Safe Mode is a quick and easy way to see if a plugin is causing unexpected behavior in Sketch
Safe Mode allows you to run Sketch with all your installed plugins disabled. Sometimes an incompatible plugin can cause the Mac app to work unexpectedly or crash and you can use Safe Mode to see if plugins are the cause.
How to enable Safe Mode
Quit the Mac app and then launch it again while holding down the Shift key ⇧. This opens Sketch in Safe Mode and if everything works as expected, a plugin may have been causing the issue.
To find out which plugin(s) are the cause of your problem, choose Plugins › Manage Plugins. This will open the Preferences panel on the Plugins tab and here you can add plugins back one by one until you find which plugin is causing you issues.
To exit Safe Mode, simply quit and relaunch the Mac app without holding down the Shift key.
How to manually disable plugins
If a plugin is crashing the Mac app on launch, you can uninstall all of them by moving the Plugins folder to your Desktop:
- Quit the Mac app
- Open Finder
- Select Go › Go to Folder… (⌘⇧G)
- Enter the following path in the dialog that appears: ~/Library/Application Support/com.bohemiancoding.sketch3 and click Go, or press Enter ↵ if you’re running later versions of macOS
- Drag the Plugins folder to your Desktop and relaunch Sketch
Now you can proceed to install your plugins one by one, until you find the one that’s causing the issue.
What can I do about plugin issues?
If a plugin is causing issues, check if there are any updates available. This can often resolve things, just remember to quit and relaunch Sketch after a plugin update to make sure changes take effect.
If the issue persists, keep in mind that plugins are created by third-party developers, so you’d need to get in touch with them for further support and assistance.