Prototype is slow but file is small

Hi Justin,
If you haven’t already checked our article to troubleshoot the memory usage, please read our tips here: https://help.figma.com/hc/en-us/articles/360040528173-Reduce-memory-usage-in-files#reduce

If this doesn’t help, please try clearing your cache and cookies in your browser, and then try opening your file again.

If you’re using the desktop version, here’s how to clear the desktop app cache on a Mac:

1. Quit the Figma desktop app
2. Open Terminal.app and enter the following command: rm -rf "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Figma/"{Desktop,DesktopProfile}
3. Try opening the desktop app again

On Windows:

1. Close the Figma desktop app
2. Open the Start menu, and paste in this, followed by enter: %APPDATA%\Figma
3. In the window that opens, delete the Desktop and DesktopProfile folders if they exist
4. Launch the desktop app again

Feel also free to share a screenshot of what you are seeing on your end when you are trying to load the Prototype. Thank you!

Tried this. Still not working. Prototype is lagging. Total memory took for the project is just 8.3%.

Hey @Juble_Mathew , if you are still experiencing issue, I’d recommend you to reach out directly to the support team here
Be sure to use your Figma account email, include a link to the file, and share it with support-share@figma.com so they can take a closer look. Thank you!

I’m experiencing the same issue, and it doesn’t seem to make a difference whether there are images or not. The lag is incredibly frustrating, making it unusable for anyone accessing the file on any device or browser. I came across some suggestions from 2022 to remove unnecessary frames and set all transitions to instant. However, it raises the question of the purpose of autolayout and transitions if I have to remove everything for the prototype to function. I’m really frustrated and ashamed to present the prototype to my clients because, as it stands, there’s nothing to show since it doesn’t work properly no matter what I do.

If anyone finds a solution, please share.

What’s the status of this question? I’m also experiencing this problem on a file that has max 10% memory usage.

Hi @Pieter ,

Thanks for reaching out. If you’ve already tried this troubleshooting step:

Could you please reach out to support team so they can look into further?

Thanks for your patience!
Toku

Hi Toku, thank you for your reaction.

I’ve completed all the steps outlined in your first repost. However, I can’t do the step suggested in the second repost because I work at a government organization, I am unable to share designs or files without proper consent, not even with the Figma support team. Therefore I doubt they can assist me effectively without access to my specific files. If I’m wrong please let me know.

Additionally, I like to keep the discussion in the open. This would allow others to benefit from the solution as well.

Notes regarding the issue itself,
I believe it’s not related to the graphics card driver like other users suggested. I’ve observed that my prototypes protoptype is slow on both a MacBook Pro M3 and a Windows HP laptop (i5/8GB), in the desktop app and in a browser (Chrome).

Initially, everything runs slow. But when I have gone through all the steps, it functions normally at a normal speed. However, upon restarting, it becomes slow again, requiring me to repeat all the steps before it functions normally.
This can be particularly inconvenient during presentations, as I must pre-prepare all the steps and any disruptions result in a tedious process of starting over.

I am having the same issue and its really problematic when user testing. The user interview requires them to demo their interaction with the prototype but with heavy lag it skews the experience. When a new frame loads if i give it a few minutes ill be able to see hovers and interact until the next frame and then its slow again. My file is 12% memory.

I investigated further. In my case, the problem isn’t complex components or actions. It’s opening an simple overlay.

When I open the inspector I’m designing as an overlay, the prototype slows to a halt. Everything works like it’s being loaded on a Commodore 64. 🙄

When I set the action to “Navigate to” everything works fine, only now I can’t show how the inspector looks in the grander scheme of the design. I could copy a page design as background, but then I can’t show how it looks/loads in other places within the design.

But @y_toku, the problem lies with opening an overlay. Maybe you can look into it? I did not have this issue a couple of months ago.

I have exactly the same problem!

Memory usage in the file is at 6%, and the first time I run interactions in the prototype, it’s very slow and laggy, but once I’ve triggered everything once, it runs smoothly as usual. I have many large live components with “change to” variants, but I haven’t experienced this slowness before on my previous computer.

MacOS Sonoma 14.2.1, Chrome Version 123.0.6312.105

My previous computer was a MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2019) Chip Core i7 2.7 GHz, 64 GB memory, AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8 GB.

My new computer is a MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2023) Chip M3 Max, 32GB memory, integrated graphics card.

Does anyone have a solution to this problem? I am experiencing the same issue.

Currently experiencing this problem myself. Any solution?

Hi, we were having the same issue, and we didn’t manage to solve it after months trying, but we’ve managed to avoid it completely and our prototype now flies.

Since the issue for most projects is not memory usage, we decided to sacrifice some memory usage in order to gain speed.

Two things “solved” the issue:

First - Avoid variants in components when possible, and create separated components instead of sets. We used to have 4 types of buttons in one component set, and experienced all kinds of bugs and performance issues the bigger the file got. This action not only helped with performance but also “fixed” known bugs like persistent/incorrect state changes playing the prototype (icons suddenly changed to default color, labels breaking, hovers using default state colors, you name it).

REASON FOR THIS: Figma loads all component states and variants when any given component is in the rendered view of the prototype. Therefore, it’s faster to have more components with less variants, rather than less components with a huge amount of variants. Even if in the end, the designed component is not representantive of what the dev team will do (they will probably generate less components with more flexibility, depends obviously on the case/dev).

Second - Avoid overlays. This is the part that I couldn’t solve, but managed to avoid. The way to avoid it is incredibly annoying, but fixes the issue.

1- We grabbed every view of the app, and converted it to a component itself.
2- Then, for any given overlay we wanted to add in one of those views, we create a new view that has 3 things:

• An instance of the view that acts as background for the overlay.
• An instance of a component called “Overlay shadow layer”, which is the grey shadow behind the overlays.
• The overlay on top of all.

This way we still only have to change the base view component, and the changes apply to all the views that have the overlay. It’s a hassle, and you lose the scroll position iirc, but it literally saved the day for us.

REASON FOR THIS: Can’t confirm, but it feels like Figma loads ALL the overlays internally at the same time in memory, hence when one is loaded, and the prototype becomes responsive again, then all overlays behave normaly. But this usually takes minutes to happen, so it’s a huge problem during client presentations.

Right now, we are sitting at around 16% memory usage, around 2-3% more than before taking these actions.

Hope this helps.

I did somthing similar, but did not make the component with every possible background. That would be impossible or be an enormous amout of work. Stupid thing is, a few months/weeks ago it worked fine. So what changed?

This issue needs to be addressed by the developers.

Also having this same issue, and have tried the above suggestions for a work around, without success. I’ve submitted a separate ticket to Figma support; is there anything else I can do in the meantime?

@Innovation_Cesefor @figma
We did the same, but still, our prototype is slow and hangs somewhere, which is really frustrating for everyone who plays with it.

We broke down all the components and variants, manually adjusting hover and click states for every element such as buttons and inputs. We also created pages for navigation from one page to another. However, we still encountered the same issues.

@Innovation_Cesefor @figma

I have been working on a prototype since January and a similar issue has appeared over the last week. I have cleared %AppData%\Figma files, removed local fonts and only using Google fonts as source font.

This is what I have noticed in my tests:

• If I have a frame that has overlays and a link to another frame that has a script that links to further frames, the overlays load but time to interaction with the overlay components or click to close it is slow.

• However, If I have a link to another frame with no further links, or, has a script that links back to the frame that has the overlays, the prototype functions as expected.

My prototype with overlays almost becomes unusable, each frame will link to another. I am building a flow.

I’m experiencing the same type of laggy response lately. Buttons I’ve been using with no issues, became very unresponsive to change a different variant while hovering on prototypes. I found other thread discussing this same issue. Hopefully an upcoming update will fix this. Very frustrating at the moment.

Hey @Alberto_Estevez, thank you for reaching out! The most common reason for prototype performance issues is the file’s memory limitations. Could you confirm if you’re having also a small file?

At the moment, the workaround for prototypes not loading or loading with problems is to reduce the overall memory of the Figma file. This should help with any prototypes, regardless of the device or operating systems. Tips on reducing memory can be found here: Reduce memory usage in files.

If you’re having a small file and this has nothing to do with memory issues I’d suggest you to reach out directly to the support team by filling this form here: https://help.figma.com/hc/en-us/requests/new 1. Be sure to use your Figma account email, include links to the file, and share it with support-share@figma.com.

Thanks,
Gayani

Same issue here, Figma prototypes are becoming unsusable…
Files that worked correctly within 2023 are totally freezing in 2024.
Our teams and even clients are complaining about that.
Please Figma, do something, or at least, explain us.
Thanks

Having the same issue, can confirm small file size of 4%.
For me it happens on normal vertical scroll aswell as when opening an overlay

Also having the same issue with a small file (6%) memory usage.

My prototype is heavy on the tables which scroll both horizontally and vertically. It’s incredibly laggy and unusable for feasibility and usability tests. The only way I can get it to run smoothly is turning off the on hover interactions, which is not feasible, as we use hover states to expose functionality.

Hi ​@Rob_Winters ,

Sorry to hear you're experiencing performance issues. Our team is actively investigating, so could you please reach out to us by filling out the form at the following URL: https://help.figma.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=29433525829271? 

Thanks for your patience.
Toku

It mostly happened when “Smart Animate” Animation applied in Prototyping. Change Prototype Interaction Animation from “Smart Animate” to “Instant” OR “Dissolve”.  Run the Prototype and It always works for me.