Export is stuck or taking too long

When you export a project, PublishFi renders your video on its servers and prepares it for download. Rendering is a compute-intensive process, and depending on your project's length, complexity, and number of output formats, it can take anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes. Before concluding that something is wrong, it helps to understand what you are looking at.

Read the progress bar and ETA

While rendering, each clip on the project page shows a progress bar with a live percentage. Alongside the percentage you will see an estimated time remaining — for example, "~3 min left" or "Almost done" when fewer than 30 seconds remain.

The ETA is calculated in real time as the render progresses, so it will shift as the system works through different stages of your video. This is normal. As long as the percentage is climbing, the render is active and working.

Longer or more complex projects take more time

Render time scales with project complexity. Factors that extend it include:

• Long clips or a high number of timeline segments
• Projects that export to multiple platform formats simultaneously — each format is rendered as a separate pass
• High-resolution output settings

This is expected behavior. Give the export adequate time before taking action.

Do not close the tab during rendering

Once you start an export, rendering continues on PublishFi's servers even if you close the browser tab. However, closing the tab means you will miss the automatic download that triggers when the render completes. Keep the tab open so the download starts as soon as your file is ready.

If you accidentally closed the tab, return to the project page — the render may still be in progress or already complete, with the option to download the file from there.

If the render appears genuinely stuck

A render is likely stuck — rather than just slow — if:

• The progress percentage has not moved at all for more than 10 minutes.
• The ETA display has stopped updating entirely.

If you suspect this:

1. Refresh the page and check whether the progress resumes.
2. If the render still shows no movement after a few more minutes, contact PublishFi support with your project name and the approximate time the export started.

Tip: If you need the file quickly and are willing to accept a smaller output, check whether a lower-resolution option is available in the export settings. Reducing the resolution shortens render time meaningfully for long videos.