Custom tool equip animation works in Roblox Studio but can fail in Live Server

[lost crystal]

I'm having an issue where an animation appears to play (AnimationTrack.IsPlaying returns true), but there's no visible movement on the character.

This only happens in the live game (real experience) — it works perfectly in Roblox Studio.

I'm using a custom setup where a Motor6D named "QToolGrip" is added to the character's Right Arm on spawn, and Part1 is set to a BodyAttach part inside the equipped Tool. Both the server and the client perform this setup.

I've confirmed that ToolGrip.Part1 is correctly assigned before playing the animation, and I’ve also tried waiting before triggering the animation. Despite this, the animation still doesn’t visually play, even though the console confirms it’s "playing." I've ensured that the rig type matches (R6), and the animation works in Studio previews.

Any ideas on what could be causing this in live games only?

All other functions of the framework work perfectly and there's no errors in both the studio and the live server's console. The bug never happens in studio, and happens by chance in live.

This is my first time animating, so I followed this guide to help me animate with a tool.

These are the relevant scripts:

Serverscript:

game.Players.PlayerAdded:Connect(function(plr)            
    plr.CharacterAdded:Connect(function(char)
        local M6D = Instance.new("Motor6D")
        M6D.Name = "QToolGrip"
        M6D.Part0 = char:FindFirstChild("Right Arm")
        M6D.Parent = char:FindFirstChild("Right Arm")

        char.ChildAdded:Connect(function(child)
            if child:IsA("Tool") and child:FindFirstChild("BodyAttach") then
                M6D.Part1 = child.BodyAttach
            end
        end)
    end)
end)

Localscript:

    local function onEquip(mouse)
        equipped = true
        showTool(false)
        if not hasPreloaded then
            preloadAssets()
            hasPreloaded = true
        end
        
        storedMouse = mouse
        mouse.Icon = customCursor
        playSound(BodyAttach.Equip)
        showTool(true)
        
        local humanoid = localPlayer.Character:FindFirstChild("Humanoid")
        setStance("equip", 16)
        
        bindActions()
        
        setButton1Connections(mouse)
    end

    local function setStance(type, walkSpeed)
        local humanoid = localPlayer.Character:FindFirstChild("Humanoid")
        
        stance = type
        
        stopAllAnims()
        
        if humanoid:FindFirstChild("GeneralStance").Value == "idle" then
            humanoid.WalkSpeed = walkSpeed
        end
        animTracks[type]:Play()
        task.wait()
        
        if animTracks[type].IsPlaying then
            print("Animation", type, "is playing")
        else
            warn("Animation", type, "failed to play")
        end
    end

[plucky merlin]

are you publishing the game in a group?

if so you need to publish the animations in the group too

basically you need to publish animations according to the game's publisher

[lost crystal]

Yes, but currently in my test game (the one in the video), I have it and my animation set as me as the creator, so it should still be valid. But it still happens in my test game

[jaunty canyon]

** You are now Level 1! **

[plucky merlin]

any errors in live game? like missing animations

[lost crystal]

Plus, if the experience didn't have access to the animation, I would be able to see it as an error in the console. But in my case, there's no error, and when I checked the .IsPlaying boolean, it says it is.

        if animTracks[type].IsPlaying then
            print("Animation", type, "is playing")
        else
            warn("Animation", type, "failed to play")
        end

[lost crystal]

Nope, none at all. This has had me stumped the whole day and yesterday

[plucky merlin]

maybe change the variable "type" name to something like "animationType" just to prevent conflicts with Lua's built-in type() function.

I'm just as confused as you are, my only real solution is to publish the animations as the game publisher but you've already done that

[lost crystal]

Yea sure, not a fix but a definite improvement. Thanks

[lost crystal]

Up

[ionic wave]

if i had to guess your animation just isnt fully uploaded to roblox yet, or its not uploaded under the games publisher

[lost crystal]

Hmm, what do you mean by isn't fully uploaded yet? And yes, it is uploaded under the game's same publisher, my account. Not in any group at all

[ionic wave]

if it works in studio but not in game it might still be going through Roblox’s moderation process

if not then I don’t know

[lost crystal]

Well I doubt that's the case, I uploaded the anims almost a week ago. Plus it just sometimes works. It has a chance of failing/succeeding every respawn in live, but would always work in studio

[lost crystal]

Up up