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Question

Figma downloads all image assets in a file when exporting a single frame, causing memory overload and crashes

  • June 10, 2026
  • 3 replies
  • 36 views
1111203

Hi Figma team,

I recently encountered a serious export-related bug that I also experienced several years ago.

When I try to export a single frame, Figma starts downloading image assets. However, instead of downloading only the assets used in the selected frame, it appears to download image assets from the entire Figma file.

In large files with many image elements, this causes the export process to take a very long time and leads to extremely high memory usage. Even with 48 GB of RAM, Figma can run out of memory and crash.

After the crash, the cached assets for all pages seem to be cleared. As a result, whenever I need to export a frame from any file again, Figma has to re-download all resources, which makes the issue repeat.

Could you please check whether the export logic is working as intended? It seems inefficient and problematic that Figma needs to download resources from the entire file just to export one specific frame.

Expected behavior:
Figma should only download the assets required for the selected frame being exported.

Actual behavior:
Figma appears to download image assets from the whole file, which can cause excessive memory usage, very long export times, cache loss after crashes, and repeated re-downloading of resources.

This is especially problematic for large design files with many pages and image-heavy frames.

3 replies

Gayani_S
Figmate
  • Gayani_S
  • Community Support
  • June 10, 2026

Hey ​@1111203, I appreciate the detail you've put into describing both the expected and actual behaviour here.

I'd like to get this properly logged and investigated. To help us dig into this:

  1. Is this happening in the Browser (and if so, which browser) and the Figma desktop app?
  2. Is this specific to certain file types or export formats? For example, does it happen when exporting as PNG, JPG, and PDF, or just one format?
  3. Is the file a shared team file or a personal draft?
  4. Does the issue occur across all your files, or mainly on larger, multi-page ones?
  5. Can you share roughly how many pages and image-heavy frames the file contains? 

In the meantime, can you try duplicating just the frame(s) you need to export into a new, separate file before exporting. This should prevent Figma from needing to reference assets from the rest of the original file during the export process. It's not ideal for a regular workflow, but it may get you unblocked for now.

 

Thanks again for the detailed report! 

1111203
  • 1111203
  • Author
  • New Participant
  • June 15, 2026

Hey ​@1111203, I appreciate the detail you've put into describing both the expected and actual behaviour here.

I'd like to get this properly logged and investigated. To help us dig into this:

  1. Is this happening in the Browser (and if so, which browser) and the Figma desktop app?
  2. Is this specific to certain file types or export formats? For example, does it happen when exporting as PNG, JPG, and PDF, or just one format?
  3. Is the file a shared team file or a personal draft?
  4. Does the issue occur across all your files, or mainly on larger, multi-page ones?
  5. Can you share roughly how many pages and image-heavy frames the file contains? 

In the meantime, can you try duplicating just the frame(s) you need to export into a new, separate file before exporting. This should prevent Figma from needing to reference assets from the rest of the original file during the export process. It's not ideal for a regular workflow, but it may get you unblocked for now.

 

Thanks again for the detailed report! 

 

Hi, thanks a lot for the reply!
1, I only use desktop app on windows. But I just  tried browser, it’s also need to download for thousands of files in order to export multiple frames.
2, for all formats are the same, expecially when i export multiple frame together (Multiple >=2)
3, it’s shared team file
4, only one crashes Figma, and when Figma crashes, all Figma file must re-download for export.(it never happened like that before)
​​​​​5, not sure where i can check. but roughly more than 4000 image frames

and yes currently i copy the final design frame to new file to export.
why figma have to download 2000+ irrelevant assets in order to export only 2 frames which contain only maybe 4-8 images assets

Gayani_S
Figmate
  • Gayani_S
  • Community Support
  • June 15, 2026

Hey ​@1111203, thanks for following up! 

I've opened a support ticket on your behalf (#1962699) so our team can investigate this more closely with engineering.

You should have received an email from us, to keep things moving, it'd be great if you could follow up there with:

  • Figma desktop app version (Help menu > About Figma)
  • Windows OS version
  • Browser you tested in (and browser version)
  • Any screen recordings or memory profiling screenshots if you're able to capture them during the export attempt

Once we have everything we need, we'll dig in and keep you updated on progress.

Thanks again for the thorough report! 

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