Skip to main content
Question

Preserve links when Cutting & Pasting Frames

  • May 11, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 18 views
Yannick_Lung

As described in the title, links are broken as soon as you cut a frame and paste it elsewhere (on the same page, in the same file).

How to reproduce this issue:

  1. Copy the link to any selected frame
  2. Save the copied link somewhere
  3. Cut the previously selected frame and paste it elsewhere (same file, same page)
  4. Open the saved link
  5. The link no longer leads to the frame

Suggested solution: When a frame is cut and pasted, the associated link ID should not be lost.

    1 reply

    djv
    Figmate
    • djv
    • Community Support
    • May 11, 2026

    Hi ​@Yannick_Lung, thanks for flagging this! 

    I understand that this is disruptive to your workflow, but right now, this is expected behavior. When cutting and pasting frames in Figma, associated links to specific elements are lost because Figma treats the action as a deletion of the original element rather than a move. To prevent this from happening, copy/paste instead of cutting, or manually move the frame on the canvas to maintain connection IDs.

    Here are some other tips that may help: 

    • Use "Move to Page" instead of Cut/Paste
      • If moving elements between pages, right-click the frame and select Move to page rather than cutting and pasting to keep the links intact.
    • Duplicate and Delete
      • ​​​​​​​If you need to move elements across files or pages without losing connections, try duplicating the page first, then deleting the unwanted content. This method should preserve the link structure.
    • Restore from Version History
      • ​​​​​​​If you have already lost the links, you can revert to a previous version of the file, as discussed in this Figma forum thread and shown in this video.
    • Check "Link to Selection"
      • ​​​​​​​When copying links to specific frames, make sure the Link to selection checkbox is enabled in the Share dialog.
    • Wait to Link
      • ​​​​​​​If you are building a system, it is sometimes better to paste all elements first, then add the prototype links at the end to avoid broken connections.

    That said, I hear your feedback and desire for the link IDs to be maintained consistently. I’ve update this topic into a feature request and edited the topic title for clarity. 

    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement