Solved

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

This topic has been closed for replies.

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

Apple

Same, now it’s even worse, latest version is using over 12GB of RAM…

EdwardB

New Member

not sure what has changed but I’m now back to 200MB
Is it the same for you??

AbramAuthor

No change for me EdwardB, if anything it has gotten worse. My Mac has 16GB of RAM as specified in my original post and Figma occupies 12-16GB very consistently, regardless of how many files / tabs I may have open.

EdwardB

New Member

I’ve realised that using sensei (a mac app) to monitor the Mac and I delete the figma daemon that starts when your Mac starts and since it’s not using the memory, not sure if this might be the cause but so far I have 10 tabs and no memory overuse*emphasized text

Did not fix actually. Still the same issue

Fareesh_Vijayarangam

Can confirm - Figma is unusable due to this issue on Firefox or Chrome or Linux App. RAM usage goes upto 14GB.

Apple

@poiru @raquino ?

AbramAuthor

I’m on release 104.1 now, memory consumption is still incredibly high but it is at least more usable than before. However I have numerous large projects I need to jump between and I frequently will have to reload tabs or close the project and reopen because it has become completely unresponsive.

Max_Josino

I also have the same issue. I’ve been trying many different things, like having just one file opened, etc.

The thing that seems to work temporarily is to force quit the app and reopen it. That’s the only way I can use the app without having the issue happen again. Sad. 😫

I’m running version 104.1 on macOS Mojave - Macbook Pro Core I7 2.8 GH + 16 Gb RAM.

Carlos_Lopez

Several weeks ago I didn’t have this problem anymore (I think…). I reviewed my internet speed connection and I noticed that there was a problem with that. So I fixed it from the router settings (I just switch on / off / on 4G and 5G settings). Also I updated a little bit Mac version with the last update.

In addition (and this is not spam) I started to use another browser-based in chromium call sidekick, it helps me at work, and Brave for my personal searches.

Now I’m able to have several windows open and have video calls as well with the Figma desktop app open at the same time.

Apple

Downloaded latest Figma Beta (105.1) and the issue is still present, thought the issue will be improved but no.
Opened one file, and RAM jumps up, it is already using over 4 GB. One file.

Screen Shot 2021-11-05 at 9.31.48 AM

Show more replies

Sign up

Login with SSO

Login to the community

Login with SSO