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___Narv___
Participant
October 13, 2022
Question

Unable to Save Substance Painter Project. Says Generating thumbnails forever

  • October 13, 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 4382 views

I am unable to save my Substance Painter project. It says "[Project management] Save failed - this is unusual, check previous messages for more information"

 

I cant save over the file and I cant save as another file. It runs the message "generating thumbnail(s)" constantly. 

 

Previous message is "[Resources List Model] Icons memory budget set to 100MB."

I have set the local cache budget to 5000 mb so that should not be the problem. I can't find any settings for the Icons memory budget. Is there a way to change the Icons memory budget, and would that help me to be able to save my project file? 

    3 replies

    M
    M38908470il0x
    Participating Frequently
    May 29, 2025

    I started having same issue after update, it's so annoying, my thuiumbails are not loading anymore and cash generation doesn't allow saving.

     

    Why Adobe does this to us, why.

    I'm so frustrated , lost work and time... 

    Cyril Dellenbach
    Community Manager
    Cyril DellenbachCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    June 2, 2025

    Hi @M38908470il0x,

     

    Could you share your log (help > export log…) after the problem occurred?

     

    Let me know.

     

    Cyril Dellenbach (Micro) | QA Support Artist | Adobe
    M
    M38908470il0x
    Participating Frequently
    May 29, 2025

    I started having same issue after update, i'm so annoying, my thuiumbails are not loading anymore and cash generation doesn't allow saving.

     

    I'm so frustrated , lost work and time... 

    S
    Sean27755537zd26
    Participant
    April 27, 2023

    Have you found a solution for this issue? It's become a major problem for me. I regularly lose work and additionally thumbnails won't load.

    Cyril Dellenbach
    Community Manager
    Cyril DellenbachCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    April 27, 2023

    Hi @___Narv___, Hello @Sean27755537zd26,

     

    Sorry for the late answer.

     

    I don't think the Icons memory budget is linked to the issue. Would you mind sharing your log (help > export log…), so I may take a deeper look?

     

    Keep me updated.

     

    Cyril Dellenbach (Micro) | QA Support Artist | Adobe
    S
    Sean27755537zd26
    Participant
    April 27, 2023

    Unfortunately, the log didn't contain the informations about the shelf, probably because it wasn't completely loaded when you exported the file.

     

    Most of the time, shelf's issues are due to a problematic ressource and when the shelf is still loading, Substance 3D Painter isn't able to save the project. I'd advice you to check in your files for the problematic resource.

    You can also wait for the shelf to completely load and then send me your log once again. This way, I'll probably be able to determine what type of resource is causing issues.

     

    You can also try to remove unused resources.

     

     

     

    Keep me updated,

     


    The shelf won't finish loading, I have left it on overnight before hoping it would finish so I didn't lose my save but unfortunately no luck. I have also found and fixed corrupt assets before in the shelf- usually I can tell because the shelf freezes when loading a specific asset, but now it just freezes once I've loaded too many asset previews, no matter which ones.

    I can try looking for corrupt assets again, but I do think it would be useful if painter could prioritize saving over loading thumbnails somehow, as it would at least prevent losing hours of work even if you have to restart your painter file. I'm sure there's some reason for why this happens on a technical level but I still think it's really important!

    Thanks!

    Sean

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