YOLO images not downloading from Local Storage on Ubuntu

[quantitiesunknown]

When exporting "Yolo with images", the images are not exporting.

To reproduce, setup LabelStudio locally on Ubuntu 24 LTS , setup Local Storage and necessary flags for local storage "export LABEL_STUDIO_LOCAL_FILES_SERVING_ENABLED=true
export LABEL_STUDIO_LOCAL_FILES_DOCUMENT_ROOT=/home/user/data" and try exporting under "yolo with images".

I've tried re-upgrading Label studio, my version is LabelStudio 1.16.0

my coworker has Labelstudio running on docker, and he had the same bug, however when he moved the images into persistent storage he was able to export them.

any help appreciated!!
thank you

[quantitiesunknown]

temp workaround:

downgrade to Label Studio 1.15

[heidi-humansignal]

Hi there!

Thank you for reaching out. I understand that when exporting in “YOLO with images” mode on your local Ubuntu 24 LTS installation (with

export LABEL_STUDIO_LOCAL_FILES_SERVING_ENABLED=true export LABEL_STUDIO_LOCAL_FILES_DOCUMENT_ROOT=/home/user/data

set), the exported ZIP file still has an empty “images” folder—even after upgrading to LabelStudio 1.16.0.
This behavior is expected by design in the Community (local) version of Label Studio. For security and performance reasons, images aren’t automatically included in the export package; the system exports only the annotation files. This is why your coworker, when using persistent storage in a Docker setup, was able to obtain the images—they have a different storage configuration that allows Label Studio to access and include them.
To work around this, you have a couple of options:

1. Migrate to Cloud Storage:

Using S3/GCS/Azure (cloud) storages instead of local storage enables Label Studio to access and bundle the images during export. This is the most straightforward solution if your workflow permits changing the storage backend.

2. Use the Label Studio SDK to Automate Image Download:

You can create a custom script that:

• Exports the annotations in YOLO format.
• Iterates over your annotated tasks.
• Copies the corresponding images from your local storage (or persistent storage) into the export directory’s “images” folder.

3. Manual Copy:

If you prefer, you can manually copy the image files from /home/user/data into the “images” folder of your export ZIP after the export process.
For more details on setting up storage, please refer to our Local Storage Guide.
Could you let me know if you would like additional details or help with one of these workarounds?

Thanks,

Tyler Conlee
Head of Support
HumanSignal

Comment by Tyler Conlee
Workflow Run