---
title: "Export your image labels"
description: "Save your labelled boxes as a COCO file for model training, to an asset set or to your computer."
---

# Export your image labels

When you have [labelled your images](https://www.droidmap.com/docs/labelling-images), export the labels
as a single file for your training tool. DroidMap doesn't train models itself,
so this is how your labels get to the tool that does.

The file is in **COCO** format, a standard for object detection data that most
model training tools can read.

## 1. Open the export menu

On the labelling page, click **Export labels** at the top right. The button is
available once at least one image has been reviewed.

![The Export labels menu open, with options to save to this asset set, save to a new asset set, or download a file](https://www.droidmap.com/docs/exporting-image-labels/menu.webp)

## 2. Choose where it goes

- **Save to this asset set** adds the file to the set you are labelling.
- **Save to a new asset set** creates a set holding only the file, named after
  your set plus the date and time.
- **Download file** saves the file to your computer.

Saving to an asset set is the easiest way to keep exports with your project and
share them. If you plan to run a mapping job on this set, choose **Save to a new
asset set** instead, so that the file stays out of the job's input images.

A message under the top bar confirms what was exported. After saving to a new
set, click **Open it** to go there.

![A message confirming the export to a new asset set, with 11 images and 38 boxes and an Open it link](https://www.droidmap.com/docs/exporting-image-labels/saved.webp)

Saved files appear in the **Data** section of the asset set, where you can
download them.

![The new asset set, with the labels file in its Data section](https://www.droidmap.com/docs/exporting-image-labels/new-set.webp)

Each export is a new file with the date and time in its name, so earlier exports
are kept. An export is a snapshot: if you change your labels, export again.

Saving to an asset set needs permission to add to it, and some kinds of set can't
take new files. If an option can't be used, it is greyed out in the menu.

## What's in the file

An export includes only your **reviewed** images: those with boxes, and those
marked as having no objects. Images nobody has looked at are left out, so they
can't teach your model that whatever is in them is background.

The photos themselves aren't in the file. Each entry refers to its photo by file
name, so your training tool needs a copy of the photos with the same names. You
can get them from the asset set with **Download All**.

Here is part of a real export, from the set shown above:

```json
{
  "info": { "description": "North paddock, October" },
  "images": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "file_name": "DJI_20261011152732_0034_V.JPG",
      "width": 4096,
      "height": 3072
    }
  ],
  "categories": [
    { "id": 1, "name": "Beneficial" },
    { "id": 2, "name": "Heliothis" },
    { "id": 3, "name": "Hole" }
  ],
  "annotations": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "image_id": 1,
      "category_id": 2,
      "bbox": [1366.4, 1212.6, 113.6, 115.2],
      "area": 13086.72,
      "iscrowd": 0
    }
  ]
}
```

- **images** lists each reviewed photo and its size in pixels. An image marked as
  having no objects appears here with no annotations.
- **categories** lists your labels in alphabetical order. A label is only included
  if at least one box uses it.
- **annotations** lists every box. **bbox** is the box's left edge, top edge, width
  and height, in pixels from the top-left corner of the file.

## Troubleshooting

**Export labels is greyed out.** No images have been reviewed yet. Draw a box or
mark an image as having no objects.

**The message says some images were left out because their pixel size is unknown.**
DroidMap needs an image's size to work out its boxes in pixels, and it doesn't have
it for those images. Their labels are safe but aren't in the file. If it keeps
happening, [contact us](https://www.droidmap.com/contact).

**The message says *The export failed*.** Your labels aren't affected. Check your
connection and try again.

**Boxes are in the wrong place on some photos.** Boxes are measured on each photo
as it is stored in the file. Some photos, phone photos especially, also carry a
note saying how to rotate them, and some training tools apply it when they load an
image. If only those photos are affected, turn that rotation off in your tool.

**My training tool can't find the images.** Check that the photos sit where the
tool expects them and still have their original names, because the file refers to
them by name.