How to disable Copy & Paste variables?

Hi Figma team.

I am the person in company who create and maintain the shared library. However we allow multiple editors in the file to put their ref in their own draft pages.
Problems happen when this released:

I did create a complete set of colors and numbers in variable. Then in other designers’ draft pages they copied design from other project files along with variables bound to them, then auto created collections with same name and same variable name.

When they do that I cannot know which collections are the ones I had defined for the library and which are the collections created by copying from other files. And how to locate the layers using those copied variables.

I don’t understand how much you need this feature. Variables can be published along with library aren’t they? So this is my suggestion:

  • If you copy layer with variables in a library, it should not create new variable in new collection in Local Variable, refer to the library instead.
  • If you copy layer with variables not it a library, okay but let user choose to create or not, and create in existing or new collection, keep their name or rename the variables.

For now I need to know which plugin could help me locate those copied variables? Strings, Numbers, Booleans & Colors included.

1 Like

Hello @Phu_Nguyen, Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this! I really appreciate you opening up about the challenging situation you’re currently dealing with.

To better address this, I have relocated this topic to “Share an Idea”. This will assist us in planning for future updates. Additionally, community members who support your suggestion can vote on it!

Regarding the plugin, I have searched through our community but have not found an exact match to help you with copied variables.

If anyone in our community is aware of a plugin that can assist or has any insights or workarounds, please do not hesitate to inform us!
Also, feel free to show your support by voting up this idea.

Thank you,

Thanks for your response.
There are multiple variable keep recreating everyday I access the file.
image

And I cannot locate the exact layers through all pages. I tried these commands but it does not work for me.
image

My file is kinda big and I don’t want to waste my time looking for unwanted variables everyday. So can you just simply add a modal asking people would they want to detach all bounded variables or create these following variables: {a checkbox next to each, collection, group name, type, value, mode}?

@Phu_Nguyen try “detach variables” plugin

Thanks for that suggestion but I’m afraid I won’t use it. I want to copy some designs having both published variables bounded and unwanted unpublished variable. If I use this I afraid I have to redo attaching all variables to where it need to be.