Skip to main content
Stefan_Pilipovic
February 11, 2021

Disable auto-nesting/auto-reparenting while moving objects

  • February 11, 2021
  • 68 replies
  • 17237 views
  1. Describe the problem your experiencing and how your idea helps solve this

The issue with this feature has been covered many times in Spectrum discussions:

Spectrum – 3 Jan 18

There is a way to avoid this by holding SPACE as soon as you click & don’t start dragging the object. But why force us to do acrobatics with our fingers by holding down an additional button, just to move the object? Why not provide an option to disable that functionality completely?

Nagaraj Chandran had a very logical idea in his comment:
“I don’t want to hold the spacebar key to disable auto-nesting. Maybe, it should be the other way around. Hold spacebar or any other key to auto-nest.”

  1. Add as much context as possible (screenshots, Figma files, mockups, etc.)

More than enough in discussions on Spectrum ☝️

  1. Ask questions to bring the community into the conversation

Does anybody find this feature useful? If yes, please enlighten me on how to make use of it because it’s driving me insane and kills my productivity big time.

68 replies

mattiasaaaaaa
New Member
February 11, 2025

please fix this!! +1

mumen88
New Member
February 15, 2025

this is so annoying tbh. It’s useful in 1/10 use cases. Def should be an opt in than default. 

Maks Charankouski
New Member
April 27, 2025

4 years have passed and we're still here. I hate auto-nesting so much that I'll pay for a tool that promotes it with the slogan "like figma but without auto-nesting behaviour"!

claymedia
New Member
September 3, 2025

Seriously, has anyone ever found this UX useful? If I want to put an object in another group, I will use the layers panel. Usually there are way too many layers of groups to trust that it will drag into the correct place. Combine this with auto-layout and it makes for an extremely frustrating experience.

Paul Timberman
New Member
January 23, 2026

Yet another in a long line of bazaar choices made by Figma creators. I am forced by my company to design in this program, because of the online collaboration and sharing features. But doing the most basic of actions, like move an object past, over, or near another group of objects causes insane and unwanted results. With no way to turn that “feature” off! Designing in this program is an efficiency killer, and it constantly frustrates and baffles me. 

Basilicom
New Member
June 17, 2026

i still want this to be fixed so badly. But what really gets me… whenever i try to copy/paste an object into a frame it actually DOES NOT work. I select an object, copy it - select a Frame, paste it. And the Obejct is still not inside the Frame. I usually find out hours later when i move the whole frame and half the objects dont move with it. 

claymedia
New Member
June 30, 2026

I have to use Figma every day for work, and I cannot think of a single time that I wanted to move an object into a group by just dragging it. 

Even if some insane people do prefer it that way… Why can’t the rest of us disable it???

This is a constant efficiency killer. Please, Figma overlords. Please give us a toggle to disable this behavior.

Peter_Alewine
New Member
August 29, 2026

I have ALWAYS been majorly annoyed by this behavior. It frequently screws things up when I have auto layouts, in particular. I’ll be dragging something and it completely messes up a large chunk of my screen and I’m like “what just happened! …. oh, that’s an auto layout group and I can’t drop this object where I want to because Figma wants to put it inside the auto layout group. Stupid #$%^.”

Totally counter-productive and makes me bend around backwards to avoid this wonky behavior.

I have never -- not once in years of using Figma -- wanted dragging and dropping things on the canvas to accomplish adding things into an auto layout group. If I want something in it, I will put it there by ordering in the hierarchy appropriately.