Articles on: Scheduled setup

What to do when your Canva design fails to export

Your post didn't go out and you see a Notion comment saying "We couldn't export the Canva design DAHQ..."? It means Scheduled couldn't fetch your Canva design at publish time. No panic: in the vast majority of cases it's an access problem on the design, and it takes two minutes to fix.

Understanding the error

When you paste a Canva link into a Notion card, Scheduled fetches that design using the Canva account you connected in your settings. If that account has no access to the design, Canva refuses the export and the post can't go out, because it has no visual.

The most common caseThe design was created by a teammate, or lives in another Canva team. An "anyone with the link" share isn't always enough: the connected account needs actual access to the design.

Three different messages can show up in the Notion comment:

"Check that the Canva account connected to Scheduled has access to this design": access problem, the case covered below.
"uses premium elements that haven't been purchased": the design uses paid Canva elements that were never bought.
"is blocked by an approval workflow in Canva": the design is waiting for approval in your Canva team.

Step-by-step solution

Step 1: check who owns the design

Open the Canva design link in your browser, logged in with the Canva account you connected to Scheduled.
If Canva shows you a request-access screen or a "You don't have access" page, you've found the cause.

Step 2: grant access, or switch accounts

Two options, pick one.

Option A, share the design with the connected account. In Canva, open the design, click Share, and add the account you connected to Scheduled as a collaborator. Moving the design into a team folder that account belongs to works too.

Option B, connect the right Canva account. In Scheduled, go to Settings, Integrations tab, click Disconnect on the Canva card, then Grant access and sign in with the account that owns the designs.

If you work in an agency or a team, option A is more durable: all your designs stay reachable even when someone switches accounts.

Step 3: the two other cases

Premium elements: open the design in Canva, buy the license for those elements, or swap them for free ones.
Pending approval: have the design approved by whoever handles approvals in your Canva team.

Step 4: relaunch the post

Once access is sorted, go back to Notion and edit the post card, even slightly. That's enough to trigger a resync, and Scheduled will retry the export with the new access.

If you don't touch anything, Scheduled will retry the export on its own the next day, at publish time.

Key takeaways

Scheduled exports your designs with the Canva account connected under Settings, then Integrations.
The most frequent error comes from a design owned by another Canva account or team.
Share the design with the connected account, or reconnect Scheduled with the owning account.
A public share link doesn't guarantee access through the Canva API.
After fixing it, edit the Notion card to retry right away.
To discover the integration, see How to use the Canva integration in Scheduled.

Followed every step and it still doesn't work? Reach out via the chat at the bottom right or at [email protected]. We'll help you diagnose 🙌

Updated on: 30/07/2026

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