How to Lock a Composition to a Track in Kdenlive

In Kdenlive, compositions and transitions can sometimes shift positions or change their target tracks during timeline edits. This article provides a quick, step-by-step guide on how to bind a composition to a specific video track and lock its timeline position using track locking and grouping tools to ensure your edits remain intact.

Step 1: Bind the Composition to a Specific Track

By default, Kdenlive often sets compositions to “Auto,” meaning they will automatically composite with whatever track is directly below them. To lock a composition to a specific video track:

  1. Click on the composition (the purple or yellow transition block on your timeline) to select it.
  2. Look at the Properties stack (usually in the top-right or top-left area of the interface).
  3. Find the Track or With track dropdown menu.
  4. Change the setting from Auto to your preferred target track (e.g., Video 1 or Binds to Master). This ensures the composition always references that specific track, regardless of other clips you move around.

Step 2: Group the Composition with its Clip

To prevent the composition from sliding horizontally when you move or trim adjacent clips, you can group it with the video clip it belongs to:

  1. Hold the Shift key and click both the video clip and the composition on the timeline to select them both.
  2. Right-click on either selected item.
  3. Select Group Clips from the context menu (or press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + G / Cmd + G).

Once grouped, moving the video clip will automatically move the composition with it, maintaining their exact relative positions.

Step 3: Lock the Track to Prevent Any Editing

If you are completely finished editing a specific track and want to make sure nothing on it moves, you can lock the entire track:

  1. Go to the track header on the left side of the timeline (where the track name like V2 or V1 is displayed).
  2. Click the Padlock icon.

When the padlock icon is closed, the track is locked. No clips or compositions on that track can be moved, deleted, or altered until you click the padlock icon again to unlock it.