While Runway aims to make filmmaking accessible and possible for all, the processes that package your browser-edited clips and content into a single downloadable file are highly technical and involve many moving pieces behind the scenes. As a result, video project exports will occasionally fail or halt (at 0% or another value).
As each project involves a different variation of content and clips supplied by the user, most export failures are specific to your provided files, and thus require individualized troubleshooting. Follow the below steps to try and get your export moving again.
1. Make sure that Runway is not experiencing a service outage
Head to our official status page and scroll down to "Video Exports". If this system's status is anything other than "operational", our engineers are actively working on getting the export function fixed. Just check back later and re-start your exports then.
2. If you're experiencing a halt, don't try to terminate the export process
Once you begin an export, you cannot cancel it — instead, you must wait for it to fail or complete. Try to give your export at least an hour to keep progressing: your export may be continuing to process, and the "percent completed" value just may not be accurately updating in live time. A seemingly "halted" export will not block you from initiating additional exports of the same project, as all exports process independently of one another.
If your export completes, no need to proceed with further troubleshooting. If your export fails or stays halted for over an hour, you can continue by initiating new exports of the project.
3. Check that none of the project's files have been deleted from your assets folder, or moved to different folders within your assets
Moving or deleting your assets can make the Runway video editor unable to find and encode your selected clips during the export process. If you know you did some file re-organization in your assets between editing sessions, re-uploading and re-inserting clips to assure that the export function can find them can sometimes clear an export failure.
4. Check for any non-ASCII characters anywhere in the project
Use of characters outside of the original 128 ASCII characters (such as uncommon accenting, "font characters" 𝕝𝕚𝕜𝕖 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 or 𝓵𝓲𝓴𝓮 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼, unicode symbols, or other abnormal characters) anywhere in the file (including in text layers, subtitles, file names, and the project name itself) will often cause your export to halt or fail. Try to replace all of these with more standard characters.
5. Make sure your project is, in its entirety, smaller than 35 GB
The Runway export function is able to encode project files up to 35 GB total. This means that any given single video editor project will fail if the total of its assets amount to a clip over 35 GB in size. While we do not currently provide an in-product view of how memory-intensive your project is, if you know you're working with a lot of large files (such as 4k clips) or a particularly long project (over 10 minutes), you may be hitting the memory cap. To fix this, try:
- Opting for a smaller output resolution of your clip
- Splitting the project up between two separate (shorter) projects, exporting them separately, then re-attaching the halves on your local device
6. Check that every single part of your project has media (clips and images) covering the entirety of the preview window
Comb your timeline to make sure no black background is showing in any part of the video. Some examples of this may include:
- Resizing your clips so black bars appear on the sides
- Wanting an "empty black pause" between two clips, and thus leaving space between them
The Runway video editor expects all portions of your clip to contain some sort of visual media, and may halt or fail if there are portions of your project left on the default black background. To fix this, adding a black JPG or PNG of the same pixel resolution as your project to those gaps will cause the export to stop failing.
7. Make sure any audio tracks end when your video and image content ends
Having your audio track extend beyond your visual media at the end of your project is an easy way to hit the same export failure outlined in troubleshooting tip #6. To fix, either trim the audio clip or add a black JPG or PNG that lasts up until the end of your audio track.
8. Try to vertically "compress" your layers as much as possible
Some editors — excited by the freedom that in-app editing presents them — proceed to create projects that have ten or more visual content tracks with huge empty gaps between clips. If your project has a significant number of visual content tracks with significant content gaps, make the export function's life a bit easier by moving as much visual content vertically downward onto the smallest number of tracks.
9. Crop any extremely long or tall projects
While you're allowed to upload clips and create projects of any ratio, projects that are significantly longer than they are tall or significantly taller than they are long (e.g. a very skinny rectangle either vertically or horizontally) often cause the export function to fail. Cropping abnormally sized projects into a more standard aspect ratio will help your export proceed.
10. Try making all clips your target size
If your timeline clips are all of various size, try to crop them all to the size of the export you're aiming for, and re-initate the export.
11. Once your last attempt fails, if you still aren't able to get your project to export, contact us for help
If you complete these troubleshooting steps and are still unable to get your video editor project to export, please submit a support request. An agent will be able to use the data from your last failure to further diagnose and treat your project's export issue. To speed up your request, make sure to state which of these tips you've already tried in your ticket submission.