Procreate is a great app for artists and creative people to digitally draw with. But it can malfunction sometimes, such as when the screen freezes and won’t unfreeze. Fortunately there are also multiple different methods you can use to fix this issue.

A few ways you can fix the Procreate app is make sure it’s updated and your device is functioning properly. Your device might need updates or need to have its storage cleared out. If none of those work, then you might have to restart your device.

The following article is a detailed guide on how to fix the Procreate app when it keeps freezing up.

1. Make Sure The Procreate App is Updated

If the Procreate app isn’t updated, then there might be bugs in the current version that cause it to freeze. Updating the app whenever one is available will help make sure that it’s free of bugs and won’t freeze.

App developers send out frequent updates to make sure the app remains functional. The updates usually fix any bugs the developers found in the last version of the app or download improvements developers have been working on to the app. Falling behind on updates can cause your Procreate app to have issues, including freezing.

Updating your app frequently is a super important part of making sure it runs smoothly. If your app is freezing, then check to see if there’s any app updates in the App Store. You will see a red notification on the app indicating how many updates there currently are. Going into the app and clicking on your profile picture in the top right corner will tell you what apps the updates are for.

Select the update for Procreate, or you can choose the select all option to update multiple apps at once. You can also enable automatic updates by going to your devices settings, selecting the app store option, and turning the app store automatic updates option on.

2. Make Sure Your Device Is Updated

Ensuring that your device is also updated will prevent any issues from occurring on the Procreate app. If your device has an issue that needs to be fixed, it might also affect the apps downloaded on it, causing Procreate to freeze.

To check if your device needs updates, first open your device and go to the settings app. It looks like a silver gear and might have a red notification number on it, indicating that your device needs to be updated.

Next, click on the “General” settings option and select the “Software Updates” tab on the next screen. If a message appears saying that you need to update your device, then select the option that says “Install Now” and follow the instructions. If no message appears, then your device is all updated.

You can also enable automatic software updates from here, to help keep your device running normally and prevent further issues.

3. Clear Out Your Storage

If there are too many things stored on your device, then it could be what’s causing procreate to freeze. The more stuff a device has on it, the more storage it has to use to keep them all running, which can cause the apps to run slower or freeze altogether.

To check how much storage you have on your device, open the settings app and click the “General” tab on the first screen. Then click on the “Storage and iCloud Usage” option, scroll down until you see a tab labeled “Storage”, and then select “Manage Storage”.

If the bar at the top of the screen is mostly empty, then you still have a good amount of storage. But if it’s full or close to full, then you might want to start deleting some things on your device. The two most common things to delete when clearing device storage space are videos and photos or apps.

Going into your photos app and deleting any photos and videos you don’t want anymore or have saved to a backup drive can help clear out your device’s storage space.

You can also delete multiple photos or videos at a time by choosing the “Select” option in the top right corner. Once it’s selected, click on any photos or videos you want to delete, and then click on the trash can in the bottom right hand corner to delete them all at once.

The next thing you can delete to free up lots of storage is apps. If there are any apps that you don’t use almost every day, then it’s recommended to delete at least one to free up storage. Just make sure that there isn’t any important information on the apps you want to delete, or that the important info is on a backup drive or a different device.

To delete apps, press and hold on the first app you want to delete until it starts shaking and a gray X appears in the top right hand corner. Press the X in the corner to delete the app, and select the X of any other apps you want to delete. Once you’re done, press the home button on the device to make the apps stop shaking and get rid of the X’s.

4. Restart Your Device

If no other solutions have worked, then the last solution is to restart your device. However, it’s recommended to leave this solution for last since restarting your device can delete the work you have on the Procreate app. To avoid this, it’s recommended to do a soft restart.

A soft restart will likely solve the issues with Procreate without running the risk of you losing your work. To soft restart your device, hold down the lock button and the home button at the same time. If your device doesn’t have a home button, then simply hold down the lock button and one of the volume buttons.

A message to restart the device will appear at the top of the screen. All you have to do then is toggle the slider to the right to turn off the device. Wait for a few seconds, and then press down on the home/volume button and the lock button to turn the device back on. Once the device powers back on, release the buttons.

Final Thoughts

If none of the solutions described above solve the freezing issue, then you might have to take your device into a professional. There could be another issue with your device, and you might need to get a replacement. There also might be a different issue if the app freezes frequently, even after trying all of the solutions described above.

If you’re running into this issue to frequently than you’d like to admit, we can recommend trying Placeit.net as a Procreate alternative. We like it because it’s online based so it can be used on any device with internet, and it’s 100% commercially usable.