Copy/Move variable groups into other collections

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
June 22, 2023
176 replies
32721 views

I have been playing around with creating variables but realized I would rather have groups in separate collections, but cannot move them.

I would like to be able to duplicate an entire collection so I don’t have to manually re-create values and can remove what I don’t need from that collection OR simply be able to move groups into other collections.

[The title of this post was edited from “LAUNCHED: Copy/Move variable groups into other collections” to “Copy/Move variable groups into other collections” by a moderator on 17-Jan-2026.]

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Aguiar_Leonardo_extern

Active Member

Moving does not seem to exist. If I copy and paste a variable to another collection I have to reassign the variable from the new collection to any of the inputs where the original copied variable is being applied.

Scott_Ehly1

New Participant

I agree with @Matthew_Ryan about “launched”. We clearly need at least one new request thread.

For my own part, I’m looking for a way to move one or more variable collections from one library to another such that the assignments remain intact.
This would essentially mirror the functionality of moving (cutting/pasting) components from one library to another.

As a user, this seems like an obvious need. I wished for it within 24 hours of the beta release of variables. Almost immediately after creating a variable set in a specific design document, I realized that I’d want the affected components and their new variables to be moved into a global library where they could be used by all designs in our design system.

This can be done for the components, but the variables would always have to be recreated and then reassigned. I’ve lost days trying to do this. It’s not just a matter of manually recreating the variables, but also the debugging involved in trying to figure out where all those variables were used.

Until this is a real feature, my only recourse is to create ALL variable sets in a single, global styles library that is available to all designs.

Lior_Mazza1

New Participant

Its so frustrating to see Figma team launching half cooked feature and announcing it as done!
This feature is so buggy i would be ashamed to release it. where was the QA team on this feature?

thaisa.santos

New Member

I agree with @Matthew_Ryan about “launched”. We clearly need at least one new request thread.

For my own part, I’m looking for a way to move one or more variable collections from one library to another such that the assignments remain intact.
This would essentially mirror the functionality of moving (cutting/pasting) components from one library to another.

As a user, this seems like an obvious need. I wished for it within 24 hours of the beta release of variables. Almost immediately after creating a variable set in a specific design document, I realized that I’d want the affected components and their new variables to be moved into a global library where they could be used by all designs in our design system.

This can be done for the components, but the variables would always have to be recreated and then reassigned. I’ve lost days trying to do this. It’s not just a matter of manually recreating the variables, but also the debugging involved in trying to figure out where all those variables were used.

Until this is a real feature, my only recourse is to create ALL variable sets in a single, global styles library that is available to all designs.

My thoughts exactly. Right now I’m reassigning the variables for the needs of my other files and files from other colleagues, but it seems a too manual approach in my view.

Cassie11

New Participant

This is not “launched”, not the way anyone actually needs it.

adilhassan

New Participant

I have been playing around with creating variables but realized I would rather have groups in separate collections, but cannot move them.

I would like to be able to duplicate an entire collection so I don’t have to manually re-create values and can remove what I don’t need from that collection OR simply be able to move groups into other collections.

That would definitely make organizing variables much easier! Being able to duplicate or move groups between collections would save a lot of time.