Troubleshooting

In case you encounter any problems with LibrePCB, this chapter gives you some tips to get them solved or to get help from the community.

Workspace Sync (Dropbox, Cloud, Git, …​)

If you sync your LibrePCB workspace with a cloud or similar, it’s important to follow some rules to avoid problems:

  • Exclude all files with pattern cache_* from the synchronization. These files are stored in the workspace subdirectory data/libraries/. If LibrePCB does not work correctly and you had these files synced, delete those files manually (while LibrePCB is closed) and try again. These files are automatically recreated after deletion.

  • Consider excluding files named .lock from the synchronization too if you experience problems with file locks. However, never open a project or library at the same time from multiple computers!

  • Hidden files ("dotfiles") must be synchronized. If hidden files are ignored by the sync, LibrePCB will not work correctly.

Note that even when following these rules, it’s still not guaranteed that everything works correctly. Especially with clouds the problem is that they are not operating "atomically", which can cause very serious troubles. Therefore we do not recommend to store any LibrePCB files in a cloud.

Working with a version control system like Git however is fine, since it works atomically and even allows to roll back a change in the very unlikely case something is messed up. We just recommend to use version control per-project and per-library, not for the whole workspace.

Wayland

There are some known issues when using LibrePCB natively on Wayland. If you experience any problems, please try XWayland or X11 (both should work fine).

Slow/Laggy UI

On some systems, especially with large projects, the UI could get a bit laggy. We are aware of this and try to improve it. In the mean time, try the following things:

  • Reduce grid density or disable grid completely

  • Avoid huge schematics — split them into multiple sheets (e.g. DIN A4 format)

  • In the schematic editor, hide pin numbers (toggle View  Show Pin Numbers)

  • In the board editor, reduce the number of visible layers

  • Enable or disable OpenGL in workspace settings (test both modes)

  • If using a high-resolution display, try to reduce resolution

  • On a laptop, plug in the charger :-)