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Jose Martins
New Member
September 15, 2026
Question

Figma Make project lost its entire codebase — root component replaced by empty stub, all files gone. Recoverable from version history?

  • September 15, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 23 views

I have a Figma Make project that, until recently, contained a full React application (a fairly large multi-screen prototype) plus a set of markdown spec docs and planning docs. At some point the entire application appears to have been wiped and replaced with an empty scaffold, and I'm trying to understand what happened and how to recover it.

What the project used to contain:

  • src/app/App.tsx (the real root component)
  • a large src/app/components/ tree (many components)
  • src/app/data/ model files
  • files/ folder of markdown specs
  • plans/ folder of planning docs

What it contains now:

  • The live entry point is now src/app/App-5.tsx, which is an empty placeholder that renders an empty centered <div> — so the app loads to a blank screen.
  • There's also an orphaned src/app/App-2.tsx, another empty placeholder stub.
  • Only the style files (fonts.cssglobals.cssindex.csstailwind.csstheme.css) remain.
  • App.tsx, the entire components tree, the data files, the files/ folder, and the plans/ folder are all gone. No copies exist anywhere in the project tree.
  • Some new image assets are present that weren't part of the original build.

What I've already checked:

  • There's no git history in the project, so no commits to roll back to.
  • The only trace of the old work is a set of .tool-decisions/*.json approved-plan records that reference plan files which no longer exist — so the work clearly happened and was built, but the content is gone.
  • The root component appears to have been regenerated more than once over time (App-2 → App-5), each time producing a fresh empty stub, and the real root was never carried forward.

My questions:

  1. Is this a known behavior/bug? What would cause Make to replace the working root component with an empty placeholder and remove the rest of the project's files? (I did not intend to reset or start the project over.)
  2. What's the safest way to recover the previous build from version history / checkpoints? I want to recover the old version without losing the current version — ideally by duplicating an earlier checkpoint into a separate file rather than doing an in-place restore. Is there a recommended way to do that?
  3. How far back does Make version history retain checkpoints, and is there any risk the good version ages out if I keep working in the project?
  4. Is there any other recovery avenue if version history doesn't have it (support-side backups, etc.)?

Details:

  • Project: [paste the Figma Make project link]
  • Approximately when the wipe happened: [date / rough timeframe, if you know it]
  • Plan: [Free / Professional / Organization / Enterprise]
  • Environment: [browser + version, OS]

I've left the project untouched (no restores, no new prompts) since discovering this, to avoid overwriting anything still recoverable. Any guidance on the safest recovery path would be much appreciated.

2 replies

Jose Martins
New Member
September 15, 2026

when I click … → Preview version (or Restore this version) on any of these, I get the error:

Couldn't fetch this version

So the version entries exist in the timeline, but Figma cannot fetch the underlying file for any of them.

What I've already tried (all still fail with the same error)

Retrying Preview several times on the same version
Reloading the browser tab and reopening the project
Trying Restore instead of Preview
Trying multiple different versions (686, 685, 684, …), not just the latest
Waiting several minutes and retrying
Impact

My current live project is just the blank placeholder, and Version History — my only path back to the last working build — cannot fetch any version. This is weeks of work that appears intact in the history list but is currently unreachable.

Jaycee Lewis
Figmate
Figmate
September 15, 2026

Hi ​@Jose Martins 👋 Thank you for flagging this. I opened a support ticket for this. The ID is 2133755 and the email subject line is Figma Make — project codebase replaced by empty stub, and all Version History checkpoints fail. Please keep an eye on your email (and spam folder if necessary) for the email and any replies from our team. I added some additional questions to the support email to help our team get more information about your case. Thank you! — Jaycee