All Collections
Sketch Integration
Fixing Sketch export issues
Fixing Sketch export issues

Learn how to work your way around common Sketch export errors

Hande avatar
Written by Hande
Updated over a week ago

Zeplin uses SketchTool to export the data and the images out of Sketch. This tool does have certain known issues that you should watch out for. 🕵️‍♀️ We're already in touch with the Sketch team and will keep this list updated as they are fixed!

Make sure to try exporting again if you run into an issue, and if it continues, check if it matches any of the known issues below.

☝️ If you're having network issues while uploading, like timeouts or bad request errors, check out our Fixing connectivity issues article instead.

Missing libraries

If you have a library enabled that is not stored locally on your machine, you might encounter an error: “Extracting Sketch document and library documents failed with an unusual error.” or “Copying filename to a temporary directory failed.️ Make sure that you have access to the file or try disabling unused libraries.”

This usually happens if you're on the older version of Zeplin and when you're exporting a file that has a library enabled that is not stored locally on your machine and Zeplin can't access it.

We released an update to fix in version 3.5 for this issue. Make sure that you are on the latest version of Zeplin and enable "Use New Export System" option under the Zeplin > Sketch Integration menu.

Large artboards or layers

If you have artboards or exportable layers that are too large, you might encounter an error: “Exporting image failed with an unusual error.”

This usually happens when you're exporting a large artboard that has multiple screens in it. You can either export those screens separately or you could try dividing the large artboard into multiple artboards. See the sample large artboard below:

Invisible lines

Certain invisible lines in your vector elements might cause an error: “Exporting image failed with an unusual error.”

This occasionally happens on vectors you bring in from other apps, like Illustrator. Deleting these layers should fix the issue.

Layer names

If you have some layers which names are "object" instead of "string", you might encounter an error: “Exporting artboards failed with an unusual error.”

You can rename all of these layers as string names and then try to export the file again.

Colors

Zeplin exports document colors or colors set up in layer styles, from Sketch. If you don’t set your colors as document colors or layer styles colors in your Sketch file, you might encounter an error while trying to export colors: “Exporting colors failed, no colors found in Sketch document.”

You can set your colors like below in Sketch and then try to export them again.

Others

If none of these solves the issue, there's another workaround you can try: Copy the artboard, paste it in a new Sketch document and try exporting it from there.

Hope these help! If you're still having an issue, you can contact us at support@zeplin.io.

Related articles:

Did this answer your question?