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Why the “Publish” Button Is Disabled for Un Exported Clips

Updated over a month ago

Reap’s Calendar now lets you schedule posts even before your clips are exported giving you more flexibility to plan your content in advance. However, to publish a clip directly to your connected social accounts, the clip must first be exported.

If your Publish button appears greyed out or disabled, it means the clip hasn’t been exported yet. This article explains why, how Reap handles scheduling for un exported clips, and what steps you need to take to publish successfully.

🔄 Export vs. Schedule — What’s the Difference?

Purpose

When You Can Do It

Requirement

Export Clip

Processes and renders your video into a downloadable and share-ready file

Anytime after editing

Required before publishing

Schedule Post

Adds your clip to the Reap Calendar to post automatically at a set time

Even if clip isn’t exported yet

Export must complete before scheduled time

💡 How Scheduling Works for Un exported Clips

We’ve added a 1-hour buffer (delay) to ensure your un exported clips are automatically processed in time for publishing.

Here’s how it works:

  1. You can schedule an un exported clip to a future date and time.

  2. Reap will automatically queue the export in the background.

  3. Once the export completes, your clip will be ready for publishing.

  4. If the export fails or isn’t completed before the scheduled time, the post will be failed in the calendar.

🚫 Why the “Publish” Button Is Disabled

If you see the Publish button greyed out:

  • The clip hasn’t been exported yet.

  • Publishing directly from the project dashboard requires a finished export file.

  • This ensures your video is in the correct format, with captions, dubbing, and other settings fully applied.

Once you export the clip successfully, the Publish button will become active, allowing you to instantly share it to platforms like YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and TikTok.

🧭 How to Fix It — Export Before Publishing

  1. Go to your Project Dashboard.

  2. Click Export Clip.

  3. Wait for the export to complete (you’ll see a status indicator).

  4. After export is done, return to the Calendar or Dashboard, the Publish button will now be active.

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