Material theme builder version 20, released in May 2024, is not operational. The plugin generates theme colours but does not update them in any project files other than the original kit project. This means that if you had any work using Material 3 kit, you are not able to update the theme since May 2024. It is not possible to do any theme-related M3 work with a custom theme since May 2024. Themes in any project that people had done in Material3 UI Kit cannot be updated anymore since May 2024.
There is no other Material theme builder plugin. We are hostages of the situation.
It appears that version 20 of the plugin was released untested, and the development team was immediately reassigned or disbanded. Nobody from the Material team reads bug reports; nobody responds.
Figma announced the category of UI kits but did nothing else; nobody tests anything that is in the plugin store. The provider uploaded a broken plugin that prevents people from working. Figma allowed this to happen. You have the resources, billions of dollars; couldn’t you assign a developer to fix the M3 Theme builder plugin?
And cue the answer “we will pass your feedback for consideration.” It is a disaster! It is not “feedback for consideration”.
Hey @RonMan, thank you for reaching out and sharing your honest feedback!
Your sentiment is valid and I understand your frustration.
Material Theme Builder is a third party plugin. All of our plugins are created by Community members and not Figma and that’s the reason why we always advise users to reach out to the plugin’s creator for help using that plugin, or to report any problems. The plugin’s creator will then report any bugs in Figma to us.
While I don’t have any explicit power in this case, I did want to express that I hear you. At this moment I can only share your post internally with the teams. I do understand this is not a feedback for consideration, I will make sure the team acknowledges this post and hopefully tries to contact the plugin creator.
I will get back to you if I get any response from the team regarding this situation. Thank you for your patience in the meantime!
This goes beyond the regular plugin developer relationship. The UI Kits category is curated by you and is the top category in Figma design resources. The community resources are not something that’s optional or non-essential to Figma. It was one of the major differences that allowed Figma to overtake Sketch.
Figma has responsibility for it, and being selected for the UI kits category comes with responsibility. You can’t allow irresponsible publishing. If you curate a UI kit, you’re indicating that this UI kit is something that can be relied upon, taken as a basis for design, and direct customers towards them. But now when a provider acts irresponsibly, the customer is left with no solution for the problem, with entire design projects in disarray.
You should have dedicated staff and a process to keep track of and certify curated UI kits/design systems.
Verify that in every update, it is working and does not break existing design projects built with it.
The library can be changed so that previously linked components do not work, or components that were selectable previously have to be manually re-linked in 100 places.
Styles or variables may be changed, breaking the existing design projects.
Design system-specific plugins may be broken. As you see with Google’s Material 3 kit, the plugin is an essential part of the UI kit, yet there is no testing involved on their part.
Hey everyone, apologies for the delayed response! Please know that we take your feedback very seriously, and I truly appreciate your patience. I’ve connected with the team, and they’ve confirmed that this plugin seems to be from a Figma Partner, so we’ll definitely be contacting the creator regarding your concerns and passing along your feedback.
As for the plugin, Material Theme Builder has been recently updated. We’ve tested it on our end, and it appears to be working well now.
That said, if you’re still experiencing any issues, please don’t hesitate to reach out. If possible, sharing a screen recording would be really helpful so I can pass it along to the team who’s in touch with the creator.
Apologies again for the delay, but I want to ensure that you’re getting the support you need. We’re here to help!
I have read your response a couple of times and am in disbelief. I think this is absolutely the worst answer that could be given to this situation. Is there an adult working at Figma that we can talk to? We rely on your product for professional work, and the broken plugin that you promote under UI Kits has made it impossible to update designs.
Why the delayed response? After almost a month of silence? Is there another urgent crisis you have to attend to? And is there no other person to deal with this problem? You do not take it seriously, why write an insincere canned answer that you do?
Were you distrustful about this report, that people made up this problem? And not you “confirmed”, but do you really understand the problem? Or how plugins work? Froom your response it seems you’re not sure.
“We” tested - is that royal “we”? Or multiple people tested and not only you are incompetent?
Issue reports were passed along many times to that creator, and if you passed anything to them two weeks ago, it didn’t work either. They are aware and ignoring. You have to take control and fix the situation.
We absolutely not getting the support we need. Is there an adult at Figma we can talk to? What will it take for someone at Figma to do something about this crisis?
