Help with CrowDraw

Getting CrowDraw

CrowDraw is free on the App Store, listed as CrowDraw – Sketch & Paint. It needs an iPad with iPadOS 26 or later.

It's free, with no ads, no in-app purchases, no subscription and no account. It runs on iPad.

I'm drawing but nothing appears

Check these, in this order:

• Is the layer hidden or locked? Open Layers and check the active layer's checkbox and lock.
• Is there a selection? With a selection active, you can only paint inside it. Open Selection and tap Clear.
• Is Alpha Lock on? Then you can only paint where the layer already has paint. Turn it off in the layer's options.
• Are you painting on a mask? If the mask thumbnail is highlighted, your strokes change the mask, not the layer. Tap the layer thumbnail to go back.
• Is it a text layer or a group? You can't paint on those. Pick or add an ordinary layer, or rasterise the text.
• Opacity: check the brush's Opacity slider in the sidebar and the layer's opacity (tap the letter on the layer).
• Are you on Erase or Smudge? Check which tool is highlighted at the top right.

My finger doesn't draw (or my palm leaves marks)

With Finger painting set to Automatic (the default), your finger paints only until you first use Apple Pencil; after that, fingers only zoom, move and use gestures, which stops your palm leaving marks. Choose Always to paint with fingers too, or Pencil only, in Actions › Prefs.

If your finger never paints, even before you use the Pencil, check whether Only Draw with Apple Pencil is on in your iPad's Settings › Apple Pencil: with Automatic, CrowDraw follows it.

My strokes snap to lines or are mirrored

That's drawing assist: with a drawing guide on, strokes on a layer with Drawing assist follow the grid, the perspective lines or the symmetry. It's set per layer. Turn it off in the layer's options (tap the active layer again in Layers), or turn the guide off in Actions › Canvas › Drawing guide. Layers with it on say Assisted in the Layers panel. See drawing assist.

The stroke eraser doesn't remove a stroke

In Strokes mode the eraser removes strokes painted on the active layer only. A fill, an adjustment, Liquify, a transform, a paste, a merge or a canvas change turns the strokes painted on that layer before it into ordinary pixels, and imported images are pixels too: erase those in Pixels mode. Check that you're on the right layer, and that it isn't locked or hidden. See the stroke eraser.

Apple Pencil feels too heavy or too light

Adjust the pressure curve for all brushes in Actions › Prefs › Pressure and smoothing: try the Soft or Firm preset, or drag the curve, and test on the pad there. Each brush also has its own pressure and tilt settings in Brush Studio. See Apple Pencil & preferences.

If the Pencil doesn't draw at all, check that it's charged and connected in your iPad's Settings › Apple Pencil, and try it in another app.

Things keep undoing or going full screen

A two-finger tap undoes and a four-finger tap toggles full screen, and a resting hand can set them off. Turn off any gesture you don't want in Actions › Prefs › Gesture controls. The gestures page lists them all. Undo keeps up to 250 steps while the canvas is open, so you can redo (three-finger tap) anything undone by mistake.

I can't add more layers, or make a bigger canvas

CrowDraw keeps every layer in your iPad's memory so painting stays fast, so the number of layers depends on the canvas size and your iPad: the Layers panel shows the limit for the open canvas (for example 12/40). Merge or delete layers, or make the canvas smaller with Actions › Canvas › Crop & resize.

The largest canvas also depends on your iPad's memory. The New Canvas form shows the limit for your iPad. See the layer limit.

CrowDraw says it couldn't save

CrowDraw saves by itself a couple of seconds after you pause, and at least every 30 seconds while you keep drawing. If a save fails, for example because the iPad is out of storage, it shows Couldn't save with the reason and tries again by itself. Free some space in Settings › General › iPad Storage.

If it can't save when you tap Gallery, the artwork stays open with Couldn't save your changes. Tap Try again once there is space, or Close without saving to close it and lose the changes since the last save. See saving.

How do I back up my artwork or move it to a new iPad?

CrowDraw doesn't sync with iCloud: artworks stay on the iPad you made them on. Your iPad's own backup (iCloud Backup, or a backup to a computer) includes CrowDraw's artwork, and restoring it to a new iPad brings the artwork back.

To keep copies yourself, select artworks in the gallery and share them as CrowDraw files to Files, iCloud Drive or another iPad with AirDrop. They keep every layer and the time-lapse. On the other iPad, open them with CrowDraw or use Import in the gallery.

Deleting CrowDraw deletes the artwork stored in it, and so does resetting your iPad without a backup.

Importing files

• CrowDraw imports PSD and PSB (with layers), PNG, JPEG, HEIC, TIFF, GIF, WebP, BMP and its own .crowdraw files. Use Import in the gallery, drop files on the gallery, or open them in CrowDraw from another app.
• CrowDraw reads the layers of RGB, 8-bit PSDs. Other colour modes and bit depths (CMYK, 16-bit) come in flattened, as a single layer. Re-save the file as RGB, 8 bits per channel and import it again. Adjustment layers have no pixels and are skipped.
• Very large images are scaled down to the largest canvas your iPad allows.
• Brushes import as .crowbrush files and palettes as .swatches files. Brush sets from other apps can't be imported.

Exporting

• For a transparent PNG, untick Background colour at the bottom of the Layers panel before exporting.
• For Photoshop and other apps, export a PSD: layers, groups, masks and blend modes are kept.
• For a backup, export CrowDraw: it's the only format that keeps the time-lapse and opens fully editable in CrowDraw.

More in Export & time-lapse.

My time-lapse is missing or short

CrowDraw only records while Record time-lapse is on in Actions › Video; it's on unless you turned it off, and the setting applies to every canvas. A time-lapse only travels between iPads inside a CrowDraw file, not in PSD or image exports.

CrowDraw crashed or froze

CrowDraw saves a couple of seconds after you pause, and at least every 30 seconds while you keep drawing, so reopen the canvas: usually only the last few seconds of work are lost. The app sends us an anonymous crash report automatically, with no artwork in it (see the privacy policy). If it keeps happening, email us what you were doing and we'll look into it.

Contact us

Email us with:

• the CrowDraw version (Actions › Help shows it);
• your iPad model and iPadOS version;
• which Apple Pencil you use, if it's about drawing;
• what you did, what happened, and what you expected.

A screenshot or screen recording helps. Only include artwork you're happy to send us. If you're testing CrowDraw through TestFlight, you can also send feedback from the TestFlight app.