Severe slowing down of the supercritical CO2 drying process allowed crack-free SiO2-TiO2 aerogel monoliths to be obtained. Other experiments also showed that composite silica-titania gels were irresponsive even to fast exchange of primary solvent only into solvents of comparable solvating mechanism. Very slow exchange of solvents of different solvating mechanisms was safe to gels but caused swelling or shrinkage.