Spacebar panning glitch in Figma

Hey everyone, not sure if this has been mentioned yet (besides my comment a few months ago), but you can get rid of this bug in Win11 temporarily by switching programs and switching back to Figma. No need to close out of Figma entirely.

Hey everyone, quick update from the team!

We've made good progress this week. The team found a reliable way to reproduce this and traced it back to what happens when the canvas loses keyboard focus, for example if you click into a panel or another element on screen while still holding the spacebar down. That's what's been causing the spacebar to get stuck and the erratic panning and selection behaviour you've all described.

We've put a fix in place for this, and it's rolling out gradually. We're hopeful this will be resolved for everyone in the coming days.

Thanks so much for sticking with this thread, and for all the details, screen recordings, and repro steps along the way. They made a real difference in tracking this down.

I'll check back in once the rollout's further along, but if you're still seeing this after that, let me know here and I'll flag it straight back to the team.

Hey Zach_Ward2, thanks so much for sharing that! 

That trick lines up nicely with what we just found on our end, the spacebar can get stuck when the canvas loses keyboard focus, and switching apps and back resets that, which is exactly why it's been helping.

We've now identified the cause and put a fix in place that's rolling out gradually. We're hopeful this will be resolved for everyone in the coming days, but if you're still seeing it after that, let me know here and I'll take another look.

I’ve had this issue for well over a year in Figma desktop app on Windows, I always use the latest version.

Hopefully I’ll get the update soon, it’s such a pain in the ass. Just like Zach, I’ve found out that simply tabbing in and out of Figma temporarily resolves it, but it’s back soon enough.

​@Gayani_S the glitch is back again 😣

Same issue here, for many months now, and it is significantly worse with a pen tablet.

Answers to the standard questions up front:
- Figma Desktop app for Mac, latest version. I'll test the browser version and report back.
- Mac: MacBook Pro (Apple Silicon), currently macOS 27.0; the issue predates the upgrade and was present on macOS 26 as well.
- Input: Wacom Intuos Pro M (PTK-670) + Pro Pen 3, Wacom driver 6.4.14-1, latest.
- All files, Figma Design (haven't checked FigJam).

Behavior: I hold Space, put the pen down and drag to pan — works. The moment I lift the pen (mouse up) while Space is still held, Figma stays in "dragging" state and the canvas keeps panning with any pointer movement. With a pen this is immediate and constant, because the pen moves the cursor while merely hovering over the tablet, so the canvas flies off in whatever direction the hovering pen drifts (usually sideways/left for me). Switching to the Hand tool (H) instead of Space doesn't seem to trigger it.

So the trigger looks like: mouse-up received while Space is held → pan state not released. The pen just makes the consequence visible instantly.

Happy to provide a screen recording and the desktop debug logs. Given how many pen-tablet users in design work rely on Space+drag, this is a daily-workflow blocker, not a cosmetic glitch.

Hey everyone, thanks for sticking with us on this one! 

@JustLaik, sorry to hear it's cropped up again. Could you confirm which Figma Desktop app version you're currently on? That'll help me flag this back to the team.

@Roman Sidoroff, thank you for sharing all these info! I’ve already passed this into the team internally.
 A couple of things that would help even more:

• If you're able to grab a quick screen recording of it happening, that'll let the engineers see it firsthand.
• Whenever you get to testing the browser version like you mentioned, let us know how that goes — that'll help confirm whether this is Desktop-specific.

For both of you, it's also worth double-checking you're on the latest Figma Desktop app. 

We'd previously rolled out a fix for a related issue tied to the canvas losing keyboard focus while Space was held, but based on what you're both describing, this looks worth another look. I'll keep this thread open and update you as soon as I hear back.

​@Gayani_S funny thing is, that when you do the screen recording, the whole bug disappears )) screen panning starts to work very slow, probably cuz of some overlay mode of the screen recording, and the bug can not be repeated.

@JustLaik, still keen to get that Figma Desktop app version from you when you get a chance, that'll help us confirm whether you're on a build with the recent fix. Does what you're seeing now match exactly what you described before (a short delay, then selecting elements instead of panning), or does it feel different this time around?

@Roman Sidoroff, got your version, thanks! And that's a great find about the screen recording masking the issue. I've passed that along too, since it points to this being timing-sensitive. Could you try the same Space + drag + release sequence using just your trackpad instead of the pen? Based on what you've described, this may come down to how the pen registers lifting off versus a normal mouse-up, so ruling that in or out would be a big help for the team.

​@Gayani_S 

Figma Desktop App version 126.9.10
I can’t quite reproduce it as consistently as before, but every now and then when I hit the spacebar, the canvas automatically starts scrolling in one direction.