Is it possible to downgrade Sketch to a version without Frames?

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Hi everyone,
while I do appreciate the new features introduced in the latest versions of Sketch — including Frames and Smart Layouts — I must admit they don’t really make sense for the way I use the app.

I’ve always relied on a simpler workflow, mainly using Artboards and static layers, without the need for complex layout behavior or resizing rules. Unfortunately, the recent changes (like automatic conversion to Frames) have disrupted that workflow significantly.

Is there any way to downgrade to an older version of Sketch that only includes Artboards and does not use Frames or Smart Layouts? If so, which version would be best, and where could I safely download it?

Thanks in advance for your help!

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Hey Gabriel and welcome to the forum!

Sorry to hear that, and yes, there’s a way to download older versions. You can use this link. Version 101.9 is the latest version without frames.

Frames are quite versatile, so perhaps there’s a way we can help you fit the new update into your workflow? Regardless, we’re happy to take a look so feel free to provide us with a more detailed explanation if you want to.

You can also always check out the beta from time to time to see if the latests features are interesting for you.

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Yes my Team will have a discussion next week to decide if we should downgrade. We are just finding a lot of little things that don’t work anymore. I’m guessing these are bugs that will be fixed in the future, so rather sit it out until they are addressed.

The latest one - you used to be able to group objects together and they would resize proportionally. Now they resize the grouped objects haphazardly.. Not sure if it’s because the objects were symbols or not flattened or grouping issues or what.. but I’m losing my mind over it.

Also our extensive symbol library that we use as reusable components is a complete mess now. It used to be 2 clicks to find any kind of object. Now it’s turned it into a deep hierarchy and requires many clicks to find something and by the time you find it you are lost in terms of navigation. The Search is fine if you know the exact name - but in practice that doesn’t work if you have a large component library. Sorry!

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Hi, @bman could you please share what those little things are?

Groups still resize according to pins and fixed sizing, but the defaults for these properties have changed for new layers. If you want a group to resize proportionally, you have one of two options:

  1. If working in a frame: set the group’s children to have relative width and height, and no pins — which were the previous defaults for sizing and pinning.
  2. Or just work in a graphic instead. In graphics, sizing/pinning properties are out of the picture entirely, and everything behaves proportionally. Graphics are thus perfect for icons and illustrations.

You can read a a deep dive into frames and graphics in our blog at sketch.com/blog/frames/ which explains it all.

What are some examples where you want to have groups resize contents proportionally?

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Thanks for the tips.. I’ll look into them. Re resizing;
Before, if you grouped objects they would resize proportionally. Now, it seems that in some cases the behaviour is the same.. but if there is a symbol in the group it doesn’t work - even if you detach the symbol, ungroup it or flatten it. It’s difficult to see what the pattern is. I seem to get different behaviours in different situations.

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@bman it’s a bit hard for me to understand what’s happening by that video alone, without seeing the layer hierarchy and props of the layers. If you could please send a sample .sketch file, that’d be helpful!

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I think I figured it out. If you select a bunch of objects and resize them (proportionally with Shift key) - it works. I was used to doing it in the reverse in the old version - grouping to resize proportionally,. it takes a little getting used to.
If you group them it doesn’t resize properly.

I’ll stick with Athens for the time being..
Thanks!

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Seems that once files are upgraded for athens, they cannot be opened in 101.9. Is there a workaround?

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I tried downgrading to 1.9 and the “updated sketch files” are now incompatible with 1.9. I appreciate the effort to move to this frame effort but it’s wrecking our productivity on our full set of assets and we’re stuck with this new behavior of items scaling oddly. I wish we had a heads up on the impact of this upgrade.

Is there a way to revert our files so they are either compatible with 1.9 or behave like it?