Enable Assets search only for enabled libraries

Hey all, trying to understand the latest feedback regarding the asset panel search. I recorded a video of what I am seeing (it should just search the libraries enabled on the file, unless there are no libraries or local components). I want to make sure I am not missing something so I can share feedback with the team.

Hi @Tom_Lowry ,

Thank you for taking the time to look into this.

The functionality works as expected when I create a new file and experiment as you did. However, I’m experiencing inconsistent results in an older project. In this project, even though I’ve enabled only local assets in my file, I still see components from other projects and libraries appearing alongside my local components. For instance, when I search for “Button,” I see my local asset along with additional button components from other libraries.

Could this be happening because I might have accidentally copied a component instance from another library into my file, detached it, and then created a new component from it? I realize that might not fully explain the mixed results, but I’m trying to determine whether this could be a bug or a result of my workflow.

This issue is suuuper frustrating and even more-so with the release of the newest asset search panel which I have noticed is including an even broader selection of results when searching. It completely conflicts with other the library functionality. Why even have the ability to enable specific libraries for a design file if the asset panel is going to show components from every library, non-library components, and components from libraries that have been unpublished/archived?? Furthermore, there is no sort option and the sorting of the results does not even take into account libraries that have been enabled in this file. This makes it extremely difficult to discontinue use of our old design system when the components from it keep appearing at the top of the search results. I wish Figma would stop trying to wow us with new AI functionality that nobody asked for and focus on cleaning up their core features (im also looking at you, auto layout!)

Hi @Tom_Lowry ,

Thanks for your video and for looking into this.

I’m seeing a similar thing @Iasonas is seeing. The designers I work with copy a lot of old designs over from one file (‘File 1’) to another (‘File 2’), for reference for example. Those designs may include a lot of component instances.
Those instances will show up when searching the assets panel of File 2, even though File 1 is not published as a library. Each component instance may include nested components, which may become visible in the assets panel too (though I haven’t been able to replicate that with new files). At least when the parent component gets detached, all of the nested components will be visible in the assets panel.
Often, the copied over designs contain unpublished, deprecated components from libraries that our designers shouldn’t use anymore. They may be hidden in the design that was copied over, but they will be visible in the assets panel as well.
In addition, I suspect that even when an instance gets deleted from File 2, they might still remain findable in the assets panel in some cases.

To me, the expected behaviour would be that the assets panel only shows:

1. Components that have been published and are in a library that’s enabled for the file
2. Local components

Joris, this may or may not be helpful for some of your team members, but I use it a lot and find it invaluable when I want to copy some components, or frames that contain components, from one document to another, but I don’t want them to remain as components. Before copying, I select what I want and apply a plugin called Destroyer (by Kirk Bentley) so when I paste it, all the parts are free and clear of their components and nothing additional comes into the new document. I find this super helpful when I’m trying to iterate but want to keep a history of those iterations without having them get modified along the way.

I used to do this when I used XD, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to do that in Figma without this plugin. Destroyer optionally strips out different things, such as component links, auto layouts, styles, etc. from whatever is selected. It won’t solve all the problems you describe, but I hope it will help with some of them.

Hi @Tom_Lowry and thanks so much for looking into this! I have an example of this issue (screenshot attached), where, when I search for “icon”, I see results of assets coming up from two unwanted libraries:

1. One not added to the file I’m working in — “Brand Visual Asset …” in the example
2. A trashed library — “Heroicons (Comm…)” in the example (I may have trashed it before I unpublished it, which could have caused the weird resurfacing of assets from it)

Looking forward to figuring it out 🙂

​@Tom_Lowry Any news on this issue?