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.

Error: There is no element of type 'X' with the UUID 'Y'

Whenever an error message pops up with a message like There is no element of type 'X' with the UUID 'Y' or something like Element with UUID 'X' not found, it is very very very likely that you made some breaking change in a library element. Those errors then occur either in the component- or device editor, or after updating the project library with the Project Library Updater.

Since these are complex issues, the correct solution depends on a case-by-case basis. All we can give here are some general recommendations:

  1. Read UUID References until you understand it.

  2. From now on, follow the recommendations on that page to avoid running into this problem again in future.

  3. If you have any idea in which of the library elements you (recently) made breaking changes, delete them completely. It may hurt, but it’s often the only way out of the mess. You may want to back up the library elements before deletion — use the Device  Show in File Manager menu item to locate the directory to back up.

  4. If the project library update still fails after deleting the suspicious library elements, you may need to remove the suspicious elements also from the schematics & boards, and then re-add them the normal way with the Add Component dialog.

  5. In important/urgent cases, you may ask LibrePCB developers for help. However, we kindly ask for a donation as a compensation for our invested time.

Project Library Update Fails

See Error: There is no element of type 'X' with the UUID 'Y'.

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 :-)