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Question

Design file is GONE

  • February 4, 2026
  • 4 replies
  • 99 views
D

Hello Support Team,

I am facing an issue accessing a very important Figma design file that is critical for our organization.


We can’t find it at all as of 1 hour back. I’ve tried to check in trash, and in all the other places the guides recommend without any success.

As for when we try to access the file through the link, all we get is the following text:

“
Unable to open file

It looks like there’s an issue with this Design file’s sharing settings.
We’ve emailed the owner to let them know.
“
 

I should be the owner though. I would like to understand:

  1. Who is the current owner of this Figma file

  2. Whether the file has been deleted, moved, or had its permissions changed

  3. Why access is no longer available to my account ([redacted by forum admin/moderator to remove PII])

  4. How to fix this


I can share the link to the design file: 



My support ticket is 1726809.

    4 replies

    djv
    Figmate
    • djv
    • Community Support
    • February 5, 2026

    Hi ​@Dusan Nikolic, thanks for reaching out and providing the file link as well as your support ticket number! 

    My team here on the forum normally isn’t able to assist with File Management, but from what I can see, this file is owned by Jenny M. N.in the Digdir Organization. 

    Right now, it resides in a Shared project in the organization. This usually occurs when a member is removed from an organization, and the files that were in their personal drafts are put into a Shared projects area. Org admins can move the project and its files into an active team, but the files can't be interacted with until this takes place.
     
    I suggest reaching out to your Admin and passing along this guide: View and manage shared projects

    This will show them how to move the drafts into a team that you have access to, and at that point the file ownership can be inherited by someone who already has the proper role on the file.

      H.A
      • H.A
      • New Member
      • March 17, 2026

      Hi there,

      I'm also trying to access a design file that I should be the owner of, but I'm getting the following message:

      "Unable to open file. It looks like there is an issue with this Design file's sharing setting. We've emailed the owner to let them know."

      Here is the link to the Figma file 

      The problem is that I am supposed to be the owner of the file, so I'm not sure why it's blocking access. 

      Thanks in advance for any help.
      Harris

      D
      • Dusan Nikolic
      • Author
      • New Member
      • March 18, 2026

      ​@H.A It could be the case that you are not the owner in this case. That was the case for me at least.
      What we had to do ended up being (after a talk with support):
      1. Reintroduce editing permissions (license) for the old teammate
      2. Have them move the file from their draft folder into a shared repo
      3. Change the file owner to myself

      After that everything worked fine again.
      Anyway, since you have the link to the Figma file, I’m pretty sure you’ll get an answer to your issue soon enough.

      All the best!

      djv
      Figmate
      • djv
      • Community Support
      • March 20, 2026

      Hi ​@H.A, thanks for providing the file link! 

      The solution proposed by ​@Dusan Nikolic is correct. You are actually not the owner of this file.

      The file has not been deleted, but the current file owner is Sofia. Does that name sound familiar?
       
      If you previously had access to this file and suddenly lost it, the file owner previously had a paid seat in the organization and was recently downgraded or removed by an admin. As a result of this downgrade, any files they had shared are no longer accessible to anyone except the owner.

      To regain access, we recommend contacting the file owner directly. They can proceed in one of the following ways:

      1. Request a role upgrade in their organization
      2. Download and share a local copy
        • The file owner can download the file as a .fig file and share it with you so you can import it into Figma.


      Hope this helps! But if you have any further questions or concerns, please let me know. I can try to help get you connected with our support team.

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