diff --git a/qim3d/io/__init__.py b/qim3d/io/__init__.py
index 23f02d4c4aceff410adf3daf8f615e425fbbb246..db64b581d28e70fbfe6e63ce58d787d862b8fba7 100644
--- a/qim3d/io/__init__.py
+++ b/qim3d/io/__init__.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # from ._sync import Sync # this will be added back after future development
-from ._convert import convert
-from ._downloader import Downloader
 from ._loading import load, load_mesh
-from ._ome_zarr import export_ome_zarr, import_ome_zarr
+from ._downloader import Downloader
 from ._saving import save, save_mesh
+from ._convert import convert
+from ._ome_zarr import export_ome_zarr, import_ome_zarr
diff --git a/qim3d/io/_convert.py b/qim3d/io/_convert.py
index 49d2633fcbe9df3676b4e9f79f3d8d34383f4d1b..fbfe75a9b9425246dedbd05198b61181a8c84f1a 100644
--- a/qim3d/io/_convert.py
+++ b/qim3d/io/_convert.py
@@ -7,9 +7,10 @@ import numpy as np
 import tifffile as tiff
 import zarr
 import zarr.core
+import qim3d
+
 from tqdm import tqdm
 
-from qim3d.io import save
 from qim3d.utils._misc import stringify_path
 
 
@@ -121,7 +122,7 @@ class Convert:
 
         """
         z = zarr.open(zarr_path)
-        save(tif_path, z)
+        qim3d.io.save(tif_path, z)
 
     def convert_nifti_to_zarr(self, nifti_path: str, zarr_path: str) -> zarr.core.Array:
         """
@@ -173,7 +174,7 @@ class Convert:
 
         """
         z = zarr.open(zarr_path)
-        save(nifti_path, z, compression=compression)
+        qim3d.io.save(nifti_path, z, compression=compression)
 
 
 def convert(