When swapping libraries figma only swaps styles and components that are named exactly the same. If you have named components with spaced between “/” like so: “Alerts / Error” it will not match “Alert/Error” when swapping libraries.
It would be nice if the spaces adjacent to the “/” in names are stripped when figma tries to match the components. Or figma tries to find components/styles with spaces and without, So you get an option if there are two matches.
With huge libraries and many of them, Its a pain to go through them all and rename styles and components correctly.
In our international corporation, we have one Figma org per country due to Figma’s inability to invoice us per region. We have one main Figma library in one of these orgs, and the other orgs manually republish this at intervals in their respective locations. When republishing locally, all (in-progress) files must be manually connected to the new library using Swap library.
Sometimes, assets in the main Figma library are renamed. For subscribing orgs, this means that when swapping libraries, these assets will not be updated. Rather, they are outdated (orphaned). Reason is (quoting Figma): “Matching is based on the style or component name only”.
This is the only workaround I have found. It is extremely time consuming, as it (1) has to be done manually on all files across all territories and (2) requires extensive training:
From the perspective of the subscribing organisations
Download & publish the new library version
Use «swap library» on all in-progress Figma files that consume the library
Note the names of the assets that are reported “None found”
Go back to the new library
Rename the assets to match their previous names
Republish, but don’t close it
Go back to the in-progress files. For all:
Update to the latest library version
Again, swap library. The renamed assets should now be picked up.
Go back to the new library
Undo all the name changes
Republish
Go back to the in-progress files and update a final time
We have an enterprise license, basically handing Figma extra money for smoothing out issues we’re having since we’re global. Therefore, I’m hoping maybe a better solution exists. If it does I would be grateful to learn more.