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Figma Helper (Renderer) is using excessive memory, why?

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
June 7, 2021
107 replies
24590 views

Hello everyone, I’m trying to discern what the underlying issue is here. This has only been really presenting itself as a problem in the past few days, but for some reason almost any Figma project I have open winds up consuming essentially all of my system memory.

I’ve noticed that this happens regardless of how many project files I have open. While I’m not experiencing any crashing of the application, it does bring my work laptop to a grinding halt and creates an essentially unusable experience. Is there any reason Figma is utilizing so much memory? Are our working files just too large?

For reference, I’m using the desktop app on macOS 10.15.7 and as far as I am aware this is the latest version available.

I’m really scratching my head over this one as to why it’s popped up as an issue so suddenly. Granted this Macbook Pro is just a base configuration, so it may just be a performance limitation, but I wouldn’t expect Figma to be stressing the machine out worse than Adobe’s Creative Suite. Any insight is most welcome! Please let me know if you need any specific information.

Thanks Figma Community!

Ask the community

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Best answer by djv

Hey All, sorry for the lack of acknowledgement here!

Historically, the forum has been primarily run by the community, and I didn’t start at Figma until August 30th, 2021.

As a browser-based app, Figma uses available browser memory (~2GB per browser tab) while loading and saving, but it shouldn’t use much CPU.

Where you’re seeing the Agent or Helper using a lot of your available CPU, we suggest clearing the cache on your browser and/or desktop app. And if that doesn’t help, use an app cleaner to fully uninstall all Figma apps and then reinstall from our Downloads page.

Here’s how to clear the desktop app cache on a Mac:

Quit the Figma desktop app
Open Terminal.app and enter the following command:
rm -rf "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Figma/"{Desktop,DesktopProfile}
Try opening the desktop app again

And here’s how to clear the desktop app cache on Windows:

Close the Figma desktop app
Open the Start menu, and paste in this, followed by enter: %APPDATA%\Figma
In the window that opens, delete the Desktop and DesktopProfile folders if they exist
Launch the desktop app again

If this doesn’t help, can you reach out directly to our technical quality team here: https://help.figma.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

Please use your Figma account email, and let us know if this is affecting the Desktop app, browser or both, and provide a screenshot of your Activity monitor.

If this is affecting the Desktop app, please also save and send over your Desktop App debug info file. On Mac you can find this in the Help menu under Troubleshooting, and on Windows, you can find this under the toggle-arrow at the right of the top toolbar under Help > Troubleshooting.

Lastly, the community moderation team here on the forum does not own Figma_support, so please note that tagging this profile will not notify us.

Show previous replies

AbramAuthor

I have not yet found a viable solution, but my workaround is to limit the amount of given files I have open to 2-3 maximum. That’s at least keeping my Mac from creating too much memory pressure but I’m still getting slowdowns.

I have to keep almost all other apps shut down to prevent them from drawing background resources.

Michi

Same here. Bad thing!

I had this with a 3440 x 1440 monitor, and now, with a 4K 3440 x 2160 much worse. I have observed that the values change extremely when you reduce the size of the app window. For example, from 1.1 GB to 1.8 GB just by dragging the app window a bit larger. Maybe the Figma team can pause with new features for now, and rather fix this problem. I can hardly work like this. Every click I do almost twice 😦

poiru

Figmate

Hello! I work on the desktop app at Figma and have been trying to figure this one out. Would one of you be willing to have a Zoom screenshare meeting to help isolate the problem? Please email biru@figma or DM me here if you’re up for it.

AbramAuthor

Thanks Biru! I sent you a follow up email.

Zubin_Desai

This is also happening for me. Only started a few weeks ago so I assume one of the latest Figma updates has an issue. It freezes up Zoom and makes Chrome unusable. I have similar memory CPU usage as seen in the screenshot posted earlier.

Tay_Hjordie

Same issue here. Almost impossible to work like this.

MBP + LG 5K display.

1111203

New Participant

my figma is already start crushing because it using way too much RAM

Edward_Battistini

I’m glad this topic is finally getting some visibility. Same issue here. and I have two machines where it happens. M1 and Intel 2020

AbramAuthor

Hi everyone. So, I had been trying to provide feedback to Figma’s internal team, but the dev I had been working with no longer appears to be at the company. (If this is incorrect, I apologize!)

We had been testing multiple configurations and trying to find the root of the problem but this week randomly my memory issues have returned at the same levels from my original report in June. My computer is essentially unusable with Figma Desktop running. I hope we can get another dev to help us figure this out because it’s obvious I’m not the only one experiencing this issue. It is also wide-spread at my company with the majority of our designers experiencing the same problems. For reference, I’m now operating on Big Sur (Company just approved our update recently) and my Figma Desktop version is now 101.6