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Hi Figma Community,

I'm experiencing an issue where Figma file links are not opening in the desktop app when clicked from Safari. Instead, they always open in a new Safari tab.

The core issue is that this problem is isolated entirely to Safari. If I click the exact same Figma link from Arc Browser, it works perfectly and launches the desktop app as expected.

Here are my system details:

  • Operating System: macOS Sequoia 15.6.1 (24G90)
  • Safari Version: 18.6
  • Figma Desktop App: 125.8.6 (reinstalled today)

Summary of the Problem

  • Expected Behavior: Clicking a Figma file link in Safari should trigger a prompt to open the link in the native Figma macOS app.
  • Actual Behavior: Safari ignores the ⁠figma:// protocol and opens the link in a new browser tab. No prompt appears.

Troubleshooting Steps I Have Already Taken

I have gone through an extensive list of troubleshooting steps with no success. The issue persists across all my attempts to fix it.

In-Figma Settings:

  • Confirmed that Preferences > Open links in desktop app is checked. I have also tried toggling this setting off and on.

Safari-Specific Troubleshooting:

  • Disabled All Extensions: I have disabled every Safari extension. The issue still occurs.
  • Cleared Cache & Data: I have cleared all Safari cache and website data for Figma.
  • Checked Website Permissions: I have checked ⁠Safari > Settings > Websites to ensure no permissions are blocking Figma.
  • Safari Profiles: The issue occurs in both my "Personal" and "Work" profiles. Critically, I also created a brand new, clean test profile in Safari, and the issue still happens there, suggesting it's not a profile-specific setting.

System-Level Troubleshooting:

  • Reinstalled Figma: I have completely uninstalled and reinstalled the Figma desktop app.
  • Forced Launch Services to Re-register: I have moved the Figma.app out of the ⁠/Applications folder and back in to force macOS to re-index the app and its URL handlers.
  • Reset Safari Preferences:
  • I ran ⁠defaults delete com.apple.Safari LSHandlers in Terminal, which returned "does not exist," confirming Safari had no custom override for the handler.
  • I manually removed the ⁠com.apple.Safari.plist file from ⁠~/Library/Preferences/ and restarted my Mac to force Safari to rebuild its preference files from scratch.

Given that the feature works in other browsers and that the issue persists in a completely fresh Safari profile after a full preference reset, this appears to be a deep, non-user-facing bug in how my instance of Safari is interacting with macOS's Launch Services.

Could you please advise if there are any other known solutions for this specific, persistent Safari issue?

Thank you for your help.

Hey ​@Joe P-R, thank you for the detailed breakdown of the issue and for walking me through all the troubleshooting steps you’ve already tried, this is really helpful.

Before I connect you with our technical quality team, could you please double-check one more thing for me: after reinstalling the desktop app and clearing Safari’s cache, is the “Open links in desktop app” setting in Figma still toggled on? It may reset when clearing the cache, so I just want to make sure that’s ruled out.

If it is still toggled on, I’ll go ahead and escalate this to our technical quality team so you can share your Figma desktop app debug logs with them, and they can investigate further into what’s causing this.

 

Thanks again for your patience! 

Hey ​@Joe P-R, thank you for the detailed breakdown of the issue and for walking me through all the troubleshooting steps you’ve already tried, this is really helpful.

Before I connect you with our technical quality team, could you please double-check one more thing for me: after reinstalling the desktop app and clearing Safari’s cache, is the “Open links in desktop app” setting in Figma still toggled on? It may reset when clearing the cache, so I just want to make sure that’s ruled out.

If it is still toggled on, I’ll go ahead and escalate this to our technical quality team so you can share your Figma desktop app debug logs with them, and they can investigate further into what’s causing this.

 

Thanks again for your patience! 

Hi ​@Gayani_S 

Yes, I can confirm “Open links in desktop app” is toggled on.

Thanks,

Joe

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