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mattc23387537
Participant
April 25, 2022
Answered

Failed to save - "Can't serialize empty surface"

  • April 25, 2022
  • 6 replies
  • 40217 views

I just wanted to post my solution to this error that was preventing me from saving in Substance 3D Painter 7.4.3. I had seen several posts saying this is caused by having lost/unallocated textures in the file, but I did not have any. What solved the issue was deleting the default "Layer 1" paint layers that Painter automatically adds to each texture set. I imagine any empty layer could cause this error. It seems incredibly neglectfull that the file defualts that ship with a software are completely preventing user files to be saved in some cases. 

Filing a bug report for this as well, but figured it would be useful as a topic here in the meantime.

    Correct answer Arun26403789utah

    Use this Go to

    File > Clean then save.

    It's worked for me.

    6 replies

    leag16672592
    leag16672592
    Participant
    July 10, 2025

    Had this proplem, coudn't save and I tried everything in this tread...

    It was because of an alpha that has been renamed and substance couldn't reload it and so, save.

    So check if you renamed a texture or alpha, give it the previous name and save, it worked for me.

    A
    Archzee292381558g0v
    Participant
    September 1, 2023

    "Removing unused resources" didn't work for me. I worked with one map fixing it with Photoshop then reloading to Substance. The problem solved when I resaved it with Photoshop in different file, deleted that broken one in Substance and loaded the new file.

      S
      Silent5EF3
      Participating Frequently
      October 25, 2023

      I have the probleme too. "Remove unused resources" does not fix it. It seems the problem happens because a previous failure of loading a new alpha. I got the alpha with a beautiful red cross instead of the preview. The alpha is valid.

      Cyril Dellenbach
      Community Manager
      Cyril DellenbachCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      October 25, 2023

      This issue is very probably due to the corrupted ressource. Delete the ressource, try to save and let me know if it helps.

       

      Cyril Dellenbach (Micro) | QA Support Artist | Adobe
      A
      Arun26403789utahCorrect answer
      Participant
      November 23, 2022

      Use this Go to

      File > Clean then save.

      It's worked for me.

        C
        camiloleon98
        Participant
        January 24, 2023

        It´s happened to me too, but cleaning the scene worked perfectly, thank you so much

        GeoffroySC
        Community Manager
        GeoffroySCCommunity Manager
        Community Manager
        January 25, 2023

        This usually happens with corrupted bakes, invalid paths to imported assets, and other similar issues: the "clean" option is here to solve that sort of issue. 

          S
          Siddharth25029495ccqj
          Participant
          November 11, 2022

          Na nothing is working..there's no default layers, cleared extra resources, still giving error [ResourceImage] Can't serialize empty surface

            J
            jessicac55850492
            Participant
            October 26, 2022

            I was just having this issue. Mine was caused by an imported texture. Not sure why there was a problem at all, as I've done this many times before, but I created an ID map outside of substance and imported it to my project. All my other maps were baked in Substance. Once I removed the file from my project completely (cleared from baked maps and cleaned my file), I was able to save again. I tried reimporting the file again to see if it would work, but had the same issue. So, ended up unable to use my id map. 

              T
              Toño5C52
              Participant
              October 4, 2022

              It didn't work for me deleting the layers created by default by substance but I opened the error log and right clicked + clear and it let me save. It also makes a lot of sense...

                H
                Hannibal27299630477m
                Participant
                November 25, 2022

                it didnt make sense to me when you just have to clear the error log but it works for me man. Thank you !

                 

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