Why did Canva Sheets resize the same product campaign twice?

Separate Sources From Derivatives

Start by defining what should count as one source and what should count as an output. A source is the original Canva design identified by its design link or source ID. A derivative is a requested size version generated from that source. For example, one product campaign may legitimately produce a square version and a landscape version, while the same square version should not be requested twice from the same source unless you intentionally want two copies.

Do not count rows alone. Count unique source links or IDs, then compare that count with the requested derivatives. If two rows contain the same design link and both request the same size, the batch contains duplicate work. If they contain the same design link but request different sizes, they may represent separate intended outputs.

1. Make a non-destructive copy of the Sheet or prepare a small test Sheet containing only the relevant rows.
2. In the selected column used for design links, compare the links character by character, or inspect the underlying source IDs when those are available.
3. Record each source link once, then list every requested size version beside it.
4. Mark repeated source-and-size combinations as duplicate scope; keep repeated sources with different requested sizes for separate review.

Illustrative exercise

Illustrative exercise: explicitly define Asset A as the product campaign source with source ID A-101 and a requested square derivative. Define Asset B as a different product campaign source with source ID B-202 and a requested square derivative. Before comparing results, the intended fixture is A-101 plus square, and B-202 plus square: two unique sources and two derivatives.

Now compare two cases. Case A has rows A-101/square and B-202/square. Case B has rows A-101/square, A-101/square, and B-202/square. Case A passes the scope check because two unique source IDs produce two requested derivatives. Case B fails because three rows contain only two unique source IDs and one source-and-size pair is repeated. The expected output count for this fixture is two, unless an additional derivative was intentionally requested.

Use the Evidence to Branch

Inspect the original Sheet rows, the selected design-link column, the requested size fields, and the resulting Canva output links or filenames. The key evidence is whether the repeated outputs map to the same source design and the same requested size, rather than merely looking similar.

1. If the duplicate outputs share both the same source link or ID and the same requested size, remove or correct only the repeated test-copy row, then rerun the reduced batch.
2. If the source link is repeated but the requested sizes differ, keep the rows and verify that each size is intentional; treat them as separate derivatives.
3. If the Sheet has unique source links but outputs still appear repeated, stop changing rows and inspect the output mapping, naming, and batch result records for evidence of whether the apparent duplicates are actually distinct size versions.
4. If the source identity cannot be determined from the available links or records, do not rerun the full campaign; isolate one source and its intended derivatives in the test copy first.

Acceptance Check

Accept the corrected fixture only when every intended source-and-size pair appears once in the selected design-link input and the resulting output records contain exactly one derivative for each pair. For the illustrative exercise, that means A-101/square and B-202/square each appear once, with no extra output mapped to either identical pair. Record the source IDs, requested sizes, and output links before expanding the batch.

Scope of the documentation

The official references below support tool behavior and feature boundaries. The test fixture, branching decisions and acceptance criteria are Itemlume editorial recommendations; citation does not imply endorsement. Illustrative sizes, names and timings are not your production specifications.