Stop automatically adding FigmaAgent to Login Items

This problem has been around for over six months now, but there is still no fix. This reminds me of Adobe’s behavior. They also did the same thing with the Adobe creative cloud, which bypassed the user and worked in the background on the system. Also, to say that this is only for updating fonts is ridiculous, then open the code for audit so that users can be sure of this.

Same issue here, please fix it!

+1, makes me want to uninstall Figma desktop app

+1, makes me want to uninstall Figma desktop app

As a developer, I would never even consider doing this to my users. It is toxic application behaviour to be installing anything in the Login Items or elsewhere other than during an installer process triggered by a user, and it is thermonuclear to re-install that item once a user has explicitly removed it again.

Even if Figma incorrectly thought that their perceived need to have this item installed trumped user choice, at the very least it would be the most trivial step for Figma to record when it had installed this item once and not do it again if the user removes it.

More to the point, Figma could easily offer me the opportunity via a dialog to install this agent, and let me as a user decide if I want to. For the record, I have absolutely no interest in making my locally installed fonts available to your website so you can stop that right now. Secondly, if you can’t access my locally installed fonts within your native application you need to seriously review your tech stack decisions.

My company chose Figma so I will continue to use it but if I was ever asked my opinion on whether we should change to (insert the name of any competitor including any I had never heard of) I would immediately discuss how user hostile Figma’s approach is.

This is the most presumptuous development decision I have seen in I don’t know how many years. Figma is literally the only application that does this, our of dozens and dozens that I have installed and many I use on a constant basis. Personally, I don’t find it “unsafe” but I do find it extremely annoying. This should be removed.

There is another way to avoid that, but it involves a few steps and is rather hacky:

1. Move Figma to a disk image

• You have to create an empty disk image (e.g. .sparseimage) with Disk Utility

• Move the Figma.app from applications into that disk image

• delete the old Figma.app in the applications folder

2. Locate the Figma Agent

• After opening the disk image, right click on Figma.app to “Show Package Contents”
• Look for the FigmaAgent.app in the Library folder

3. Create an Alias

• Right Click on the FigmaAgent.app to “Make Alias”

4. Replace the Figma Agent on your System with the Alias

• Navigate to ~/Library/Application Support/Figma, or right click on the Login Item “FigmaAgent” in your System Settings to “Show in Finder”
• Rename or delete the existing FigmaAgent.app in that folder
• Move the alias you created in step 3 to this folder, and rename it to FigmaAgent.app

What this will do
On startup, the login item will try to launch FigmaAgent.app. But as this item now points to a non-mounted disk image, it will not work anymore. So FigmaAgent will no longer launch on startup.

Figma cannot replace the alias, it will not be removed with an update.

Downsides

• FigmaAgent can no longer be updated
• You have to mount/open the sparseimage each time you want to launch Figma

Trust is a big deal when it comes to security and application deployment. This behaviour violates that trust and means desktop installations for a very expensive product are not possible and can even put contracts at risk. There are plenty of other free design tools, and access to training via YouTube nullifies your argument.

To the Figma owners, please consider and remove this annoying prompt, as you can already see how many users are annoyed by this prompt. I am sure there is a way around it without constantly reminding users. I think once is fine but not constantly or allow users to have the option to disable this.

Quite logical, right?

Add me to the list of frustrated users, this setting is something I’d expect from some dodgy software, not the leading app in the industry