Crashes on open - Android

Sketchbook is crashing when I open it 

If Sketchbook on your Android device crashes as soon as you open it, there are a couple of possible causes, and things that you can try to fix it:

  1. Free up memory
  2. Clear autorecovery data
  3. Reset preferences


Delete

About uninstalling/reinstalling

While uninstalling/reinstalling the app on AndroidOS will not delete your art files, it is not generally the best solution for fixing issues with Sketchbook. We recommend you follow the other tips to avoid deleting more app data than necessary.

Never uninstall/reinstall the app on iOS - you will delete your art files and they cannot be recovered.


Free up memory

If your device is low on memory (RAM), Sketchbook may crash after opening. This problem may become more acute if you are working on a large canvas or have many layers.

The best way to free up memory is to restart your device, this will close apps running in the background and clear out temporary processes. You can also free up memory on your device by closing apps that are running in the background. 

If Sketchbook is crashing after you've been using it for hours, that usually indicates your device is running out of memory. You can also see the article Crashing after long use‍. 



Clear autorecovery data

Any unsaved work left open on your canvas is held in an autorecovery cache - this allows Sketchbook to restore your work when you return to the app. However if any of this data becomes corrupted, the app will crash as it attempts to load the bad data. Clearing this autorecovery data will fix this problem, however you will lose any unsaved progress on your open canvas (data saved to Sketchbook's Gallery is not affected). 

Follow these steps to clear autorecovery data:

On Android 11 and higher:

  1. Launch your Settings app and go to Apps > Sketchbook. 
  2. Look for Additional Settings. It can be listed in different places depending on your device and version of Android - check for "Additional settings in the app", "In-app notification settings", or "Configure in Sketchbook"
  3. Find the toggle "Clear Autosave" and toggle it ON
  4. Relaunch Sketchbook

After Sketchbook launches, the toggle in Settings will automatically revert to the off position, you don't need to take further action.


Reset your preferences

Sketchbook loads your preferences - the database that contains your custom brushes, color palettes, and other settings - as part of the app launch process. So if your Preferences file has become corrupted that can cause the the app to crash because it cannot complete the launch. Resetting preferences will fix this problem and a new preferences file will replace the old, corrupted version.

Follow these steps to delete and reset preferences:

On Android 11 and higher:

  1. Launch your Settings app and go to Apps > Sketchbook. 
  2. Look for Additional Settings. It can be listed in different places depending on your device and version of Android - check for "Additional settings in the app", "In-app notification settings", or "Configure in Sketchbook"
  3. Find the toggle "Reset Preferences" and toggle it ON
  4. Relaunch Sketchbook

After Sketchbook launches, the toggle in Settings will automatically revert to the off position, you don't need to take further action.

On Android 10 and older: 

  1. Go to your Android Files (it may be called My Files or something similar, depending on your device manufacturer)
  2. Tap to go into Internal Storage
  3. Tap on Autodesk folder
  4. Tap on SketchBook3 folder. Here you will see multiple app folders and all the SketchBook Tiff files
  5. Look for the Preferences folder. Tap and hold to show options 
  6. Tap DELETE
  7. Confirm by tapping MOVE TO TRASH

After completing these steps, you can relaunch Sketchbook. The app will generate a new, fresh Preference folder to replace the one that was removed.