Procreate is a popular drawing app. Many artists like to draw in Procreate because it’s easy to use, and they want to draw wherever they want with their iPads.

But sometimes, when you’re concentrating on drawing in Procreate, Procreate suddenly stops and crashes. 

It’s annoying, right? You’re not alone. I have been drawing in Procreate for over a year. Sometimes, I face these sudden crashes that disrupt my art workflow.

The reasons for Procreate’s crashes can be different. It might be outdated software or even a large canvas size that strains the iPad’s memory.

In this guide, we’ll share a step-by-step guide to fix Procreate’s frequent crashes on your iPad.

Key Takeaways

• After your Procreate crashes, close all apps and restart your iPad
• Use a smaller canvas size and fewer layers while drawing in Procreate
• Update iPadOS and Procreate to the latest version to reduce the chance of Procreate crashing while drawing on your iPad

Why Does Procreate Keep Crashing?

The main reason why Procreate keeps crashing on your iPad is that you have insufficient memory due to using too many layers and drawing on a large canvas.

Other factors include:

• Opening too many apps at the same time
• Low battery level on your iPad
• Outdated iPadOS version
• Software bugs

How to Fix Procreate Keep Crashing 

Solution 1: Restart Your iPad

We recommend restarting your iPad every time you face a random issue in Procreate. Restarting your iPad will delete temporary cache and data that cause Procreate frequent crashes.

To restart your iPad, Open Settings, tap the General menu, and choose Shutdown. 

Slide the Shutdown popup that appears to confirm the restart option.

Solution 2: Update Procreate

Updating Procreate can prevent crashes. A new version of Procreate could fix bugs and compatibility issues that cause your iPad to crash.

To update Procreate to the latest version, follow these steps:

Step 1: Open the App Store

Step 2: In the search bar, type “Procreate“

Step 3: Open the Procreate app store page and tap the update button

Step 4: Wait until Procreate finishes updating

Step 5: Restart your iPad

Step 6: Try to draw in Procreate and test whether your iPad still crashes or not

Solution 3: Close the Unused Apps

Procreate crashing can be caused by opening too many apps simultaneously while drawing on your iPad. 

If the iPad runs too many apps, these apps will compete for memory and CPU resources with Procreate.

One sign you open too many apps is that your iPad is overheating. The solution is to close the unused apps that consume the background memory.

To close unused apps on your iPad, follow these steps:

1. From the Home Screen, swipe up from the bottom of the screen 
2. Swipe up on each unused app to close it
3. Tap anywhere on the iPad to exit the iPad’s app switchers

Note: For iPad with a home button, you can double click it to open the iPad’s app switchers

Solution 4: Reduce the Canvas Size And The Number of Layers in Procreate

Usually, for my art project, I draw on a canvas size of 2560×1440 px and 4800×3600 px. I never draw on canvas size above 8000px resolution because Procreate is starting to feel laggy based on my experience.

If you draw on a large canvas size in Procreate, the canvas will consume excessive RAM on your iPad.

Higher canvas size means more brush strokes, which strain your iPad’s processor and memory.

Creating a new canvas

To create a new canvas with a small canvas size, tap the + symbol on the top right corner of the Procreate Gallery.

Select a small canvas size, such as the Square option, which gives you a 2048 x 2048px option. 

If you want a custom canvas size, tap the new canvas at the top right and type your preferred Width, Height, DPI, and maximum layers.

This is my recommended canvas setting for Procreate users.

Setting	Value
Width	2560px
Height	1440px
DPI	72
Maximum layers	50

Tap the Create button when you’re done.

For more information about the best canvas size, check out these guides:

• What is DPI and Which is Better: 72 DPI or 300 DPI
• Best Canvas Size and Resolution for Digital Art

Adjusting the current canvas size

You can reduce the current size of the canvas by tapping the Actions tool (wrench icon) and tapping on the Canvas menu. Tap the Crop & Resize option.

Tap Settings, then adjust the width and height value for the current canvas.

Adjust the number of layers

Layers are also important in Procreate. I only use up to 15 layers in my art project. But I know someone who draws with over 100 layers on their canvas.

Sometimes, having too many layers can cause the app to crash. Delete or merge the layers to reduce the number of layers in Procreate.

• To merge a layer, long tap a layer and tap Merge Down to combine them
• To delete a layer, long tap a layer and select Clear layer. The chosen layer will be empty. You can tap the merge to bottom layer option to achieve the effect of deleting a layer in Procreate.

Solution 5: Freeing up Device Storage

Procreate utilizes your iPad memory and storage to save your art project’s temporary cache and data before it’s saved. 

If there is insufficient storage on your iPad, it can affect the app’s performance.

Why?

Because it can only rely on the device memory (which, to be honest, most budget iPads lack unless you have an iPad Air and iPad Pro)

To free up your iPad storage, you can rely on App Cleaner. You can install App Cleaner from the App Store.

The alternative solution is to delete large files on your iPad manually.

Note: If you don’t want to delete your files, you can backup your files to iCloud before deleting them on your iPad

Solution 6: Disconnect your Bluetooth Keyboard

Some users are reporting issues in Procreate when their iPads are connected with a Bluetooth keyboard. 

I’m not an expert on this topic, but your app crash issue could be caused by interference between Bluetooth signals, a power distribution issue while the Bluetooth devices are connected, or a rare software glitch.

Try to disconnect your Bluetooth keyboard and then restart your iPad. Try to draw in Procreate and check if the issue persists.

How to Draw a Shark 🦈

Solution 7: Don’t use Procreate while charging

It’s not a good idea to draw in Procreate while your iPad still charges. Your iPad will overheat because it needs to run the Procreate app while simultaneously charging. 

Overheat will crash the app on your iPad. Not only that, but a sudden power surge can affect app performance.

Try to draw in Procreate while the battery is fully charged.

If solutions 1 to 7 don’t fix the issue, you must resort to a more advanced solution for your iPad.

Solution 8: Try Alternative software

To determine if the issue lies with Procreate or your iPad, you must do a short test with another drawing app.

Try to install a free alternative drawing app like Adobe Fresco, Sketchbook, and Concept from the app store.

Test the issue by creating a new canvas, and try to draw for an extended time. If you don’t encounter any crashes, then the issue is caused by Procreate-specific bugs that are not present in other apps.

But, after trying 2-3 drawing apps and all of them crashes, the issue is in your iPad.

Try to follow this guide to troubleshoot Apple Pencil-related issues: https://artworkpath.com/fix-apple-pencil-not-drawing-in-procreate/

Solution 9: Reset Procreate settings

If the crashing issue is only present in Procreate, you need to try resetting the Procreate settings. Resetting procreate settings can help solve misconfigured and conflicted settings that may cause app instability.

Resetting the setting will revert all settings you created in Procreate to the default settings. Follow these steps:

Step 1: Open Procreate

Step 2: Tap Action menu (wrench icon) > Select Prefs > Gesture Control

Step 3: Tap General > Reset to default

Solution 10: Update iPadOS

Bugs in older iPadOS versions can cause Procreate to frequent crashes. Updating your iPad to the latest iPadOS version can fix this issue.

To update your iPad: 

Step 1: Open the iPad Settings

Step 2: Navigate to General and tap the Software update option

Step 3: If an update is available, tap the Download and Install option

Step 4: Wait until the update is finished. 

Step 5: Restart your iPad to apply the update

Enabling the Automatic Updates option will make sure your device always stays updated.

Solution 11: Reinstall Procreate

After doing all the troubleshooting methods, then the last option is to reinstall Procreate. 

Why is reinstalling Procreate the last solution you need to consider? Because you will lose all of your content (custom brushes, palettes, and settings)

To reinstall Procreate, follow these steps:

Step 1: Backup your Procreate gallery data to iCloud

Step 2: Close all apps

Step 3: Long press/tap on the Procreate app icon until a menu appears.

Step 4: Select the Remove App option to delete Procreate from your iPad.

Step 5: Restart your iPad.

Step 6: Open App Store

Step 7: Download and install Procreate again

Now that you have reinstalled Procreate, try to learn tips and tricks for using an iPad for drawing to maximize your app’s usage.

Wrapping Up

It’s frustrating when the Procreate app suddenly crashes while you’re concentrating on drawing. 

We hope our guide can help you identify and resolve the issues causing your Procreate app to crash so you can continue to draw peacefully.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us by leaving a comment.