Prototype is slow but file is small

Does anyone have a solution to this problem? I am experiencing the same issue.

Currently experiencing this problem myself. Any solution?

Hi, we were having the same issue, and we didn’t manage to solve it after months trying, but we’ve managed to avoid it completely and our prototype now flies.

Since the issue for most projects is not memory usage, we decided to sacrifice some memory usage in order to gain speed.

Two things “solved” the issue:

First - Avoid variants in components when possible, and create separated components instead of sets. We used to have 4 types of buttons in one component set, and experienced all kinds of bugs and performance issues the bigger the file got. This action not only helped with performance but also “fixed” known bugs like persistent/incorrect state changes playing the prototype (icons suddenly changed to default color, labels breaking, hovers using default state colors, you name it).

REASON FOR THIS: Figma loads all component states and variants when any given component is in the rendered view of the prototype. Therefore, it’s faster to have more components with less variants, rather than less components with a huge amount of variants. Even if in the end, the designed component is not representantive of what the dev team will do (they will probably generate less components with more flexibility, depends obviously on the case/dev).

Second - Avoid overlays. This is the part that I couldn’t solve, but managed to avoid. The way to avoid it is incredibly annoying, but fixes the issue.

1- We grabbed every view of the app, and converted it to a component itself.
2- Then, for any given overlay we wanted to add in one of those views, we create a new view that has 3 things:

• An instance of the view that acts as background for the overlay.
• An instance of a component called “Overlay shadow layer”, which is the grey shadow behind the overlays.
• The overlay on top of all.

This way we still only have to change the base view component, and the changes apply to all the views that have the overlay. It’s a hassle, and you lose the scroll position iirc, but it literally saved the day for us.

REASON FOR THIS: Can’t confirm, but it feels like Figma loads ALL the overlays internally at the same time in memory, hence when one is loaded, and the prototype becomes responsive again, then all overlays behave normaly. But this usually takes minutes to happen, so it’s a huge problem during client presentations.

Right now, we are sitting at around 16% memory usage, around 2-3% more than before taking these actions.

Hope this helps.

I did somthing similar, but did not make the component with every possible background. That would be impossible or be an enormous amout of work. Stupid thing is, a few months/weeks ago it worked fine. So what changed?

This issue needs to be addressed by the developers.

Also having this same issue, and have tried the above suggestions for a work around, without success. I’ve submitted a separate ticket to Figma support; is there anything else I can do in the meantime?

@Innovation_Cesefor @figma
We did the same, but still, our prototype is slow and hangs somewhere, which is really frustrating for everyone who plays with it.

We broke down all the components and variants, manually adjusting hover and click states for every element such as buttons and inputs. We also created pages for navigation from one page to another. However, we still encountered the same issues.

@Innovation_Cesefor @figma

I have been working on a prototype since January and a similar issue has appeared over the last week. I have cleared %AppData%\Figma files, removed local fonts and only using Google fonts as source font.

This is what I have noticed in my tests:

• If I have a frame that has overlays and a link to another frame that has a script that links to further frames, the overlays load but time to interaction with the overlay components or click to close it is slow.

• However, If I have a link to another frame with no further links, or, has a script that links back to the frame that has the overlays, the prototype functions as expected.

My prototype with overlays almost becomes unusable, each frame will link to another. I am building a flow.

I’m experiencing the same type of laggy response lately. Buttons I’ve been using with no issues, became very unresponsive to change a different variant while hovering on prototypes. I found other thread discussing this same issue. Hopefully an upcoming update will fix this. Very frustrating at the moment.

Hey @Alberto_Estevez, thank you for reaching out! The most common reason for prototype performance issues is the file’s memory limitations. Could you confirm if you’re having also a small file?

At the moment, the workaround for prototypes not loading or loading with problems is to reduce the overall memory of the Figma file. This should help with any prototypes, regardless of the device or operating systems. Tips on reducing memory can be found here: Reduce memory usage in files.

If you’re having a small file and this has nothing to do with memory issues I’d suggest you to reach out directly to the support team by filling this form here: https://help.figma.com/hc/en-us/requests/new 1. Be sure to use your Figma account email, include links to the file, and share it with support-share@figma.com.

Thanks,
Gayani

Same issue here, Figma prototypes are becoming unsusable…
Files that worked correctly within 2023 are totally freezing in 2024.
Our teams and even clients are complaining about that.
Please Figma, do something, or at least, explain us.
Thanks