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Screenshot 2024-04-17 at 4.07.46 PM

When I’m selecting a color variable the previews aren’t showing even though my library is enabled and I’ve already tried restarting Figma and my computer? I’m also not on Figma beta

Hi ​@Tom Reem - I’m having this same issue in my Figma Design desktop app as well as browser version for past few days. Inside the colour library dropdown, the colours added from Design System are not showing any thumbnail. I can see all the colour variable created in the Design System but none of the groups are showing thumbnail. Once I switch from grid view to list view, I can see the complete list of all the colours and they are working correctly. But I’m still not seeing the colour associated to the variables. I’m attaching a recordin of the issue - Variable color previews aren't showing up when selecting color


Hey ​@Ankur Gupta — really appreciate you taking the time to share the details here (and for including the video, super helpful 🙏🏻).

I just tested this on my end: when I go to Fill → Library and toggle through design systems, I’m seeing thumbnails appear in both list and grid view. Since you mentioned this is happening in both browser and the Figma desktop app, could you restart and double check that you’re on the latest app version (125.7.5 or later), and let me know if that resolves it?

If the issue persists, the best next step is to have our Product Support team take a closer look at your specific file. You can kick that off by filling out this secure form and including:

  1. the link to this Forum post (so everyone can reference your video straightaway)
  2. a link to the file where the issue is happening
  3. ‘can edit’ access granted to support-share@figma.com for that file

Thanks again for flagging this — looking forward to hearing if updating resolves it.


We just solved it!! My brilliant coworker saw that the difference between the working palettes and the non working palettes was that the working one had two configs for light and dark. 

He renamed the non-working column from “value” to “light” to match the other config that had “Light” and “dark” and BOOM. All swatch previews are working. 

@Tom Reem ​@Ankur Gupta