"This document contains unsaved changes" - why?

Occasionally I’ll see this cloud icon at top right, warning me that my file isn’t saving. What’s interesting is that I always have several files open, and while sometimes more than one file will show this icon it’s never every file. It’s not the whole app, it’s just file to file. Some files are saving, some aren’t, and I can’t figure out what to do about it.

Obviously it’s disconcerting to work on something that I know isn’t saving - what can I do about it?

unsaved changes

“When you’re back online …”

Needless to say I am very much online right now, and while I have the occasional VPN hiccup, I would think that would affect the entire app, not just individual files like this.

unsaved changes

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You might be thinking to yourself “Relax, just quit Figma and restart it,” but I can’t do that because when I try I get this terrifying warning. At least if I keep working it might eventually save my work - “discard changes” sounds like if I leave I’ll lose it all. Just to feel safe I’m saving the .fig file as I go, like it’s the 90s or something.

Screenshot 2023-03-24 at 11.48.34 AM

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I had this happen to me as well - not sure when it started but noticed it today. Might be related to a bigger update I did in my design system or could be on the Figma side.

How I got my file to save

  • Saved the .fig to my desktop (just as a fallback)
  • Opened the same project in my browser
  • Closed the tab in my desktop app

When I opened the file in my desktop app, I saw a snackbar pop up saying “Your offline changes were synced”

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That’s a really good idea that I never thought to do, I’ll try it next time in the hopes that what’s going on is just a glitch in the app.

this didn’t work for me - my problem is i have no idea how long i’ve been working on this file offline… it’s been at least a day but maybe longer and it’s incredibly complex.

Export it as a .fig, save that thing locally. I don’t know what else to tell you - this keeps happening to me intermittently and I can’t see a pattern to it. The other day half of my open files sat in “offline” state for hours while the other half were fine. It’s pretty frustrating because the natural fix - quitting Figma and restarting - is explicitly not an option unless I’m willing to risk losing work.