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Alissa_Rubin
Alissa_Rubin
New Participant
October 1, 2026
Question

Non-default states in a component instance do not pull updates from master component

  • October 1, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 34 views

I have been encountering this issue for I do not know how long now, likely a year or more.

Whenever I have a master component with different properties, for example a tab set with multiple tabs inside it (in this instance those are also individual components), which can be set to “idle” or “active”, which includes a color change.

When I update something about the master component, such as removing the presence of an icon from each tab, the “idle” (default) states of the component instances will update and the icon is removed, but the “active” (non-default) instances will not update. The icon is still there.

I encounter this most often with text, such as a message or alert component, where I change the text on the master, but for any non-default states of the instances, the text will not update. I have to reset, which returns every property to default, and then adjust all my properties again. Or manually update the text, which means it is now “custom” and will never automatically apply changes from the master.

This is pretty annoying and feels like Figma should be able to track what he states of a component are, and update a separate element of it without resetting everything.

2 replies

djv
Figmate
djv
Community Support
October 1, 2026

Hi ​@Alissa_Rubin, thanks for reaching out! 

I can see how frustrating it would be to reset the instance and reapply all of its property selections just to receive an unrelated update from the main component.

 

Could you share a screen recording showing the main component, the affected instance, and how you switch between the “idle” and “active” states? It would also help to know whether these are local or published library components, whether the affected text or icon was ever edited directly in the instance, and whether a newly inserted instance receives the update correctly.

 

For now, resetting the affected instance and reapplying its property values appears to be the most reliable temporary solution, though I understand that isn’t ideal.

Alissa_Rubin
Alissa_RubinAuthor
New Participant
October 5, 2026

Here’s an example. For me, this is consistent across all components, whether its published or local, uses nested components or not, etc. If the element was edited directly in the instance in any way, including changing properties, then it does not update. But this happens even without customizing text, as you can see here.

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