I have this strange playback issue where if I press the Play button, the playhead doesn't move and the video doesn't play. It's only when I move the playhead itself or when I click inside the playhead area in the timeline that the playhead starts moving and the video plays. This issue happens after starting and stopping the playback the first time.

Is this intentional? Because I tried to search elsewhere if anyone has this issue, but no one seems to have that issue. I'm using Windows 10, and the video I'm playing is .mov. This issue happens in playback in both clip and project monitors.

If this isn't clear, I will record a video of it to show this.

Known issue with Windows version only. It works with the first time/click only. Even JKL keys works not on Kdenlive Windows.

More see here: viewtopic.php?f=265&t=142632
Or here: viewtopic.php?f=265&t=152364#p398558

Workaround: as you described or hold down right/left arrow key for forward/backward playing