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

[mattc23387537]

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.

[Toño5C52]

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...

[Hannibal27299630477m]

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

[jessicac55850492]

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. 

[Siddharth25029495ccqj]

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

[Arun26403789utah · Accepted solution]

Use this Go to

File > Clean then save.

It's worked for me.

[camiloleon98]

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

[GeoffroySC]

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.