LAUNCHED: Moving or copying variables

Thanks for the update. Good to hear

You can add the variables to a library, then when you import the library the variables are also copied. I did this test just now and it worked well, including actualizations.

Thanks for your input @Luana_Sousa.

I am however thinking of the following issue.
A company creates a library including a lot of components, now Figma has a new feature and they create a lot of variables in the same file. Now they are scaling and even merging with another business unit and see the need for a foundation level and a dedicated token/variables library and even another variables library to add a semantic layer.

As it turns out, their current variables (that are heavily used already in their files) shall be moved to the foundations layer and the dedicated library, WITHOUT UNLINKING all the variables that are used in the tons of other files.

What could they do?

Oliver and i are barking up the same tree.

I desperately need to lift out an entire product’s components and variable information and move them to a dedicated library file while keeping everything linked. Obviously the components are easy with the tools given, and i can even copy variables over and re-link them pretty well to said components using some of the aforementioned plugins…

HOWEVER, all other variables break link (turn grey in the inspector) with any of these methods and i really feel stuck with no way forward short of manually combing through hundreds of frames and manually re-linking variables in non-component designs.

We very much need this as well. We have a bunch of variables in a library and want to split off a specific group of them to be in a different library as they are really used by different groups of people. Having them all together is causing complications but I haven’t found a good way to move them without breaking where they are in use already.

The issue at hand has not been solved. This thread shouldn’t be marked as “LAUNCHED”.
There has been a way to cut and paste (effectively, move) styles and components for a while… Now variables are a step back from this 😞

This has not been resolved. Copying and pasting elements does not also copy and paste local variables applied to the element from one file to another. @Celine_Figma This issue is becoming a big problem for our company to maintain and consolidate multiple files who use variables from multiple published libraries.

We need the ability to move local variables that have been published in Figma File A to Figma File B without any files who link to those variables to be de-linked or require any manual updating. At this time, there is NO WAY to move variables from one file to another.

Hi, new to the forum. Just seen this post and I’m having a very similar problem. I want to drag or copy and paste my variables from one collection to another. Anyone figured that out yet?

not solved but there is lip service being paid to knowing it’s an issue at least ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Just adding my support here. The ability to move variables in the same way as components and not break links is super helpful when it comes to maintaining a growing design system. Hope we can get this feature on the roadmap!