New variables from my UI Library are not showing up in other Figma file

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1

Hi there, I’m on the latest Figma version. I’ve added some new variables in the team’s UI Library which sits under the Design System space. There are three collections inside this UI Library called: Theme Master, Colors and Spacing.

I have another Figma design file sitting in its own project space, and I’ve imported the UI Library into this design file.

But I can only see a portion of the variables from the UI Library (about a quarter only). We have Enterprise license.

Questions

  1. Does anyone have the same issue, and do you have a workaround this?
  2. Must both the UI Library and the design files be in the same team space?
2

Hi @Ronald_Raharjo, Thank you for reaching out about the library. I appreciate you sharing the situation with our community. I’d be happy to help in any way I can.

For 1.
Without being able to see the actual files, it’s a bit challenging to pinpoint the root issue, but here are some troubleshooting steps that might help you.

  1. Go to the main variable collection and click the Edit variable icon to open its editing modal.
  2. Check if the scoping is set properly.
  3. Make sure the “Hide from publishing” option is not checked.
  4. Go to the file with the issue and see if those variables shows up

You can find more details here: Create and manage variables | Edit a variable

Additionally, you can try this one.

  1. Go to main variable collection and make a small change, like changing a variable name and changing it back
  2. Publish this change
  3. Go to the file with the issue and accept the update, then check if the variables are applied correctly.

For 2.
If you are on an Enterprise plan, library sharing depends on the level of sharing within your organization.
On Organization and Enterprise plans, there are three levels of library sharing in an organization:

  • Anyone with access to the library file can use it.
  • Publish libraries within a specific team. Members of that team can access those libraries.
  • Share a published library with everyone in the organization. This allows anyone in the organization to access and use that library

You can find more details here:Share libraries in an organization

If none of these steps help, I suggest to reach out to our support team to directly through this link: https://help.figma.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?
To assist our support team in investigating, kindly provide the following information:

  • Please ensure you use your Figma account email address.
  • Share file links and add support-share@figma.com as an Editor to those files (this won’t impact your billing): The working file where those variables are missing and the library file containing those variables.

I hope this information is helpful. If I missed anything, please feel free to let us know.
Also, if anyone from our community has insight or suggestions, please jump in!

Thanks,

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3

Yay, step 3 worked!

By changing (unticking) the property “Hide from publishing”, I was able to make the variable appear on other Figma file.

Thank you Junko3,

Ronald

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