because skipping step one is the single most common reason people conclude the feature is broken.

1. Turn on Retime Controls. Right-click the clip in the timeline and choose Retime Controls, or press Ctrl+R on Windows, Cmd+R on Mac. A speed bar appears directly above the clip. Without this step, there's no retime speed to keyframe at all, and nothing downstream will work.
2. Add at least one speed point. With Retime Controls active, park the playhead somewhere inside the clip and add a speed point (right-click the speed bar, or use the arrow menu next to the percentage readout). One clip with a flat, unmodified speed has nothing to curve, which matters for the next section.
3. Look at the far right of the clip's name bar. Once a clip has at least one keyframed parameter, retime included, two small buttons appear there: a Curve button and a Keyframe button. Per the DaVinci Resolve reference manual's description of these controls, they "let you access specialized keyframe editors that serve different purposes."
4. Click the Curve button, or select the clip and choose Clip > Show Keyframe Editor from the menu, which the manual notes is also reachable with Command-Shift-C. Either path opens the Keyframes panel.
5. Confirm you're on the curve/spline view, not the flat dot-track view. The Keyframes panel has more than one display mode, and it's easy to land on the track view, which shows keyframe markers as dots on a line rather than the actual Bezier shape between them.

If you've gone through all five steps and still see nothing, the next two sections cover the two most common reasons that happens: no curve was ever generated in the first place, or the panel is drawing it wrong.

What if the Curve button never shows up on the clip at all?

This is a different symptom from a curve that opens flat, and it points at a different cause: Resolve genuinely has nothing keyframed yet, so it has nothing to show a button for.

A missing Curve button means Resolve has not registered a second speed point on that clip, not that the feature is broken. Check these three things in order:

1. Is Retime Controls actually on for this specific clip? It's a per-clip toggle, not a global mode, so turning it on for one clip earlier in your session doesn't carry to the next clip you select. Ctrl/Cmd+R again on the clip you're currently troubleshooting.
2. Did the speed point actually get added? Right-clicking the speed bar and choosing to add a point sometimes requires the playhead to be inside the clip's range, not on an adjacent clip or a transition. If the playhead sits even a frame outside the clip when you try to add a point, the add can silently fail.
3. Is the clip a compound clip or nested timeline? Retime behaves differently on a compound clip than on a source clip, and the Curve button's appearance can lag behind what you'd expect if you're retiming the compound wrapper rather than the clip inside it. Open the compound clip and check whether the retime speed is actually applied at that inner level instead.

A related Blackmagic forum thread, titled "(How to access) Retime Speed keyframes?", tracks exactly this confusion, editors who had Retime Controls on but hadn't yet added a second point, and so found no button and assumed the feature had vanished entirely.

Why does the retime curve show a flat line instead of an actual curve?

Because a curve, by definition, needs at least two points to bend between. One speed point on a clip is just a single value. There's nothing before it and nothing after it to curve toward, so the Keyframes panel correctly draws a flat, level line, and that flat line is often mistaken for a broken or empty curve rather than what it actually is: an accurate picture of a clip with only one data point.

The fix is simple once you see it for what it is: add a second speed point somewhere else in the clip. As soon as two points exist, Resolve has something to interpolate between, and the flat line becomes a genuine Bezier curve with handles you can drag.

A flat line in the retime curve almost always means the clip has exactly one speed point, not a broken display. Confirm the point count before you start troubleshooting anything deeper, since this single check resolves a large share of "the curve looks wrong" reports without touching a preference or an update.

If you've confirmed two or more points exist and the line is still flat, or the shape between them looks jagged and wrong rather than smoothly curved, that's the display bug covered next, not a points problem.

Does DaVinci Resolve 21.0.2 actually fix the retime curve display bug?

Partially, and it's worth being precise about what "improved" means here versus a full rebuild. Per Newsshooter's coverage of the 21.0.2 update, released the first days of July 2026, Blackmagic's own release notes list "Improved display of retime speed curve" as one line among a broader set of fixes. The same update also "corrected an issue with pasting copied keyframes between clips," a related but distinct keyframe bug.

That phrasing tells you two things. First, Blackmagic confirms the display problem was real and specific enough to name directly, which validates that you weren't imagining a glitch if you saw one on an earlier 21.x build. Second, "improved" is deliberately not "fixed" or "rebuilt." It's a targeted correction to how the curve draws, not a structural change to the panel or the underlying retime system, so don't expect 21.0.2 to bring back the old under-clip layout or add any new retime feature. It just draws the curve you already have more correctly.

The rest of 21.0.2 is a maintenance release, not a feature drop, and reading the full scope helps you judge whether updating is worth the disruption right now:

Version 21.0.2 improved how DaVinci Resolve draws the retime speed curve. It did not rebuild the retime system or restore the old under-clip layout. If you're still on 21.0.0 or 21.0.1 and seeing a curve that renders flat, jagged, or fails to redraw after a drag, updating is the single highest-odds fix available before you spend more time on anything else.

Check your current build under DaVinci Resolve > About DaVinci Resolve on Mac, or Help > About DaVinci Resolve on Windows, and compare it against the version listed on Blackmagic's What's New page before assuming you're already current.

How do you actually use the new 4-point Bezier retime curve for a speed ramp?

Once the panel is open and drawing correctly, the workflow itself isn't complicated, but it is different enough from the old inline curve that muscle memory from earlier versions will fight you for the first few attempts.

1. Add speed points at every place the speed should change. Each point marks a moment where the clip's playback rate shifts. A speed ramp from 100% down to 25% and back up needs at minimum three points: the start at 100%, the middle at 25%, and the end back at 100%.
2. Open the Keyframes panel and switch to curve view, following the steps from earlier in this guide.
3. Drag the Bezier handles on either side of a point to control how the speed eases into and out of that point, rather than snapping abruptly. This is the part that's genuinely new: the old retime curve had its own simpler easing model, while this one uses the same 4-point Bezier handles as every other animated parameter, so a smoother ease-in on a speed ramp now looks and behaves identically to a smoother ease-in on a Transform move.
4. Use Normalized Zoom mode if the curve looks too flat or too extreme to work with. Version 21 added this specifically for cases like retime, where a percentage value with a huge range, say 5% to 400%, can otherwise render as either an almost invisible sliver or an unreadable cliff. To adjust the vertical zoom directly, move your mouse cursor over the percentage readout on the curve and click-drag, which rescales the view without touching the actual keyframe values underneath.
5. Select multiple clips before keyframing if you need the same ramp shape across several shots. This is the multi-clip capability the old system never had: select a run of clips, turn Retime Controls on for the selection, and adjust their speed points together instead of one clip at a time.

If your specific goal is a freeze frame rather than a variable speed ramp, our guide to freezing a frame in DaVinci Resolve covers that narrower case directly, including where Retime Controls and Change Clip Speed diverge for that one job.

Is this the same as a keyframe that "won't show" somewhere else in Resolve?

No, and conflating the two wastes troubleshooting time, because the causes and fixes barely overlap.

A missing Transform, Cropping, or other Inspector keyframe curve is almost always a selection problem: you've clicked a different clip than the one you keyframed, or you're looking at the wrong parameter's disclosure track inside an already-open Keyframes panel. The reference manual describes the panel's hierarchy directly: related parameters group under a single labeled track, for example Zoom and Position collapse into one row called Transform, and you click a disclosure arrow to expose the individual sub-parameter's own curve. If you're looking for a specific parameter's curve and only seeing the grouped summary track, that's a disclosure-arrow problem, not a missing-data one.

Retime is different for one specific reason: it's the only parameter type with its own separate activation step. You don't need to turn anything on to keyframe Zoom, you just animate it in the Inspector. Retime speed requires Retime Controls to be switched on for that clip first, which is the step most people skip and the reason retime-specific "not showing" reports outnumber every other keyframe type combined on the Blackmagic forum.

Retime Controls and the Keyframes panel are two separate systems that only work together once both are switched on. Confirm you're not chasing a generic keyframe visibility issue when your actual problem is that Retime Controls was never activated for the clip in question.

One priority detail worth knowing if you're keyframing both retime and something else on the same clip: the manual notes that Retime Controls, when already active, take priority in the panel's selection hierarchy over other keyframe types. If you're trying to click into a Transform curve on a clip that also has retime speed applied, and the panel keeps snapping back to the retime curve instead, that's expected behavior, not a bug, and clicking directly on the specific track you want inside the panel overrides the priority.

What if you're on DaVinci Resolve 20, not 21?

The location change happened one version earlier than most people assume. Several Blackmagic forum threads track exactly this confusion, including one titled "Missing 'Retime Curve' in DaVinci Resolve 20.0.1" and another asking outright, "Retime curve not working on Davinci Resolve 20?". Version 20 already moved retime editing into the Keyframes panel; it didn't yet have the full 4-point Bezier overhaul that version 21 added on top of the relocation.

Practically, that means everything in this guide about finding the Curve button, turning on Retime Controls, and adding a second speed point applies identically on version 20. What differs is the curve's shape and handle behavior once you get there: version 20's retime curve uses an earlier, simpler easing model than version 21's full Bezier system, so if you're following a tutorial or a forum answer written specifically for 21, some of the handle-dragging detail won't match what you see on 20.

If you're deciding whether to update from 20 to 21 partly because of this feature, the honest framing is that the location problem doesn't go away either direction. Both versions moved the curve out from under the clip. What updating to 21 actually buys you, retime-specific, is the full Bezier handle system and Normalized Zoom mode, plus whatever display fixes 21.0.2 shipped on top. Our full rundown of what's new in DaVinci Resolve 21 covers the rest of that upgrade decision beyond just keyframing.

Does the free version of DaVinci Resolve have the same retime curve as Studio?

Yes, identically. Keyframing and the Curves editor updates, retime included, ship in DaVinci Resolve's free tier, not gated behind the $295 Studio license. That puts retime in the same category as Fusion's Krokodove library and the Fairlight audio updates: structural, page-level changes that Blackmagic released broadly rather than reserving for paying customers.

That distinction matters here specifically because a lot of Resolve's newest, flashiest features, the nine AI tools, Magic Mask, MultiMaster, do require Studio, and it's a reasonable first guess that a changed workflow might be a licensing thing too. It isn't, in this case. If your retime curve isn't showing and you're on the free version, that's not why. The cause is one of the location or display issues covered above, the same for every Resolve user regardless of license.

Are Fusion retime curves the same as Edit page retime curves?

No, and this is a separate source of confusion worth ruling out if you're bouncing between pages on the same project. Fusion has always kept its own animation curve system, built around Fusion's node graph and its own Spline editor, independent from the Edit page's clip-level Retime Controls entirely.

If you've applied a speed change inside a Fusion composition, using a Time Speed node or a similar tool rather than the Edit page's Retime Controls, you won't find that curve in the Edit page's Keyframes panel at all. It lives in Fusion's own Spline editor, opened from within the Fusion page itself, and it uses Fusion's animation curve conventions rather than the Edit page's Bezier retime system covered throughout this guide.

Version 21 narrowed this gap in one specific direction: Fusion effects applied to a clip on the Edit page, per Blackmagic's What's New page, can now animate directly inside the Edit page's Keyframes and Curves editor, which closes a workflow gap that used to send editors bouncing between pages just to nudge a single Fusion parameter. Retime speed itself, though, stays an Edit page concept. Fusion's own internal speed changes still belong to Fusion's Spline editor, not the panel this guide covers.

If your specific confusion is a title template or a Fusion composition behaving unexpectedly after the version 21 update, rather than clip retime speed, our guide to Fusion title templates not working covers that separate set of causes.

What does a full worked example look like?

Put the pieces together on a realistic case: an editor cutting a highlight reel, wanting a clip to ease from full speed into a slow-motion hold on the key moment, then ease back to full speed, using DaVinci Resolve 21.0.1 on a Mac.

The complaint, as originally reported: right-clicking the clip shows no retime curve option anywhere, and the small arrow that used to expand one below the clip is nowhere in the menu.

Working through the causes in order: first, confirm Retime Controls is on for this specific clip. It wasn't. A single Ctrl+R turns on the speed bar above the clip immediately, which alone resolves the "there's no curve option at all" complaint, because the option was never missing, it just required a step that changed location in version 20 and was never reintroduced as a right-click menu item the way it used to be.

Second, add three speed points: one at the clip's start held at 100%, one at the key moment dropped to 20%, and one at the clip's end back at 100%. With Retime Controls active and speed points defined, the Curve button appears at the far right of the clip's name bar within the same second, exactly as documented.

Third, click that Curve button. The Keyframes panel opens, but the resulting curve looks jagged between the second and third points rather than smoothly eased, with visible stair-stepping instead of a clean Bezier bend. Checking DaVinci Resolve > About DaVinci Resolve shows build 21.0.1, one version behind the 21.0.2 release that specifically targeted retime curve display. Updating to 21.0.2 through Blackmagic's downloader and reopening the same project resolves the jagged rendering completely, with no change made to the actual speed point values, confirming the earlier display was a rendering bug rather than a data problem.

Total time from "the curve is gone" to a clean, working speed ramp: under five minutes, and the fix required zero changes to the edit itself, just turning on a control that had moved and updating one point release.

Does the platform matter? Mac vs Windows

Barely, and only in one place. Retime Controls, the Keyframes panel, and the retime curve itself behave identically on Mac and Windows, since this is core Edit page functionality rather than anything tied to GPU acceleration, OS-level rendering, or platform-specific drivers.

The one difference worth naming is the keyboard shortcut itself: Cmd+R on Mac, Ctrl+R on Windows, following DaVinci Resolve's usual Command-to-Control mapping convention across the whole application. Mixing that up, typing Ctrl+R out of habit on a Mac or the reverse on Windows, is an easy slip if you edit on both platforms regularly, and it produces exactly the "nothing happens when I try to turn on Retime Controls" symptom that leads people back to this page.

Beyond that shortcut, there's no meaningful platform delta here. If you're seeing a flat or jagged curve on Windows and a clean one on an identical Mac install, both on the same DaVinci Resolve build, that points at a corrupted preferences file or a UI layout issue rather than a genuine platform difference, and it's worth trying a UI layout reset from the Workspace menu before assuming the platforms behave differently by design.

What if the panel is too small to read the curve properly?

A separate, purely cosmetic cause worth ruling out before you assume anything is actually broken: the default Keyframes panel, docked at the bottom of the Edit page alongside the timeline, is often too short to show a subtle curve shape clearly, especially one with a narrow speed range like 90% to 110%.

Two fixes, and they solve different versions of the same complaint:

Drag the panel taller. The boundary between the Keyframes panel and whatever sits above it, usually the timeline, is draggable. Pulling it up gives the curve more vertical room to draw in, which alone resolves a curve that looks flattened purely because it's been squeezed into forty pixels of height.

Undock the panel into its own floating window. Per Blackmagic's own feature notes, version 21 added the ability to "open keyframes and spline as a new window," which gives you a full-size, independently resizable view completely separate from the constraints of the docked Edit page layout. This is worth doing by default if you regularly work with speed ramps, since a curve you can actually see clearly is a curve you can shape accurately, and eyeballing subtle Bezier handle adjustments in a cramped strip invites mistakes you won't notice until you play the timeline back.

Combine an undocked window with Normalized Zoom mode, covered earlier, for the clearest possible view of a subtle retime curve: the undocked window solves for screen space, Normalized Zoom solves for value range, and together they handle the two most common reasons a technically-correct curve still looks unreadable.

Can you get the old retime curve back by downgrading?

Not realistically, and not cleanly even if you tried. Two separate problems stand in the way.

First, DaVinci Resolve doesn't officially support opening a project in an older version once it's been touched by a newer one. Project files aren't guaranteed to remain compatible backward, and forcing the issue risks losing edits or corrupting the project database entirely. If your project has already been opened in 21, treat downgrading it as a real risk to your work, not a routine option.

Second, and more directly relevant to this specific complaint: downgrading to version 20 wouldn't actually restore what you're picturing. Version 20 already moved retime editing into the Keyframes panel, the forum thread titled "bring back the Retiming Curve" and a related one, "Please Bring Back Retime Curve option", both date from right around that version 20 transition, which tells you the relocation, not just the later Bezier overhaul, is what generated the original wave of complaints. Only versions before 20 had the old under-clip inline curve, and going back that far isn't a realistic move for an active project on modern hardware and camera formats.

The honest fix is learning the new location, not chasing the old one. A Blackmagic forum thread requesting the option to use the retime curve at clip level is exactly the kind of feature request worth adding your voice to if you want the old inline option back as a choice, but treat that as a long-term ask to Blackmagic, not something to solve today by downgrading software.

What's the fastest thing to try first?

Work through these in order before assuming anything is actually broken:

1. Confirm Retime Controls is turned on for the specific clip you're troubleshooting: Ctrl+R (Windows) or Cmd+R (Mac).
2. Add a second speed point if you only have one; a single point produces a flat line by design, not a bug.
3. Look at the far right of the clip's name bar for the Curve button, and click it, or use Clip > Show Keyframe Editor.
4. Make sure you're on the curve/spline view inside the Keyframes panel, not the flat dot-track view.
5. Check DaVinci Resolve > About DaVinci Resolve (Mac) or Help > About DaVinci Resolve (Windows), and update to 21.0.2 or later if you're behind.
6. Drag the Keyframes panel taller, or undock it into its own window, if the curve renders but looks cramped or unclear.
7. Rule out Fusion's separate Spline editor if the speed change you're chasing was actually applied inside a Fusion composition, not the Edit page.

If you're wading through preference menus and panel toggles you've never needed before and would rather someone just point at the exact button on your own screen, that's the specific gap TryUncle is built to close. TryUncle is an AI tutor for DaVinci Resolve on macOS. Ask in plain words and Uncle points at the exact control on your screen, instead of leaving you to match a forum screenshot from a different Resolve version against your own timeline.

Most people land on step one or step two. The retime curve isn't broken, and it isn't gone. It's sitting exactly where DaVinci Resolve 20 put it and where 21 refined it, one panel over from where your muscle memory keeps looking. Turn on Retime Controls, give it two points to draw between, and the curve you were sure had disappeared shows up right where it's supposed to be.