Figma flickers when loading or when switching between tabs or zooming

Hey @Andrey18, thank you for reaching out!
I’ve requested access to view the screen recording.
Is this also happening in the browser?

Can you please Force-quit the Figma Desktop app and restart it. Also, can you try clearing out your cached files and see if that helps? Please follow these steps: Clear desktop app cache

Please confirm if your desktop app is running on Windows 10 or later in a 64-bit environment. I’d recommend to update to the newest version of the operating system.

Let me know if clearing the cache resolved the issue? Happy to help further.

I cleared the cache, it didn’t help. everything is fine in the browser. Application only. I turned off disable hardware acceleration and now everything works, the problem disappeared

New problem. With acceleration turned off, Figma slows down in projects. And with it the flickering will fade again. I also found out that everything is fine on the second monitor. There resolution is 1280x1024 75h
The main monitor where flickering occurs 1920x1080 75h
what to do?

Hey @Andrey18, thanks for confirming this, I can get you connected to our technical support team. Before that could you please answer me the following question:

1. Can you let me know if this is happening only on the main monitor (1920x1080 75h), or does this persist on the laptop screen as well?

2. Also, to cover some bases, can I have you try fully uninstalling, then reinstalling the desktop app and see if anything changes?

3. Can I also have you try downloading the Figma Beta app and see if you encounter the same thing there? Beta version of desktop app for macOS

4. Can you try switching the color space in the desktop app to sRGB instead of its current default?
   You can see more on how to do this here: Color management in the desktop app.
   Our engineering team had found that similar flickering issues in the desktop app have been resolved with switching to sRGB color space from the app default (app default is unmanaged).

5. Is this flicker happening on all files, or only on particular files?

Thanks in advance!

1. This only happens on a 1920x1080 monitor
2. Already did it, didn’t help
3. Downloaded the beta, same thing.
4. Switched, problem remained
5. For everyone

Hi, I have this problem as well and have for almost a month now. I have cleared the cache, force quit, switched colour profiles, updated my graphics card drivers and uninstalled / reinstalled the application. I even upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11. No dice.

It only happens on my main monitor (2560 x 1440, 165hz) and not on my second monitor (3480 x 2160, 60 Hz) or browser. When I restart my computer, the problem resolves for a day and then starts happening again.

It happens on all files. The art board itself is unaffected; it is only the design panels and navigation bars that start aggressively flashing and flickering–and not just when zooming, switching tabs, or zooming. It’s any time I move my mouse. Sometimes the navigation even splinters itself into artefacts. It makes it impossible to use the desktop app at all. I need the convenience of the tabs to move between different projects, so if there’s any solution, I would be very glad to hear it!

It’s worth noting that this was not a problem before a month ago, and I have not changed monitors or any computer parts. It just started happening randomly one day. It does not happen on any other device I own.

I think I fixed it. In the NVIDIA settings, I chose Figma for the settings and disabled vertical sync pulse. Try it and let me know.

Hey everyone, apologies for the delayed response!
Glad to hear the issue got resolved for you @Andrey18. Please reach out if you should experience any issues in the future.
@Alexandra_PS could you indeed try out the step to see if this works for you? If not please let me know I can create a support ticket on your behalf and get you connected to our technical quality team.

Thanks,
Gayani

Yes, this does seem to have fixed my problem as well 🙂 Not sure why it was only affecting the one monitor, but so far I haven’t had any more issues!

I am also having this issue as of late. Just done the NVIDIA settings update recommended by @Andrey18 so fingers crossed it works for me too as its very disruptive when it happens.

Tried the fix, thought it had worked but its still doing the weird flash and reload to the page 😦

We are having the same problem with bigger complex files. Working is impossible due to constant flickering behavior of Figma web or desktop app even using powerful hardware. Even following all the solutions commented above won’t solve de issue. It’s unfortunate that the only way to work for us now is by splitting the file into smaller projects. This strategy will solve the problem by now but is not comfortable at all for our workflow.

I hope Figma support team find a solution the earliest possible

Hey @Gonzalo_DLP, thank you for flagging this!

I know this is no the optimal solution, I’d recommend to reduce the memory in your file. Tips on reducing memory can be found here: Reduce memory usage in files.

Also, please do reach out to our support team if this does not solve your issue.

Hi @Gayani_S, thanks for your response. We are usually working with high quality files for high end clients. Even if we can optimize few cases, in general, reducing the quality of the images is not a real solution.

Do you think it is possible for Figma’s support team to analyze if there’s a way of improving the performance of the software itself? It will be essential for us since we are expecting future presentations with the same amount of information and quality.

Thanks in advance for your help and support

Hey @Gonzalo_DLP, I completely understand that reducing image quality isn’t a viable option, especially when working with clients.

I do think it’s best to double-check with our support team to see if there are any other solutions available to improve performance. I’ve gone ahead and submitted a support ticket on your behalf. Your ticket number is #1138682, for reference.
If possible please share a direct link to the file with our team, and invite support-share@figma.com with “can edit” permission so they can look into this further. Note that users with @figma.com emails on your team do not count towards your billing.

Our support team usually takes up to 24 hours to reply back to emails - tends to be quicker than that in normal circumstances. However, please be aware that we are facing increased contact volume so there might be a delay.

Appreciate your patience in the meantime!

This is the same issue as the one I have here. Same problem.

Figma keeps reloading - Ask the community - Figma Community Forum

It’s difficult to do a video of it, as the video could be 2h long - as there is never a definitive trigger that causes the issue.

Hey @Luke-Itineris, thanks for reaching out!

I’ve seen you’ve mentioned the following

• Desktop app
• Windows 11 Business
  Keeps reloading:
• zooming into an image
• going from proto back to the file
• many other random scenarios

Can you please let me know if you also have a large file? If so, have you tried to reduce the memory? Tips on reducing memory can be found here: Reduce memory usage in files.

Can you please Force-quit the Figma Desktop app and restart it. Also, can you try clearing out your cached files and see if that helps? Please follow these steps: Clear desktop app cache

Hi @Gayani_S, myself and @Luke-Itineris have been having this same issue for sometime and seems to have started at around the sametime also. Its as if there has been and update to Figma that has casued this. I have cleared cache, I have altered settings and the problem is still there. As mentioned by others its hard to capture as the flickering and reloading of assets etc is not to an exact minute, it seems to be sporadic.

Hey @Simon31, thanks for getting back!

I do please advise you both to contact our support team via this form. Our support team will get you connected to our technical quality team and they can investigate further what’s causing this.

In the meantime please do use our desktop app or you can work on Safari, Microsoft Edge and Firefox.

Hey, 

specially signed into the forum to share what fixed it for me.

I can confirm the problem has something to do with your monitor refreshrate.

for me on my PC activating vsync helped and fixed the flickering completely. You can activate vsyn in different ways, I have a nvidia card, so I just changed in the control panel specifically for the Figma app. I set vsync to adaptive.

I assume general vsync on instead of adaptive should work too, vsync on fast didn’t work for me, thats how I configured my default nvidia settings and therefore had the flickering from.

I also assume activating GSync and FreeSync if you have a supporting monitor might help too, as its essentially a better native hardware sided vsync. Didnt test this.

Tldr; vsync might save your day, on or adaptive.

Hope this helps a couple of people, the current App version is definitely bugged, so fixes might differ from case to case, this 100% helped me fix it, I didn’t do anything else besides the vsync fix.

cheers