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Enable Debug Log

Use Enable Debug Log to begin recording a log saved in the My Documents folder on Windows or Documents on Mac. You can send a Debug Log to LightBurn Support to aid in troubleshooting or bug fixing.

What is a Debug Log?

LightBurn's Debug Log contains timestamped information about operations performed in LightBurn, any errors that occur, and the general state of the software. In general day-to-day use, there's no reason to have it active, but it can be very helpful to our developers and support team for tracking down bugs and identifying the cause when LightBurn isn't behaving as expected.

Enabling and Disabling the Debug Log

Go to Help → Enable Debug Log to begin recording a log of the actions you take in LightBurn. A check mark will appear next to it when it's enabled, and logging will continue until you select Enable Debug Log again to disable it, or restart LightBurn.

Debug Log Disabled

No check mark — Debug Log not enabled

Debug Log Enabled

Check mark — the Debug Log is enabled

The Debug Log will automatically save to My Documents on Windows or Documents on Mac, with the file name LightBurnLog.txt.

The Debug Log is cumulative — each time you use Enable Debug Log it will append to any existing log, so it's a good idea to delete it after you're finished and have sent the log to LightBurn Support.

Enabling Debug Logging at Startup

If LightBurn is crashing on startup, you might not be able to enable the Debug Log from within the software. If that happens, you can enable Debug Logs by adding -d when launching the software. If you don't already know how to do that, don't worry. We've got directions to do this on both Windows and macOS.

Windows

If you're not comfortable with using our directions to launch LightBurn from the command line, jump to our alternate directions.

You can launch LightBurn with Debug Logs active from the command line by doing the following:

  1. Open up a Command Prompt window:

    1. Click the Start menu, then type "CMD".
    2. Windows will automatically find the Command Prompt app as the best match.

  2. Type the following into the command prompt and press Enter: 

    cd "C:\Program Files\LightBurn”

  3. Next, type the following into the command prompt and press Enter to launch LightBurn with the Debug Log activated:

    LightBurn -d

Click here for an alternate method

  1. Find the app shortcut: Open the Start menu and start typing "LightBurn". You should see the LightBurn icon come up. Don't click on it just yet.
  2. Open the app location in Windows Explorer: Right-click on the LightBurn entry and select Open File Location from the menu that comes up.
  3. Open the properties window: Right-click on LightBurn in the new window that opened and select Properties.
  4. Edit the target location: Find the line labeled Target: and add -d at the end, outside the quotation marks around "C:\Program Files\LightBurn\LightBurn.exe".
  5. Open LightBurn: Open LightBurn however you usually would.

After getting the Debug Log to send to support, make sure you disable logging by removing the -d you added.

macOS

On macOS, you can use Terminal to launch LightBurn with Debug Logs activated by following these directions:

  1. Open up a Terminal window.

    1. Press Cmd+Space then type "Terminal".
    2. Click Terminal to open it.

  2. Type the following into the Terminal window and press Enter.

    cd /Applications/LightBurn.app/Contents/MacOS

  3. Next, type the following into the Terminal window and press Enter:

    ./LightBurn -d
    LightBurn will launch with Debug Logs active. You can then send the logs to LightBurn Support.

For more help using LightBurn, please visit our forum to talk with LightBurn staff and users, or email support.