Hi there. I got an email with a notification with the following:
You have 3 days left on the Education plan
The teams you own will become view-only for all members, and you’ll lose edit access to other teams once your plan expires.
If you’re still in education:Verify your status to keep collaborating with your team(s).
To save your work: Duplicate or move files to your personal drafts to save them for later, and consider transferring ownership of your team(s).
Whatever happens next, best of luck! Whenever you’re ready to start your next creative adventure, let us know.
I am pretty confused about how the plans work. I have a free plan with design files I cannot lose. I was on an education plan - but as i understood that was also just the free plan. There is a side bar which notes ‘my team’ but no one else is in it. My design files which I cannot lose do seem to be in it.
So do i have to upgrade to professional to keep these files? I don’t need the team but I do need the files. I am not sure if that is the same thing or different things.
I must say I love Figma but I do find the whole ‘Figma plan’ ‘teams’ thing to ber very confusing overall.
Could you help clarify? Would appreciated that! Just have 2 days to upgrade if necessary, after this 3 day notices. Thanks!
You won’t lose anything in any case, so don’t worry.
The team can be on Education or Starter plan. If you have multiple teams they can be on different plans. If the team is on the Education plan, you will see this banner at the bottom of the main team page:
Having an Education-verified account means that you can upgrade Starter teams to Education. Education plan gives you unlimited projects (folders) and files in the teams you upgrade, however they can only be edited by other Education verified users.
If you don’t collaborate with anyone, there is pretty much no reason to use teams in the first place, so you can basically move everything to the Drafts folder and keep using your files. Even if your Education plan expires you won’t lose any files, you simply won’t be able to edit files in your Education team (that will be downgraded to Starter). You can move them to Drafts to be able to edit them again or upgrade the team to Pro plan by paying. But again if you don’t collab with others and don’t need some paid features like dev mode there is no reason to upgrade.
You and the Figma team are always so fantastically quick at responding to community questions. Much appreciated.
Then I would have a few short follow up questions please:
Most importantly: 2 of those files I have - have prototypes linked out to a portfolio site, showcasing some of my interactive app designs. Will that remain possible if they are moved to the drafts folder?
Can I have unlimited files in drafts and export images / designs as usual?
Will I also be able to use FigJam if I do not upgrade?
I did already upgrade in the fear of losing my files - but based on your advice and the fact that I see people who live in the EU have the right to cancel and get a refund within 14 days - I would then go back to a starter plan if there’s no other significant reason I shouldn’t.
I don’t collaborate with anyone currently on that account. So if I would like unlimited files for myself and to keep my current ones with active prototype links out to an external site - as I understand you I can stay on the starter plan and have the above?
Yeah. The only issue is gonna be videos if you use them, since I think there are some limits in the free plan. You can check what’s available in the free plan in the docs somewhere. However the existing prototypes won’t break, only if you would want to change them in the future you may encounter issues with such paid feature limitations.
Hi, I need help. I received the email so I re-verified my education status. All seemed correct and I didn’t come back during easter holidays.
Now, I find that I don’t have education plan and all my projects and boards have disappeared.
If I pay or if I re-verify, they will come back?
I had tons of work in here. Thanks!
They shouldn’t disappear no matter what plan you are on or your education verification status. Make sure you log in the correct Figma account. If that doesn’t help contact Figma support.
I currently have an education account and I’m using that for getting to know the basics first. But if I have to collab in future with others and work as a freelancer within 2 years, will all my files delete once my Education plan gets expired?
Also, If I pay for pro plan during my Education plan will all my files get deleted or stay as it is?
Hi Guys, hope you’re well. A few months ago my designer created a file and invited me to it, once it was complete he made me the owner and handed over all rights to me.
I now became the owner of the file and him just someone that can view and edit.
I started to invite many of my team members to collaborate with me on the file and of course naturally there are dozens of comments left all over the file.
As a few months went by, I come to find out that the file is an educator file because the file now tells me that i cannot edit unless I prove that I am a student or an educator.
I am happy to upgrade my account and pay for Professional however I don’t think that will still give me access to edit the file.
Now I am aware that I can create a new file with all the same design content on there and start afresh however, I do not wish to do that as I’d have to go through the headache of inviting all my team members over onto that file again and also I cant transfer over all my comments either.
Hello, I am currently an Education member of Figma, teaching Web Design to high school students. However, when I set up a new team for my class now, it says ‘free’ and there is no option in the plan options to select ‘education’ anymore. For this upcoming semester, we will need more than the limited amount offered in the ‘free’ plan. Hoping for some advice on how to solve this issue promptly (see screenshots attached).
Hi, I have a similar situation: I had a Figma education account that expired. Then I started a new course at another university, and opened a new Figma account with my new student email. I was hoping I could transfer the ownership of the work I did on the first (now expired) account to my new one. But it’s not letting me. I emailed support, but I got an automated message saying they only deal with paying customers, which is fair. Any ideas on how to proceed, or if it’s even possible?
Hey @Gabe6, thank you for reaching out! I’ve just opened a new support ticket on your behalf.
I am unsure how we would proceed here, a possible suggestion would be downgrade your first education plan to a starter plan and transfer your work. However, I am not sure if there is a better solution. The support will give you better advice on this.
Your ticker number is #1142195, for reference.
Our support team usually takes up to 24 hours to reply back to emails - tends to be quicker than that in normal circumstances. However, please be aware that we are facing increased contact volume so there might be a delay.
