[BUG - Investigating] Assets tab open by default

Hi ​@Fedo ,

I understand that you're experiencing an issue where the Assets tab opens by default instead of the File tab whenever you open a file.

I tested this on my end and here’s what I observed:

• In Chrome: The tab that was open when you last closed the file will appear the next time you open it. For example, if the Assets tab was open when you closed the file, it will reopen with the Assets tab by default.

• In the Figma Desktop app: When I open a file, it initially shows the Assets tab by default, just like you reported. However, after clearing the cache via the Apple menu bar → Help > Troubleshooting > Reset Figma and Restart, the File tab opens by default when reopening a design file.

I also checked internally and couldn’t find any other recent reports of the same behavior.

If the issue persists on your side, I recommend reaching out to our Support team using this secure form: Submit a request
If possible, please include a screen recording of the issue showing your full screen — this will help the team investigate further.

Thanks!

as we know,  none of the official docs say “you can set which tab opens by default” or “the default has changed to Assets”.

Try opening the same file in the Figma web version (in Chrome/Firefox) and see if the default tab is File or Assets. If the behavior differs, it might point to the desktop app version being the issue.

Hello everyone.

After getting to work today, things started working out normally again in Figma, with the latest tab left open, being the default one when opening a file, without doing anything in particular.

Thanks for the support!

I’m experiencing the same issue. After restarts of the Figma Desktop the side panel always switches on load from “File” to “Assets” (there’s a split second where I can see that the panel switches from its last state to “assets” – noticeable when I throttle internet speed). I did try “Reset Figma and Restart” but this behaviour is still happening and quite annoying.

Hello, did you also try cleaning the cache?

https://help.figma.com/hc/en-us/articles/22380853110551-Clear-the-Figma-desktop-app-cache

I also tried and had no luck, but maybe for you it’ll work.

I couldn’t pinpoint what fixed it for me, but after 2 days of this problem, turning on the PC today, it was back to its “normal behavior”.

Hope it’s gonna be fixed soon for you aswell! 

Yes even went as fas as uninstalling Figma and clearing all preferences / settings in the ~library folder. No luck so far.

Same here.

When I leave a file via the Figma icon (“Back to files”) and then go back to the same file, it defaults to “Assets” even though I didn’t have it open when I closed it. This has been happening for a couple of days now.

Atp my best guess is that it’s some sort of A/B testing going on…

Hope it goes back to working as before for you guys aswell, sorry I can’t be of more help, hopefully some dev gets back to this thread if it’s a bug!

Experiencing same issue for a couple of weeks or something. Clearing cache didn’t help. If it’s some kind of A/B testing then Figma designers clearly don’t know what they are doing since whole that “new UI” thing reveal.

Same issue here. Clearing cache didn’t help. Resetting Figma and restart didn’t work. Getting a bit annoying.