What breaks a prototype link?

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1

I’m having lots of issues with prototype links in Figma. I used to work on XD and it was way simpler (which is weird to say, I know).

Anyway, I would like to understand what can possible break a prototype link that is shared with clients. For example, If I remove the flow starting point, will the link stop working? (it has happened to me, I think), if I change a frame name, if I rename a file, will these break the links? Basically, how can a shared prototype link be broken or changed so I avoid doing it.

Thanks

2

I’ve been doing some investigation and each prototype link has an ID. There are some changes that cause that the ID changes to a different one and this is breaking the link (or creating a new one). I think that what is changing the IDs is when I delete the first flow starting point that I created…does it makes sense at all??

3

Correct, they work with Page ID’s (as far as I can understand).

If you delete the flow point, then the Proto link will still work, but there won’t be a ‘flow’ available (in the left panel).

You can move the flow point to another page and rename it, but you would need to generate a new proto link.

If you rename a flow, that’s fine. The link will still work.

If you use a previous link (which now hasn’t got the flow starting point), then this link will still work as it has the Page ID. But it won’t show in the flow panel on the left.

4

Hi @Luke-Itineris,

Thanks for you answer! I would like to share just one link with my client, so I dont need to give them a new one on each iteration which will be pretty confusing for them, how do you normally handle this?

Thanks in advance

5
  1. Create a new page called ‘Client Review’.
  2. Inside that page create a frame, call it ‘Cover’ and add their logo on it. Say 1920x1080 frame size.
  3. Add a flow to this and call it ‘Introduction’.
  4. Also on this ‘client review’ page, paste in your pages/frames/iterations. Each can have their own flow, ie, V2, V3.
  5. Open the ‘Introduction’ flow and copy the share link. This is the link you send the client as this frame won’t be deleted or changed.
  6. The client then uses the left navigation of the prototype to view the other iterations.
6

Hi Luke,

Your message really clicked for me—thank you! The issue was that I was deleting the “Cover” frame after each iteration, which caused Figma to change the prototype link ID. Basically, this frame should never be removed as you suggests.

Thanks a lot for your help!

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