Blender: show all keyframes in timeline, Dope Sheet and Graph Editor, then edit them

You animated three objects, clicked one of them, and the Timeline now shows a single row of diamonds. The other keys still exist: Blender filters keyframes by selection. This guide turns that filter off, then covers inserting, finding and editing every key, with the menu names of Blender 5.2.

How to insert a keyframe in Blender

Select an object in Object Mode, or bones in Pose Mode, set the playhead on the right frame, hover over the 3D Viewport and press I. With no Keying Set active, Blender keys the channels listed under Default Key Channels in Edit > Preferences > Animation. With default settings, a selected object gets its location, rotation and scale recorded. The same command is in Object > Animation > Insert Keyframe, or Pose > Animation in Pose Mode.

• Hover over a property, in the Properties editor or the Sidebar, and press I to key that property only. Right-clicking it offers Insert Keyframes, and Insert Single Keyframe for one value such as Location X.
• K opens Insert Keyframe with Keying Set, a menu of the available Keying Sets.
• With Pie Menu on Drag enabled in the Keymap preferences, holding I and moving the mouse opens a pie menu with Location, Rotation, Scale and Available.

The round record button in the Timeline header is Auto Keying. While it is on, every move, rotation or scale of an object or bone inserts a key on the current frame. Any other property, such as a material color, needs its first key by hand. Its menu offers Add & Replace or Replace, which only updates existing keys. When the current frame holds a key for the active object, the object name in the top left corner of the 3D Viewport turns yellow.

Why the Timeline only shows some keyframes

The manual states it plainly: by default, the Timeline only shows keyframes for selected items, whether objects, bones or nodes. Select a single cube and you only see the cube's keys.

Show all keyframes in the Timeline

1. Open the View menu in the Timeline header.
2. Uncheck Only Show Selected. The keys of every visible animated object appear, whatever is selected.
3. In the same menu, check that Only Show Errors is off. When it is on, the Timeline only lists curves and drivers that are disabled or have errors, and looks almost empty.

In Blender 5.2 this Only Show Selected is stored on the scene, so every Timeline of that scene follows it. Since Blender 5.0, the Timeline also hides its Channels region by default. Turn on View > Channels to see the tree of objects and properties, then expand the Summary row at the top to get one row per object.

Two limits remain. With Only Show Selected on, material keyframes only show for the nodes selected in the Shader Editor. And the Timeline never lists objects hidden in the viewport. For those, use the Dope Sheet.

See every keyframe in the Dope Sheet

The Dope Sheet gives an overview of all the keys in the scene, one row per animated property. In Blender 5.2 the Timeline is in fact a simplified sub-type of the Dope Sheet editor, and the Dope Sheet exposes the full set of filters. Its header carries three toggles:

• Only Show Selected: turn it off to list every animated object.
• Show Hidden: includes objects and bones that are not visible, for example because their collection is hidden.
• Only Show Errors: leave it off unless you are debugging a broken curve or driver.

The funnel button opens the Filters popover. Its Summary option toggles the row at the top that shows the union of all keyframes across all channels: click a diamond on that row and you select every key on that frame, so a whole pose moves as one. The popover also holds the name search, a Filtering Collection that limits the display to one collection, and Filter by Type. If keys are missing from the Dope Sheet, clear these first.

The mode menu at the top left switches to the Action Editor, which focuses on a single action. Ctrl+Tab toggles the area to the Graph Editor.

See and edit keyframes in the Graph Editor

The Graph Editor draws each animated property as a curve, with time on the horizontal axis and value on the vertical axis. Here, Only Show Selected is on by default, with the same toggle in the header. Press Home (View > Frame All) to fit every key on screen, or Numpad . to frame the selected ones.

A curve can also be hidden on purpose: H hides the selected curves, Shift+H the others, and Alt+H (Reveal Curves) brings them all back. To jump straight to one property, right-click it in the Properties editor and choose View in Graph Editor.

Select, move, copy and delete keyframes

In the Timeline, click a key to select it, Shift+click to add to the selection, or drag a box. Drag a key, or press G, to move the selection, and S to scale it relative to the playhead. For anything more, work in the Dope Sheet:

• A selects all, Alt+A deselects, B box selects, and a double-click on a channel name selects all its keys.
• K selects every key on the same frames as the selected ones, Ctrl+K every key on the current frame, [ and ] the keys before or after it.
• G moves keys in time. S scales them around the playhead, which speeds up or slows down an action; in the Dope Sheet it never changes their values.
• Shift+D duplicates. Ctrl+C copies, and Ctrl+V pastes into the selected channels starting at the current frame. Shift+Ctrl+V pastes flipped, swapping left and right bones. The Adjust Last Operation panel then sets the offset and whether existing keys are overwritten.
• X (then Delete Keyframes) or Delete deletes the selected keys. In the 3D Viewport, Alt+I removes the keys of the selected objects on the current frame, and Object > Animation > Clear Keyframes removes all of them.

Up and Down jump the playhead to the previous or next keyframe. If keys ended up between two frames, Key > Snap (Shift+S) > Selection to Nearest Frame puts them back on whole frames.

Interpolation and easing

Interpolation decides how a value travels from one key to the next. Select keys and press T (Key > Interpolation Mode):

• Constant holds the value until the next key. Animators use it for blocking.
• Linear goes in a straight line: no jump in value, but abrupt changes of speed.
• Bézier, the default, is smooth in both value and speed, shaped by handles.
• The Easing (by strength) group, from Sinusoidal to Circular, and the Dynamic Effects group: Back, Bounce and Elastic.

For the Easing and Dynamic Effects types, Ctrl+E sets the direction: Ease In accelerates, Ease Out decelerates, Ease In and Out does both. The menu is called Easing Mode in the Dope Sheet and Easing Type in the Graph Editor. V sets the Bézier handle type, Auto Clamped by default. In the Dope Sheet, the key shape shows that handle type and a colored line marks a segment that is not Bézier. For exact numbers, open the Sidebar (N) of the Graph Editor, F-Curve tab, Active Keyframe panel.

Keyframes you cannot see: common causes

• The object is not selected. Uncheck Only Show Selected in the Timeline View menu, or in the Dope Sheet or Graph Editor header.
• The object or its collection is hidden. The Timeline skips it. In the Dope Sheet, enable Show Hidden, or unhide it in the Outliner.
• The keys are on a material. Select the node in the Shader Editor, or turn Only Show Selected off.
• The keys live in another action slot. Since Blender 4.4, an action stores its animation in slots, and an object only plays the slot assigned to it. Check the Action and Slot fields in the Animation panel of Object Properties. In the Action Editor, turn off Only Show Slot of Active Object to list every slot of the action.
• Curves were hidden in the Graph Editor. Press Alt+H.
• A filter was left on. Only Show Errors, a search term or a Filtering Collection can hide most channels.

What next

The Blender animation guide covers the whole workflow from the first key, and the Pose Mode guide explains how to pose a rig before you key it. To put these tools to work on a loop, follow the walk cycle guide. When the animation is ready, see how to render an animation in Blender.