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affinity designer export not working

HeyBraza watches the export stall, narrows it to the layer or setting causing it, and points right at the fix.

an affinity designer export that hangs, fails, or quietly produces nothing is almost always one bad layer or one wrong setting - not a broken app. it shows up most on big files with lots of effects. here's how to find which layer or option is jamming it.

or do it yourself

  1. 1try a smaller piece first - export a single artboard or a selection; if that works, a specific layer in the full file is the problem.
  2. 2hide layers in groups until the export succeeds, then re-show them to find the one (often a heavy live effect, big placed image, or blend) that breaks it.
  3. 3for that layer, rasterise it (right-click > rasterise) so the exporter doesn't choke on the live effect.
  4. 4check your export area and dpi - an enormous dimension or extreme dpi can run the file out of memory and time out.
  5. 5save as a fresh .afdesign copy and reopen, or restart affinity, then export again - a long editing session can leave it in a stuck state.

let HeyBraza do this with you

HeyBraza is a tiny on-screen guide that points at the right buttons and talks you through it, on windows and mac.

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common questions

why does export fail only on big files?

large documents with live effects or huge placed images can exhaust memory mid-export - rasterising the heavy layers and lowering the export size usually fixes it.

export button does nothing - what now?

an unfinished placed image or a corrupt layer can block it; re-place the image, rasterise suspect layers, then retry.

more fixes