Articles on: Troubleshooting

The print troubleshooting wizard: diagnose a bad print

When a print comes out wrong - stringing everywhere, a shifted layer, corners lifting off the bed - the print troubleshooting wizard built into SimplyPrint helps you find the cause and fix it. It is a guided library of print-quality problems, each with a clear explanation and the steps to put it right.

This guide shows you how to open the wizard and what it walks you through.

How to open it

The wizard lives in the top bar of the panel.

Look for the tools icon (a small wrench-and-screwdriver) in the top bar - its tooltip reads "Print troubleshooting". On a narrow window it moves into your account menu instead, so open your account menu and choose Print troubleshooting.
Click it. The troubleshooting wizard opens in a window over the panel.

What it walks you through

The wizard opens on a grid of common print-quality problems. Each one is a card with a picture of the defect, so you can match what you are seeing on your print to the card.

The problems it covers include:

Stringing and oozing
Layer shifts
Warping and corners lifting
Spaghetti (a print that detached and turned into a mess)
Clogged nozzle and stops extruding mid-print
Under-extrusion and inconsistent extrusion
Weak infill
Gaps between walls
Bad overhangs and bad bridges
Elephant's foot (a squished first layer)
Blobs and holes, scars on top of prints, pillowing
Dimensional inaccuracies
Ground-down (grinded) filament

Match the picture, not just the name. The defect cards show what each problem looks like, so if you are not sure what to call what you are seeing, scan the images first.

Pick the problem that matches your print. The wizard opens that guide, which explains:

What the defect is and why it happens
The most likely causes
Step-by-step fixes, from the easiest to try first

After reading a guide you can rate how helpful it was and leave a short comment, which helps us improve the guides. Use the back button to return to the grid and look at another problem.

When to use it

Reach for the wizard whenever a print finishes (or fails) looking wrong and you are not sure why. It is the fastest way to turn "this looks bad" into "here is what to change". It is available on every plan.

The wizard is for print-quality problems - the physical result of a print. If your problem is a printer that will not connect or shows as offline, that is a connection issue, not a print-quality one. See Why does my printer show as "Not connected"? instead.

Browse the guides on the web

The same troubleshooting guides are also public web pages at simplyprint.io/print-troubleshoot, with a dedicated page for each defect. They are handy to bookmark or share when you want to point someone at a specific fix. A few of the most-read ones:

Updated on: 26/06/2026

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